Pardew hails ‘under-estimated’ Dann after Palace win

Alan Pardew heaped praise on Scott Dann after the defender headed Crystal Palace to a 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield.

Yannick Bolasie put Palace ahead in the 21st minute on Sunday, but Philippe Coutinho drew Liverpool level just before half-time after a period of dominance.

However, Dann headed in from an 82nd-minute corner as Jurgen Klopp suffered as his first defeat at Liverpool manager.

“I thought it was terrific Premier League game,” Pardew said.

“We made a conscious decision to take the game to Liverpool to see if we could catch them sleepy as they had a tough game on Thursday.

“We got a goal and there was our problem really because then we backed off and let Liverpool start to dominate us and for 15-20 minutes it wasn’t really the game-plan.

“Half-time was important for us and it was a great game second half, end-to-end and our ambition was rewarded in terms of the late goal.

“His (Dann) goal sums him up. You could see he was going to win that ball, no-one was going to stop him and he defends like that.

“I really think he has been under-estimated throughout his career and I wouldn’t have said that until I managed him.

“Now I manage him I realise how good he is. He can be really proud of his performance. He was superb in everything he did.”

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