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Jack Stephens


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He'll gain a lot of confidence from ensuring we kept a clean sheet, but the truth is he didn't have a great deal to do as Leicester offered little. His introduction coincided with a shaky 10 minutes for the whole team, but we came through it unscathed.

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One dodgy pass, few good headers. Didn't have a whole lot to do. Worked out well for him having such an easy debut.

 

Worth mentioning that he had a good solid performance on Wednesday so the two games combined will have done him (and the team) no harm at all

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One dodgy pass, few good headers. Didn't have a whole lot to do. Worked out well for him having such an easy debut.

He looked very assured coming on at Everton and playing out of position at right back in what was actually his debut in the Premier League

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Thought he did ok ,but really only ok.

 

To to be fair, he Suffered from the way the whole team ,and crowd, were deflated by van Dijk going off, so even a top, experienced premier league CB would have looked poor in comparison.

 

In that context he did pretty well.

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Jesus H Christ - what bloody game were you watching Charlie Wayman? He looked solid without being under much pressure. And in the same game you said JWP did not play well yet all the pundits, BBC, etc. gave him MotM - and rightly so.

 

Some right miserable t**ts on here - surely you should be happy we won and played pretty well?

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Really hard to make a huge judgement as there wasn't much going on in their attack, Romeu kept most of their efforts at bay. Couple of dodgy passes out from the back and a couple of bits of miss communication when himself and Yoshida went for the same balls, but it's hard to really come to any conclusion on that.

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Jesus H Christ - what bloody game were you watching Charlie Wayman? He looked solid without being under much pressure. And in the same game you said JWP did not play well yet all the pundits, BBC, etc. gave him MotM - and rightly so.

 

Some right miserable t**ts on here - surely you should be happy we won and played pretty well?

 

I always thought he was Arsenal fan.

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Looked absolutely lost today, mis-timing most of his jumps under pressure and not getting his head anywhere near the ball. Quite clearly he is not the answer but Les will no doubt tell us that he is.

 

Give over you helmet. He did a very good job today and will make a good deputy (remembering as a centre back, he's still young). Leicester were absolute guff though and I wouldn't put him against Mane or Costa just yet.

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His anticipation and timing was a bit off I thought. Went for the ball a few times and didn't get there and then mistimed a few headers. He's young and learning and that's to be expected. Will be a big test for him at Anfield as their players have such quick feet. That said, we didn't concede yesterday and he grew into the game so all in all a solid start but get the feeling we will have to be patient with him and expect a few mistakes early on.

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Looked absolutely lost today, mis-timing most of his jumps under pressure and not getting his head anywhere near the ball. Quite clearly he is not the answer but Les will no doubt tell us that he is.

 

No idea what you are on about here as he won every header bar one that he went up for. He di give the ball away once during a very shaky period for the entire team. He marshalled the back 4 well and covered very well for Cedric when he got caught out of position late on.

 

He did very well in my opinion, he does still has an awful long way to go compete with VVD and Maya though.

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I also thought that he looked confident and composed. Although he is young he has amassed 67 league appearances on loan to Swindon and Coventry and I believe he won the Swindon player of the year a couple of years ago. He will probably need time and is sure to make a few mistakes but hopefully can adjust to a higher level.

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I'm pretty sure I remember him having an excellent match against United at OT in a cup when on loan to 'boro last season. Although, I think he played DM in that game.

 

Anyway, I wish him all the best. Especially if VvD is out for any length of time.

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Jesus H Christ - what bloody game were you watching Charlie Wayman? He looked solid without being under much pressure. And in the same game you said JWP did not play well yet all the pundits, BBC, etc. gave him MotM - and rightly so.

 

Some right miserable t**ts on here - surely you should be happy we won and played pretty well?

 

Probably the same game as you but we all read the game as we see it; opinions different to mine I find interesting and certainly do not incite me to such vitriol.

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Did really well last night in his first proper test. Won a LOT of headers, swept up after others mistakes, and a few dodgy passes aside generally looked very good.

 

Would have been a travesty has that 'penalty' been given at the end - you know it's not a penalty (and therefore a massive dive) if Carragher doesn't even think it is!!

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Blooming glad half of the clowns who pontificate on here are not managers in football, blimey the Saints team would have an average age of about 32 if the team was selected on experience. This nipper isn't ready yet" "not ready for the Premier League, needs to go out on loan" "a seasoning loan in a lower league team will do him some good".

 

Even the commentators were prattling on at Jacks inexperience. Anyone who pays attention to Saints will know that Jack Stephens has been out on loan the last few seasons and been deemed good enough to start over 60 first team games. Yes they have been with lower league clubs (which is where many proclaimers say any nipper should be going after their first appearance from the academy). Anyone with half a brain knows that in this country when it comes to football any team from any of the 4 divisions can spread the nose across the face of any of the multi million pound fat cat teams on their day. (Bradford -Chelsea)

 

So young Jack isn't some wet behind the ears total novice, he has been getting experience where the muck is dirtier and the bullets are harder, and through my eyes when he stepped in on Sunday lunchtime he had an air of confidence in knowing what he had to do straight away, and last night once more he did not look one bit out of place on that pitch, his positioning and poise showed a lad who knows his way round a football pitch.

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If John Stones had put in that kind of performance, the papers today would be frothing with "new Bobby Moore" hyperbole.

 

Stephens stepped up magnificently. If he can push on from here, we could have another gem on our hands.

 

I don't see why he shouldn't. He moves well, is calm and comfortable on the ball, reads the play and generally puts himself in good positions. There's plenty to work with. But, of course, it's difficult for teams at the top level to give experience to youngsters in key positions (like cb or gk) where a mistake almost always results in a goal. The stakes are usually too high.

 

Good luck to him.

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He was excellent against Norwich in the cup, slotted in superbly against Leicester when Virgil went off and was calm and composed last night in a pressurised atmosphere !

The lad clearly has ability and now we have seen that he has the temperament to go with it !

Needs more game time now and I'm sure he'll develop into an assured CB in the Premier League !

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He was excellent against Norwich in the cup, slotted in superbly against Leicester when Virgil went off and was calm and composed last night in a pressurised atmosphere !

The lad clearly has ability and now we have seen that he has the temperament to go with it !

Needs more game time now and I'm sure he'll develop into an assured CB in the Premier League !

 

Needs game time and looks like he is going to get it at the minute the options fro rotating our central defenders have disappeared. Quality performance last night making a mockery of those who said we should play Bertrand out of position his tackle late on for the 'penalty' was spot on and a great example of a youngster taking responsibility and not being afraid to commit. He still might not make it but he's certainly doing his chances no harm at the moment!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thought he played quite well today, so did Yoshida - our midfield was the main problem today. A side of Stephen's game I hadn't seen before was his capacity to run the ball out of defence; confident and calm and with a reasonable passing game. We need CB replacements, but he's doing fairly well and is not that much different in style and quality to the much trumped John Stones.

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Thought he played quite well today, so did Yoshida - our midfield was the main problem today. A side of Stephen's game I hadn't seen before was his capacity to run the ball out of defence; confident and calm and with a reasonable passing game. We need CB replacements, but he's doing fairly well and is not that much different in style and quality to the much trumped John Stones.

 

yep my assessment didn't do to much wrong. First goal maybe he could have done better, Second goal was more a fault of players not pushing out fast enough after clearing the ball, third goal he was a bit slow to get to the ball before the free kick which saw Romeu bundle in and clumsily give away the free kick. but overall he dealt with Carroll and looked composed and calm. Despite losing by three goals I don't think our CBs did to much wrong our midfield on the other hand...

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I'm reluctant to be too critical of Stephens because he's still very inexperienced at Premier League level and it's not his fault that he's been thrown in at the deep end, but boy does he need to learn fast.

 

He has been bullied by both Llorente and Carroll. Forget about the quality of Obiang's through ball, there is no way he should be letting Carroll get inside him for the first goal yesterday. He didn't cover himself in glory for the third goal either. Granted it was Romeu who gave the free kick away, but it was Stephens' initial indecision that he was trying to make up for.

 

I don't think he was helped by Yoshida at all yesterday, who should be stepping up to the plate as the experienced centre half. I thought their positioning was largely poor and the gap between them was too wide on several occasions, as seen by the equaliser.

 

Technically he looks decent on the ball and, as others have said, I like that he has the confidence to try and bring the ball out from the back at times. I can see why the club have supposedly earmarked him as a defensive midfielder, but I'm not convinced with him as a centre back in the long term.

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