Why Curtis Davies Could Become The Best Defender In The Championship Next Season
Derby County’s announcement of the signing of Curtis Davies from Hull City early in the window was quite a coup for the division. The underrated defender is set to join his new teammates as they come back to training and will add quite a presence to Garry Rowett’s team.
The 32-year-old former West Brom, Aston Villa, Leicester, and Birmingham man is very familiar with Midlands football and becomes symbolic as Gary Rowett’s first signing as Derby boss. Davies will play against his former team next season after Hull were relegated from the top division, where his own performances were solid enough as usual.
Here we look at why he could prove to be the best of all in this league:
His Premier League Quality
In 26 games in the Premier League last season, Davies was Man of the Match on two occasions for the Tigers, making 1.5 tackles, 3.5 interceptions, 1.3 blocks and 6.7 clearances per game. Although he didn’t score last season, he remains dangerous in the opposition box from set pieces, contributing 2 assists, while making a menace of himself in the box.
All things considered, Davies could be described as a Premier League player. That is to say that, at 32, even if a top level club had not come in for him over this summer, and even had Hull stayed up, they would undoubtedly have retained Davies and he would not have let them down too.
Having Gary Rowett As Manager
With Rowett as the manager, Davies will be well understood. The boss was a very a good centre-back himself, so as a coach he would understand the role, and would encourage the central defenders to keep up the good work and also keeping calm when players have a bad game.
His Set-Piece Prowess
In over 400 games as a pro, Davies has scored 26 goals and at 6’2”, he presents a major presence during free-kicks and corners, adding another dimension to the Derby team next year in an attacking sense.
More prevalent though is the fact that teams in this division (even though it has almost moved on), still rely on set-piece goals more than in the Premiership and this is where Derby will benefit defensively. Davies is a rock at the back and at 6ft 2in, he will not be losing many battles in the air against the strikers.
However, it will be difficult for Davies to prove directly that he has the quality to be responsible for stopping 4-5 set piece goals on his own. Imagine how many points that could be worth!
This is a shrewd signing by Derby Count and Curtis Davies could turn out to be the best in the division.