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Chris Dunlavy: Dan Burn has shown you can keep it simple…

Dan Burn’s England call-up is a welcome reminder that you don’t need to play like Franz Beckenbauer to reach the top of the game.
By Chris Dunlavy

INSPIRATION: Dan Burn

Dan Burn’s England call-up is a welcome reminder that you don’t need to play like Franz Beckenbauer to reach the top of the game.

These days, we are taught to believe that centre-backs are practically worthless if they can’t take the ball under pressure.

Or even ping 60-yard balls to feet and outsprint a centre-forward in a footrace from the halfway line.

Yet Newcastle United defender Burn is none of those things.

Modern game

The 32-year-old is a player who does the basics of defending extremely well and very rarely makes a mistake.

That’s it – and it’s taken him all the way from the National League to the Champions League.

So often in the modern game we see perfectly competent players compelled by the principles of their coaches to do things that make them look stupid.

Unlike Burn, who learned his trade in League One under the likes of Gary Johnson and Paul Cook, they are not given an opportunity to understand and embrace their limitations, or find ways to work around them.

Any player who succeeds as a professional has a brain between his ears and an understanding of football.

Given half a chance, most of them will work out what they’re good at.

Burn is living proof, and an inspiration to every player who doesn’t fit the modern mould.

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