- Mar 21, 2018
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Yes, and till this year I was unconvinced that Langdon could ever play as a "true defender". He is doing desperate subtle and smart defensive stuff I din't think he was capable of tbh. He has always had value as an intercept defender (except for his habit of stuffing up the rebound). Now he has both and can play tall or small and he is hugely valuable to us going forward. I really hope we don't try and lowball him and lose him.I think his improvement as a 'true defender' is more a reflection of his role change with the loss of Dunn. In the past he has some scope to peel off his man and go third up to kill contest or take intercept mark.
Now is role is 'true defender' first. It is the role of others to be the third man up. I suspect when Dunn returns (or others) his role will revert.
I am not buying the argument that he was always projecting to be the player we have now. To me and many others he was projecting to be an upgraded Simon Buckley. Some players just can't ever learn the subtleties of the game and their role, which often makes all the difference; and I feared Langdon was one of them. Glad to be proven wrong.