Last season and lets not state this too weakly, Dunne was a magnificent player. He fully deserved his spot in the PFA PL team and deserved every plaudit going. I don’t think that there was any better player in the central defence in the whole league and it was a magnificent piece of transfer business.

So what on earth happened ?

We heard stories towards the end of last season of different injuries mainly an achilles injury but he managed to get through that and with the summer to rest and all should be OK. However in pre season he came back and most of us thought he looked over weight and the subsequent performances have ranged from OK to bloody awful. It has shown up even more than in the games he missed and especially Wolves and most of Chelsea his replacements played so well, we did not miss Dunne.

Dunne has shown to be a magnificent leader and Houllier has said how much we need a leader is that why he ha played Dunne when it is obvious he is way out of form, is Houllier right to do so ? That is not clear at all is it ?

Not writing off Dunne at all but he has some stiff competition, central defence is an area we have no real worries in terms of quality and Houllier should not be afraid not to play him. Meanwhile it will give time for Dunne to put right whatever is wrong and get back to his very best.