Richard Dunne - back to his best?

[Ger Regan]

VERY early into the season, but after watching an absolute masterclass from Dunne for Ireland earlier, I think there's a good chance that he's going to be a big (if you excuse the pun) player for us this season.

I was one of those wanting rid of him after his antics last season, coupled with his shocking form, but he looks back to his best to me, and if he keeps this level of performance up, then I'll happily eat my words on that score.

[CorkVilla]

You beat me to it. I was just about to start a thread after watching the same game. Dunne's performance tonight was probably the best I've seen by any Ireland player since Roy Keane against Holland in 2001 or even McGrath v Italy in 94. Absolutely immense. Hopfully his facial injury will be okay!

[Ger Regan]

McGrath v Italy sprang to mind alright. Probably not quite that good, but not very far off. His stop on the line in the first half was immense.

[Lambert and Payne]

He had a good game and he's started well, but ill reserve judgement when we've had a few big tests

[cb]

And the really good news is that neither he nor Given are going anywhere near Euro 2012, so they should be nicely fit for next season!!! ;-)

[ozzjim]

Hmmmm... the difference with big Dicky is that he always, even at his best, has a balls up in him just around the corner.

[charleeco7]

"Richard Dunne congratulations The Best performance I have seen from any Irish centre half and that includes myself..."
From God himself on twitter.

[Percy McCarthy]

Players like Dunne, Collins and Warnock, who've been good players for years, were never going to be as bad as they were last season under a vaguely competent manager.

It was all down to Le Clown.

[gervilla]

"Richard Dunne congratulations The Best performance I have seen from any Irish centre half and that includes myself..."
From God himself on twitter.

Wow. Well deserved praise from the master . He was superb today.
Keep it up Richard.

[KevinGage]

There is no doubt -and there has probably never been any doubt- that he has it in his locker to be as outstanding as he was today.

But you can never fully feel settled with a centre half who pulls out a 9/10 performance one game (today was more like 10/10)   and is 4/10 next game.  Other players in different positions can maybe get away with that level of inconsistency. But not a centre half. 

Before he came to Villa, I had predominately seen Richard Dunne doing well in an Ireland shirt. I knew about his tendency for OG's in Premiership matches, but reasoned it must have been a thankless task playing for Kevin Keegan sides et.c.  A Citeh supporting mate of mine said that Dunne's problem was always motivation -when he's up for it- he's pretty much as good as anything in the country.  We've seen that ourselves.

And when he doesn't fancy it - or is in cruise control as he was at the start of last season- he's a mess.   

Looking of the bright side though, both he and Collins have been quick to praise Big Eck. Whatever limitations he might have as a manager, as an ex CB, he probably has more appreciation and awareness about the role than McAllister. That could be a big part of the recent upturn in form. Lets hope it lasts.

[Irish villain]

He was immense today, here's hoping he keeps it up for club and country.

[Villanation]

VERY early into the season, but after watching an absolute masterclass from Dunne for Ireland earlier, I think there's a good chance that he's going to be a big (if you excuse the pun) player for us this season.

I was one of those wanting rid of him after his antics last season, coupled with his shocking form, but he looks back to his best to me, and if he keeps this level of performance up, then I'll happily eat my words on that score.

Good news.

[TheSandman]

Dunne always has a performance of that brilliance in him. Sadly, he also has a barely pub league standard performance in him. The difference tends to be in which happens more frequently. Last season we had the bad far more regularly than the good and the season before it was the other way round. This season it seems to be that a return to his form of 2009/10 is on the cards.

[Toronto Villa]

It was apparent from the pre-season pics that Dunne had really looked after himself in the summer. We all had that fear that after last season, the couldn't give a fuck atttiude would continue and he'd come back looking like Mick Quinn. To his credit he has looked very sharp as has Collins. It appears that they really want to put last year behind them, and it also helps to have a former international CB as manager. Yes, Dunne has a mistake in him, and while we shouldn't get carried away and compare him to Laursen for example, it wasn't as if Martin didn't ever slip up.

Long and short of it, he's looked very good, and given that we threw away so many points from defensive howlers last year, just cutting those out will earn us many more points during this campaign.

[jonzy85]

Talking about the performance being up there with McGrath 94 or Keane 01 seems at first an over reaction but maybe not. Look at what Dunne had playing in front of him and how bad they were.

Dunne definitely needs to be right in his head to get the best out of him. MON clearly man hiaged him well, Houllier went out of his way not to, McLeish looks to be getting off to a good start.

If himself and Shay play like that for the rest of the season we could have a very good season with Benty sure to hit 20.