I suspect that the fact that he was 'denied' the move to Villa last summer will make him unlikely to extend his contract with us and so we, really, need to sell this summer rather than see him leave for free next year.
Copping a lot of criticism on the Match Thread so I thought I'd move the discussion over here.
Didn't think he was the worst of a pretty terrible bunch today but the trouble with Stephens is he can be very slow to move the ball on. A great example was when Harriott came on and went on that run straight away. He went past a couple of players and opened a chink of space. He laid it off to Stephens who took a couple of unnecessary touches allowing Millwall to regain their shape and immediately undoing all Harriott's work.
Someone explain to me what he does and im all ears
at least BP cares. Ive never seen such.a disinterested performance. Dont get me wrong...i understand the value of a fuller or a garland or a johannsen. Ball players
but when DS gets a chance from 18 yards and cannae even work the keeper then whats the point of him? Luxury ballplayer with no touch or vision?
cant understand but willing to listen and be educated as to his value
Someone explain to me what he does and im all ears
at least BP cares. Ive never seen such.a disinterested performance. Dont get me wrong...i understand the value of a fuller or a garland or a johannsen. Ball players
but when DS gets a chance from 18 yards and cannae even work the keeper then whats the point of him? Luxury ballplayer with no touch or vision?
cant understand but willing to listen and be educated as to his value
Don't really get what 'caring' has to do with much.
Pritchard running a tiny bit more (doing nothing of note) doesn't make up for the fact he gave the goal away in the stupidest of circumstances.
Stephens looked decent in the first half, 2nd half he was useless. It didnt help when we went 442.
If Powell hasn't noticed that Stephens can't play in a 442 yet, then somebody needs to tell him. I don't rate Stephens at all, for me i'd rather have Andy Hughes in there, atleast he'll put a boot in, i saw Stephens bottle out of a challenge in the 2nd half and it made me want to scream.
Was ok today but think we're better without him. We're not good enough to pass through teams. Although he has a good touch and on form passes the ball well he too often slows things down.
It's an urban myth that Stephens is a 'creative' player.
I've said for a long time that his natural position is exactly the one he played today, sitting deep trying to break up opposition play a bit and moving the ball around to get attacks started. He's not an Andy Reid or Danny Murphy who play further up the pitch and look to play killer passes and take shots. He's more of a poor mans Michael Carrick.
I'm not a huge fan of Stephens because I don't think he's consistent enough or particularly suited to the way we play but I do think he's a bit misunderstood sometimes. If we're going to play him, it has to be in a 3 imo but I'd still prefer a more dynamic midfield and that probably wouldn't include Dale.
There's a player in there but he occupies such a niche role you need to build a team around him and he isn't good enough to justify that.
Missed the teams and the first couple of minutes cos the pub was having trouble finding the right channel. As a result literally didn't realise he was on the pitch for more than half an hour. In a derby game that's just not good enough.
Definitely not the worst player out there and I'm actually someone who doesn't rate him very highly in general. If anyone deserved a bit of stick today it was Pritchard, who is a player I normally really like.
He just doesn't suit the way we play really. I don't think he's a top Champ midfielder being held back by us or anything but we aren't going to get the best out of him with a static midfield and our centre backs hoofing the ball past everyone.
Thought Pritchard today was woeful. I really felt embarrassed for the fella who seems to spend entire matches trudging through treacle. After giving the ball away for the goal his efforts to try and win it back were comical; as I said to my son, 'he looks like bambi on ice'.
We all have our favourites I guess and I know that he is generally a popular player. For me though, he is so far out of his depth the RNLI have asked if they can have a permanent presence at The Valley.
Sorry, some completely clueless remarks here. He was the best of the three centre midfielders today.
Looking only at today's performance...it is not alright to say that Pritchard cares, therefore he's better. Ridiculous statement! He's had a couple of brilliant performances, but today he was dreadful. Too slow, too ponderous, eased off every ball and the assist for their goal was just appalling.
JJ tried hard, one great example of chasing them down across the pitch. Should have done better with his one chance, but what else did he do today?
And yet we have a thread to slag off Stephens.
I am pissed off with that team performance, as always against this lot, but this is a ridiculous thread.
I thought he had a stinker but most did , so it wasn't so noticeable,
What did he do so badly to warrant having a stinker compared to JJ, Pritchard and others? People moan that we hoof it, yet he was the only one from midfield coming back looking to receive the ball. When you have someone who is looking for the ball, they may misplace the odd pass but there was only one, possibly two. Something that should be expected when he is on it more than others. He won the majority of his challenges, didn't lose it under pressure like Prtichard did god knows how many times.
As Tel says, some of the comments on here are ridiculous. One of our best players today (not saying much granted) but if the rest of our team are not moving into space, looking for the ball what can someone like Stephens actually do?
He spent most of the game watching the ball fly over his head. Waste of his abilities. We have a game plan of hoof it long and it doesn't suit him.
When he has the ball there's no movement. In the 2nd half he played a great ball through the Church who duffed his shot but that was one of the few occasions we had movement ahead of the ball.
Stephens is a good player. IMO we make him look poor.
He spent most of the game watching the ball fly over his head. Waste of his abilities. We have a game plan of hoof it long and it doesn't suit him.
When he has the ball there's no movement. In the 2nd half he played a great ball through the Church who duffed his shot but that was one of the few occasions we had movement ahead of the ball.
Stephens is a good player. IMO we make him look poor.
Thinking of a different ball, Exiled. Not as good as Sordell's granted but I think Stephens has the talent to open defences...if his fellow players move around in front of him/ away from their markers. Good he may be, Messi he isn't.
Comments
Didn't think he was the worst of a pretty terrible bunch today but the trouble with Stephens is he can be very slow to move the ball on. A great example was when Harriott came on and went on that run straight away. He went past a couple of players and opened a chink of space. He laid it off to Stephens who took a couple of unnecessary touches allowing Millwall to regain their shape and immediately undoing all Harriott's work.
at least BP cares. Ive never seen such.a disinterested performance. Dont get me wrong...i understand the value of a fuller or a garland or a johannsen. Ball players
but when DS gets a chance from 18 yards and cannae even work the keeper then whats the point of him? Luxury ballplayer with no touch or vision?
cant understand but willing to listen and be educated as to his value
Pritchard running a tiny bit more (doing nothing of note) doesn't make up for the fact he gave the goal away in the stupidest of circumstances.
If Powell hasn't noticed that Stephens can't play in a 442 yet, then somebody needs to tell him. I don't rate Stephens at all, for me i'd rather have Andy Hughes in there, atleast he'll put a boot in, i saw Stephens bottle out of a challenge in the 2nd half and it made me want to scream.
I've said for a long time that his natural position is exactly the one he played today, sitting deep trying to break up opposition play a bit and moving the ball around to get attacks started. He's not an Andy Reid or Danny Murphy who play further up the pitch and look to play killer passes and take shots. He's more of a poor mans Michael Carrick.
I'm not a huge fan of Stephens because I don't think he's consistent enough or particularly suited to the way we play but I do think he's a bit misunderstood sometimes. If we're going to play him, it has to be in a 3 imo but I'd still prefer a more dynamic midfield and that probably wouldn't include Dale.
There's a player in there but he occupies such a niche role you need to build a team around him and he isn't good enough to justify that.
If he could pass the ball forward it would help. Complete fairy.
We all have our favourites I guess and I know that he is generally a popular player. For me though, he is so far out of his depth the RNLI have asked if they can have a permanent presence at The Valley.
Looking only at today's performance...it is not alright to say that Pritchard cares, therefore he's better. Ridiculous statement! He's had a couple of brilliant performances, but today he was dreadful. Too slow, too ponderous, eased off every ball and the assist for their goal was just appalling.
JJ tried hard, one great example of chasing them down across the pitch. Should have done better with his one chance, but what else did he do today?
And yet we have a thread to slag off Stephens.
I am pissed off with that team performance, as always against this lot, but this is a ridiculous thread.
As Tel says, some of the comments on here are ridiculous. One of our best players today (not saying much granted) but if the rest of our team are not moving into space, looking for the ball what can someone like Stephens actually do?
When he has the ball there's no movement. In the 2nd half he played a great ball through the Church who duffed his shot but that was one of the few occasions we had movement ahead of the ball.
Stephens is a good player. IMO we make him look poor.