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[Albion] Is Dale Stephens an ordinary player?



S

SeafordBHA

New member
Aug 13, 2011
410
Incredibly underrated IMO. I doubted whether he could make the step up, but actually think he's made the step up better than any other player. So often carries the ball out of defence and it's up to him to bring it forward. Links to the attack who are often immobile and heavily marked, therefore not surprising he gives it away sometimes.

Everyone moans seemingly rather he'd take no risks and pass it backwards all game....

Hughton clearly realises his importance having not missed a minute in the league all season. Perhaps evidence of this is when he came off in the Palace cup game, suddenly Palace were on top and scored having looked awful prior to him being subsituted.

We'll only realise his importance when he's not there IMO, much like last season....
 




Is it PotG?

Is it PotG?

Thrifty non-licker
Feb 20, 2017
23,299
Sussex by the Sea
SeafordBHA said:
Incredibly underrated IMO. I doubted whether he could make the step up, but actually think he's made the step up better than any other player. So often carries the ball out of defence and it's up to him to bring it forward. Links to the attack who are often immobile and heavily marked, therefore not surprising he gives it away sometimes.

Everyone moans seemingly rather he'd take no risks and pass it backwards all game....

Hughton clearly realises his importance having not missed a minute in the league all season. Perhaps evidence of this is when he came off in the Palace cup game, suddenly Palace were on top and scored having looked awful prior to him being subsituted.

We'll only realise his importance when he's not there IMO, much like last season....
Click to expand...

Indeed. I'll go with that :thumbsup:

One thing though, I would rest him on Saturday....too important to lose him with some massive games coming up.
 






TWOCHOICEStom

TWOCHOICEStom

Well-known member
Sep 22, 2007
10,563
Brighton
Things I like about Dale Stephens:

- He's stepped up like nobody else in the squad this season
- His hollywood balls seem to have come out of nowhere
- He looks like a real leader on the pitch
- Constantly looking to go forward
- His Fifa counterpart looks WELL like him

Things I don't like about Dale Stephens
- He gives away one stupid free kick every single game when we least need it.
- He gives the ball away a lot because his skill level isn't quite up with his knowledge of the game
- I wish he'd stick more early tackles in on the likes of Ibe and Hazard. The old "let them know you're there" type of thing.
- His shooting, on the whole, is atrocious for a player in his position
 








Thunder Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Aug 18, 2009
65,439
Beside the seaside, beside the sea
I prefer the opinion of Calde, who said that if the players had a vote, Dale would be their player of the season.
He has to adjust to the Prem but is doing ok imo.
 




Pavilionaire

Pavilionaire

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
30,566
I think that the really good midfielders can do the defending and still provide moments of attacking brilliance.

I think what we've seen from Stephens and pretty much all our midfield is that they've understood Hughton's instructions on how to track back and defend but have forgotten how to attack.

Stephens bagged 7 in 45 league matches for us in 2015/16, and that's what you'd expect but that fell to 2 in 39 last season and 0 in 24 this season. Every match he seems to duck at least one shooting opportunity from distance; his reluctance to chance his arm has gone beyond infuriating and is now painful to watch. As we saw on Saturday, rather than shoot he's inclined to try and beat a man before passing out wide but more often than not he gets caught in possession and the opposition counter-attack from that.
 


Weststander

Weststander

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Aug 25, 2011
63,909
Withdean area
He's a very good player, who would fit into the CM of a few PL teams.

Propper, Gross and Stephens, all decent players, have looked error prone many a time this season, simply because the Albion are under a lot of pressure - lacking the relief of forwards with pace and PL guile to stretch the opposition and make them uncomfortable. For large spells of most games, it's Alamo defending, as PL quality teams pass around us.
 


JJ McClure

JJ McClure

Go Jags
Jul 7, 2003
10,836
Hassocks
The main problem with Stephens this year is that he slows us down so much. The following scenario has become standard.
-Albion have possession in defence,
-pass the ball out to Stephens,
-Stephens stops to have a look around,
-winger run in to space on the wings,
-Stephens rotates 360 degrees,
-full backs overlap the wingers,
-Stephens passes the ball back to the defence,
-full backs shrug and trot back to own half.
Now that may well be what Hughton has told him to do, but our build up play is so ponderous that the opposition always have time to get men behind the ball and defend in numbers.
 




A1X

A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
17,750
Deepest, darkest Sussex
He's reliable at giving the ball away. In fact he seems to be one of the best in the league for that.
 


Stat Brother

Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,664
West west west Sussex
Tom Hark said:
About as good a definition of the player as I've seen all season :clap2:

Not sure where he picked up the notion that he should do anything - ANYTHING! - rather than attempt a shot on goal. Never used to be like that.
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Mellotron said:
At the same time, he's never really been a goal-scoring midfielder, nor has Kayal, yet some seem to think he is?

I'm not posting this as a snarky response to your comment that he could shoot more, btw.
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A shot from Stephens is the equivalent of giving up possession.
This squad can ill afford to give up even more possession, cheaply, than it does already.
 


B

BensGrandad

New member
Jul 13, 2003
72,015
Haywards Heath
He is very underrated by supporters but is a players player who they love to have in the team. You only notice him when he is not there. I think that he has stepped up to the Premier very well and showed that he has the ability to succeed in this division. May not be MOM every game but will always be in the top 3.
 




Kalimantan Gull

Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
12,923
Central Borneo / the Lizard
JJ McClure said:
The main problem with Stephens this year is that he slows us down so much. The following scenario has become standard.
-Albion have possession in defence,
-pass the ball out to Stephens,
-Stephens stops to have a look around,
-winger run in to space on the wings,
-Stephens rotates 360 degrees,
-full backs overlap the wingers,
-Stephens passes the ball back to the defence,
-full backs shrug and trot back to own half.
Now that may well be what Hughton has told him to do, but our build up play is so ponderous that the opposition always have time to get men behind the ball and defend in numbers.
Click to expand...

Not sure I totally buy that, a few games back he was pinging cross-field passes around with regularity, including the one to Suttner that started our opening goal against Bournemouth
 


Icy Gull

Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
As a point of interest who in our squad is better than”ordinary”in this division?
 


Nixonator

Nixonator

Well-known member
Feb 8, 2016
6,733
Shoreham Beach
A1X said:
He's reliable at giving the ball away. In fact he seems to be one of the best in the league for that.
Click to expand...

Pass completion stats disagree with you and your terrible wit. Sometimes he's trying to find a pass with no movement, sometimes because there's no movement he won't attempt the pass. Try not ball watching all the time.

His standard is lower PL, which is where we are last I checked. If I wasn't so desperate to stay up, I'd quite like him to be out for a couple weeks and see what happens with 'better tackler' Kayal in his stead.

People regurgitating the same bollocks as last season, yet the consistency of losing connected with his absence was startling. It stands to reason that Kayal got the fans player of the season, and Stephens got the players vote in 2016.
 


B

BensGrandad

New member
Jul 13, 2003
72,015
Haywards Heath
l am fairly sure that if you asked all our players for 3 players that must start each game Stephens would be in virtually everybody's choice although the other 2 may vary.


To suggest that he or Propper should be dropped for Kayal is complete and utter b......s. Replaced late on in a game perhaps but neither him nor Propper should be dropped or rested.
 








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