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Stephens


Edmonton Saint

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As one of 2000 Saints fans who attended the match last night and who watched Stephens' performance with interest, I thought that he played pretty well. He defended competently, was good in the air, did some great tackles and blocks and linked up well with those around him. He made a couple of stray passes and weak headers but no more than anyone else in what I thought was a pretty decent performance by the whole team. In answer to the above, I'd have Stephens over Hoedt any day. Too many people (particularly on here) are quick to write players off after a couple of poor games.
"a couple"?

 

In my view it has been a lot more than that.

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I don't think he is as bad as people make out but I think if we want to become a top 8 challenging team again, someone like Stephens is not good enough IMO, not even as back up.

 

Plus I get the impression he wants more first team football.

 

I think let him leave, see if he can get in as first choice for a Championship side or newly promoted PL team.

 

What we want next year is probably Bednerak + a new upgrade CB, and then Yoshida and Vestergaard as back up/challenging options.

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As one of 2000 Saints fans who attended the match last night and who watched Stephens' performance with interest, I thought that he played pretty well. He defended competently, was good in the air, did some great tackles and blocks and linked up well with those around him. He made a couple of stray passes and weak headers but no more than anyone else in what I thought was a pretty decent performance by the whole team. In answer to the above, I'd have Stephens over Hoedt any day. Too many people (particularly on here) are quick to write players off after a couple of poor games.

 

 

Or, a couple of poor seasons even.

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I don't think he is as bad as people make out but I think if we want to become a top 8 challenging team again, someone like Stephens is not good enough IMO, not even as back up.

 

Plus I get the impression he wants more first team football.

 

I think let him leave, see if he can get in as first choice for a Championship side or newly promoted PL team.

 

What we want next year is probably Bednerak + a new upgrade CB, and then Yoshida and Vestergaard as back up/challenging options.

 

Definitely, could easily become a top Championship CB.

 

Whether or not he's willing to drop a level wages wise is probably the bigger problem.

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Stephens is the new Yoshida.

 

To be honest he is a good squad player who can come in for odd games in CB or RB and I think he can improve over time.

 

He’s 25 and has 125 professional games. He’s probably where he’s going to be in terms of development. He’s not a ‘bad’ player or whatever other adjectives have been thrown about but he’s not of the standard for a club wanting top half / third of the Premier League requires.

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Stephens is the new Yoshida.

 

To be honest he is a good squad player who can come in for odd games in CB or RB and I think he can improve over time.

Yoshida has got better only relatively- not good enough to be a regular for a top 6/7 Southampton Football Club but good enough for a 16/17th placed one.

 

Stephen's isn't even that good and never will be.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry, this player is woeful

No where near good enough for a team in the bottom 6. No where near.

 

He is now directly contributing to giving away a goal a game.

 

Harry Maguire he most certainly is not!!!

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I used to have faith in the lad doing a decent job for us, but VVD was making his frailty in central defence.

 

I really think we need to ship him out to a L1 or Championship team this summer. Get what we can and move on...

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I used to have faith in the lad doing a decent job for us, but VVD was making his frailty in central defence.

 

I really think we need to ship him out to a L1 or Championship team this summer. Get what we can and move on...

 

*masking his frailty

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I used to have faith in the lad doing a decent job for us, but VVD was making his frailty in central defence.

 

I really think we need to ship him out to a L1 or Championship team this summer. Get what we can and move on...

 

I thought he only came in when Vvd was Injured ?

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It's a shame really. We buy him as a promising youngster from Plymouth. Give him all the training and support for him to flourish. Then 10 years later he is on the cusp of the team, but isn't quite good enough (he's not far off a Prem defender to be fair to him) and so we need to get rid...probably for nothing.

 

It's so disheartening it makes you not want to bother trying in the future. I suppose if we'd got relegated he would have been a useful piece.

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It's a shame really. We buy him as a promising youngster from Plymouth. Give him all the training and support for him to flourish. Then 10 years later he is on the cusp of the team, but isn't quite good enough (he's not far off a Prem defender to be fair to him) and so we need to get rid...probably for nothing.

 

It's so disheartening it makes you not want to bother trying in the future. I suppose if we'd got relegated he would have been a useful piece.

 

I’m not sure I get your point. It makes who not want to bother trying what in future?

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He would be less useless in a holding midfield role I reckon
No not at all. He holds on to the ball far to long and is forever giving it away.

 

At best he is a championship player, he has to go.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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If you had to keep one of Stephens or Hoedt which one would you choose?

 

 

As much as it pains me I'd say Hoedt, which say alot for Stephens. Both terrible defenders

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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Think he gets a hard time, he tries hard, heart in the right place. It’s just unfortunate that he is incompetent at this level, and it’s not his fault the club doesn’t have better as backup.

 

For us, it’s down to ralf whether he wants to improve depth in this position, and up to the club to provide it.

 

For Stephens, it’s a decision to make, backup for saints and a good wage, or regular first teamer at a mid table championship club. Not a straightforward decision. If I was him, I’d probably want to stay.

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Think he gets a hard time, he tries hard, heart in the right place. It’s just unfortunate that he is incompetent at this level, and it’s not his fault the club doesn’t have better as backup.

 

For us, it’s down to ralf whether he wants to improve depth in this position, and up to the club to provide it.

 

For Stephens, it’s a decision to make, backup for saints and a good wage, or regular first teamer at a mid table championship club. Not a straightforward decision. If I was him, I’d probably want to stay.

 

We can’t afford to play him.

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very frustrating player. Looks a rolls royce type at times with the ball and has enough pace to hold his own, but he isn't anywhere near dominant enough in the air or ground. We just ship too many goals, although they're not all his fault obviously. His wages means he wont be going anywhere.

 

Its not like we have a lot of other great options in that position. I have to say Vestergaard gets an easy ride. He's so slow, incredibly slow. So much so that we cant risk playing him in a back four. I fail to understand how a scout did not pick that up or did we not care? Yoshida is pretty similar to Stephens in my eyes, very frustrating, looks smooth on the ball at times but just isn't dominant.

 

It's a very tough position to play these days (requiring pace and power and ability on the ball) and thus finding good enough players is difficult. We need to keep looking!

Edited by Chez
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very frustrating player. Looks a rolls royce type at times with the ball and has enough pace to hold his own, but he isn't anywhere near dominant enough in the air or ground. We just ship too many goals, although they're not all his fault obviously. His wages means he wont be going anywhere.

 

Its not like we have a lot of other great options in that position. I have to say Vestergaard gets an easy ride. He's so slow, incredibly slow. So much so that we cant risk playing him in a back four. I fail to understand how a scout did not pick that up or did we not care? Yoshida is pretty similar to Stephens in my eyes, very frustrating, looks smooth on the ball at times but just isn't dominant.

 

It's a very tough position to play these days (requiring pace and power and ability on the ball) and thus finding good enough players is difficult. We need to keep looking!

 

At least Vestergaard is not afraid to head the ball.

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Maybe, but I still think he would be better further up. Maybe that is just because he wouldn't probably let the opposition score so many (late) goals.

 

He would probably spend most of his life doing what Armstrong did for Bournemouth’s third goal. If anything I think he would be worse, at the moment his best play is when he has time and space at the back to play it forward. He won’t get that in midfield.

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I’m not sure I get your point. It makes who not want to bother trying what in future?

 

Exactly what I said. Buying promising youngsters and investing 10 years into them to see if they can make it.

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Exactly what I said. Buying promising youngsters and investing 10 years into them to see if they can make it.

 

That’s always been the case with young players though. For every Bale, Walcott and Lallana, there are 50 Ben Reeves, Josh Dutton-Black and Jamie Hatch. There’s no shame in it, Stephens has just ended up playing a lot more games than he should, out of necessity due to poor recruitment.

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