Brighton & Hove Albion boss Sami Hyypia last night praised the early-season form of defender Lewis Dunk, following his headed double in the 2-2 draw with Charlton Athletic.Former Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen and Finland international defender, Hyypia, feels Dunk has a great future ahead of him, but says the Albion youth team graduate must keep learning.
Hyypia said, "I am happy for Dunky, both goals were good headers. He has played very well recently and getting onto the score sheet is a bonus. It’s great that we have an outlet at set pieces as that is an important part of the game.
"I had not heard a lot about him before I arrived, but I watched a few of last season’s games and I could see that he is a promising young central defender who can play football. I had a good picture in my mind of him and he has not disappointed me.
"He has turned out to be as good as I thought and has even improved this season. If he can keep up his concentration and play to these levels across the whole season, then he will keep improving and can go on to good things in his career."
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"He needs to keep it simple defensively, get the ball and play it forward. Then his job is done. That is what Lewis is doing at the moment."He has all the attributes a good centre back needs: he is big, he is good in the air, he is quite quick and he can play football - but, it is still early days and he needs to keep his concentration.
"It is very important when someone is playing well that they keep their feet on the ground and not think that that they are better than they are. That is my job perhaps, to keep his feet on the ground."
Meanwhile, Hyypia refused to take any credit for the last-gasp goal, after he waved David Stockdale forward to play a part at the corner, from which Dunk eventually scored.
He said "Yes, I allowed David to go forward, because if you lose 2-1 or 3-1 it does not really matter, but I don’t take any credit for the goal though.
"The players work hard on the pitch and they deservedly get all the credit for anything that we achieve."
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