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Simon Dawkins appreciation


niram

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16 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

It's the same thing as the non derby fans who say 'I've seen Will Hughes a bunch of times and he never does anything'.  You won't find many games where Dawkins dribbles past 5 players and lashes it in from 30 yards.  What you will find is hundreds of little things, where he controls a pass perfectly, gets his head up and quickly passes it to a free team mate, or takes a pass, turns out of trouble and lays it off correctly.  It might not win you a game on it's own, but a couple of players doing that reliably allows the rest of the team to function so much better.  

Nowadays if Christie picks up the ball and passes it to Ince, Ince is almost certainly going to dribble towards goal and have a shot.  A few times it will go in, and you can make an awesome highlights reel from it.  But the rest of the time, Christie is having to be wary because he knows Ince is going to lose the ball.  Whereas with Dawkins you could give him the ball and go, knowing full well that there's a very good chance that if you make a run, he'll get the ball to you, and also be in space to take it back off you if you get in trouble.

Technically brilliant yes. I don't believe Dawkins ever took a risk though, an incredibly safe player which has uses but he very rarely made something happen. I'd say a hugely frustrating player.

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1 hour ago, duncanjwitham said:

It's the same thing as the non derby fans who say 'I've seen Will Hughes a bunch of times and he never does anything'.  You won't find many games where Dawkins dribbles past 5 players and lashes it in from 30 yards.  What you will find is hundreds of little things, where he controls a pass perfectly, gets his head up and quickly passes it to a free team mate, or takes a pass, turns out of trouble and lays it off correctly.  It might not win you a game on it's own, but a couple of players doing that reliably allows the rest of the team to function so much better.  

Nowadays if Christie picks up the ball and passes it to Ince, Ince is almost certainly going to dribble towards goal and have a shot.  A few times it will go in, and you can make an awesome highlights reel from it.  But the rest of the time, Christie is having to be wary because he knows Ince is going to lose the ball.  Whereas with Dawkins you could give him the ball and go, knowing full well that there's a very good chance that if you make a run, he'll get the ball to you, and also be in space to take it back off you if you get in trouble.

Exactly. 

It's the stuff people don't appreciate. 

Iniesta would not be good enough for Derby. "what is it he actually does?" they'll say. 

Exactly what Hughes does 10-20 yards further back. Offer himself to take pressure, give the right ball at the right time. Rather put himself under pressure than give a team mate a problem. Allow the whole team to step up and move beyond him. 

Apart from that? Nothing. 

I agree you don't want 11 of these players. But neither do you want 11 glory hunters running around like headless chickens losing the ball as often as they do something good. Running the ball into dead ends. "whipping crosses in" from the byline where a full back has tucked him away and a CB can take up a position to give himself a great chance of cutting it out

I wonder what an orchestra would look like if created by many British football fans?

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3 minutes ago, McLovin said:

Very underrated player. Was a very nice man as well,very,very polite. Wish we kept him but his mother's death affected him a lot which is to be expected. Him and Ward are 2 of our most underrated players in the last 10 years or so.

Can't agree with Ward, he gets/got enough love on here.

Eustace on the other hand!

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