[Albion] Is Dale Stephens an ordinary player?

[Thunder Bolt]

Agreed BG... Stephens is a vital part of our side.

There's a good reason why Burnley wanted to buy him 18 months ago when we were still Championship.

 

[maffew]

He's solid enough, thats all really for me. Like him

 

[kano]

interesting to see the stats from the article and try to reconcile that with the player many people describe on here:

top 10 in the league for tackles
top 10 in the league for blocked passes
top 15 in the league for interceptions
more passes and higher pass completion % than anyone else in the team
only 1 player in the league averages longer passes

Sounds like hes doing alright, no?

 

[Nixonator]

interesting to see the stats from the article and try to reconcile that with the player many people describe on here:

top 10 in the league for tackles
top 10 in the league for blocked passes
top 15 in the league for interceptions
more passes and higher pass completion % than anyone else in the team
only 1 player in the league averages longer passes

Sounds like hes doing alright, no?

Easy to reconcile with some of the thickos on here. The tackles, blocks and interceptions were all accidental from ponderously falling over, the highest pass completion rate is because he only passes to Dunk and the long passes are clearances.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

So far he seems to me to be one of those players who looks too good for the Championship but not quite good enough for the Premier League. Therefore he has some decent games against the poorer sides in this division but looks a bit out of his depth against the top sides.

If we can somehow stay up this season I would hope that we would sign as upgrade in the summer, he would then be an excellent player to have in the squad.

 

[Beanstalk]

I'm a big Dale fan and as the stats suggest he is doing his job pretty well seeing as it is his first season in the PL.

However, as with most of our team bar Pascal and Glenda, he has been underwhelming in how many goals he has contributed to this season with a measly one assist. Our struggles this season clearly haven't been with the defensive side of the game and Stephens has, as the statistics show, been a massive part of that. Goals will always be appreciated over tackles and blocks.

 

[supaseagull]

A good championship player. Nothing else


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[Weststander]

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.

I disagree.

Makelele, Kante, Drinkwater, Lucas Leiva, to name just four, weren’t/aren’t renowned for scoring and creativity, but they’re fantastic CM’ers. Their job to protect the back four, tackle, disrupt the opposition and pass to gifted creative players. Stephens does all of that, an unsung vital cog.

 

[Weststander]

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.

Great post.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Stephens suffers from two big issues in his current role as the connective tissue of our side.
1) we lack movement up top, meaning he has fewer outlets than he should do when he has he ball. This often makes him look ponderous and leads to simpler passes, and on occasion means he gets caught on the ball.
2) because of how deep we’ve been for much of the season as we’ve become increasingly defensive, Stephens is often collecting the ball deep into his own half and is often under pressure by quick, strong and talented players. It isn’t that he loses the ball often (the stats prove this), it’s that when he does lose the ball it’s often in awful positions for the team which often lead to the opposition having a chance on goal through quick turnovers as there isn’t a big distance between where they’ve won the ball, and our goal. Consequently, these moments (which are few and far between statistically) actually stick in the mind much more than if, say, one of our strikers or wingers loses the ball in less worrying positions.

 

[sir albion]

He's not a defensive midfielder and he's not an attacking midfielder.He works really really hard and is as committed as you'll get but he's certainly not prem class and is a very solid championship midfielder.If he could add more goals and stop giving away silly free kicks etc he'd be a quality prem midfielder.

You know what you're getting from him but to be honest we need better in that position as he slows us down and offers very little in attack.

 

[BensGrandad]

Hr is the engine and focal point of our team through whom everything happens.

 

[Weststander]

Stephens suffers from two big issues in his current role as the connective tissue of our side.
1) we lack movement up top, meaning he has fewer outlets than he should do when he has he ball. This often makes him look ponderous and leads to simpler passes, and on occasion means he gets caught on the ball.
2) because of how deep we’ve been for much of the season as we’ve become increasingly defensive, Stephens is often collecting the ball deep into his own half and is often under pressure by quick, strong and talented players. It isn’t that he loses the ball often (the stats prove this), it’s that when he does lose the ball it’s often in awful positions for the team which often lead to the opposition having a chance on goal through quick turnovers as there isn’t a big distance between where they’ve won the ball, and our goal. Consequently, these moments (which are few and far between statistically) actually stick in the mind much more than if, say, one of our strikers or wingers loses the ball in less worrying positions.

Good points. The same with Propper. In the Watford home game he repeatedly lost possession in CM with their pacey CM’s breaking at speed (he had none, so he couldn’t recover).

Hoping we urgently improve the first team, especially out wide and up front (Locadia might be the answer), to give outlets for Stephens, Propper and Gross.

 

[Mayonaise]

I think he needs to be at the absolute top of his game to survive in the Prem. Has had some decent games, but also had momentary lapses of giving the ball away.

I agree with this and think it applies to pretty much our whole squad TBH.

 

[Weststander]

I agree with this and think it applies to pretty much our whole squad TBH.

Bruno, Propper, March, Knockaert have been poor in so many games. Stephens far more consistently effective in his role.

 

[Stat Brother]

I agree with this and think it applies to pretty much our whole squad TBH.

If they were all Premier League Ready half of them wouldn't have been in the Championship, or being overlooked by established Premier League teams last season.

 

[Seagull1989]

I have never actually rated Stephens and would prefer Kayal over him any day . Yet , I remember seeing a stat of our record with him being much better than without him , so he must do something that I'm missing .

Also when he got sent off v Boro then demanded a transfer to Burnley , made him drop even more in my ratings and still haven't forgiven him for that

 

[GoingUp]

Unfortunately in the Premier League, in the centre of the park if you give the ball away to teams like Chelsea and Liverpool they can can break, cut you open and put the ball into the back of the net within a few seconds. Mistakes rarely go unnoticed.

 

[LadySeagull]

I have never actually rated Stephens and would prefer Kayal over him any day . Yet , I remember seeing a stat of our record with him being much better than without him , so he must do something that I'm missing .

Also when he got sent off v Boro then demanded a transfer to Burnley, made him drop even more in my ratings and still haven't forgiven him for that

I agree with this, sorry to say his passing and dithering on the ball drives me mad.

He is definitely missing something, or I am.

 

[Simontheseagull]

I can't understand why Stephens is criticised for not shooting when outside the penalty area.

Very few goals are scored in the Premier League with shots from outside the penalty area, although the few that do find the net tend to be spectacular. 77% of goals scored in the Premier League are from shots between the edges of the goal area and the penelty area, so give Stephens the credit he deserves for trying to pass the ball to someone who has a greater probabilty of scoring.