[Albion] Oh dear....Dale Stephens

[CAPTAIN GREALISH]

I was gutted when Ward went to Burnley instead of coming to us. Couldn't blame him at the time though. He was quality for us; only overshadowed by how brilliant Wayne Bridge was before.

so so true QUALITY

 

[Weststander]

I was gutted when Ward went to Burnley instead of coming to us. Couldn't blame him at the time though. He was quality for us; only overshadowed by how brilliant Wayne Bridge was before.

Both were outstanding, Bridge was a brilliant fullback.

At that time we getting outgunned by clubs with PL parachute money, who were able to pay three times as much.

 

[Bozza]

Would be some kind of perverse coincidence to miss out on promotion to the PL due to the absence of Dale Stephens, only to then get relegated with him missing.

 

[Weststander]

Dale Stephens always gives Brighton a better chance of victory if he is playing - nobody is indispensible but some teams suffer badly if a key man is missing for any length of time.

In Burnley's 2013/14 promotion season, our main midfielder Dean Marney started 38 and missed 8 through injury or suspension. With Marney, W24 D11 L3....without Marney W2 D4 L2. In the PL the following season, we were on course to stay up until Yacob "crippled" Marney a week after the January window shut, and his cruciate injury forced him to miss the final 18 games - only 3 of which were won. Talk to any Burnley fan and they'd most likely say we'd have avoided relegation without Marney's injury.

I see Stephens as a Marney-type ball winner whose energy and will-to-win drives the team forward without neglecting defensive duties. If you'd only had Stephens available for 20 games this season, how many less points would the Seagulls have?

I am a huge fan of Stephen Ward who hardly ever grabs the headlines - it's all Pope, Heaton, Tarkowski, Mee, Brady, Defour, Cork etc.

Ward missed 10 games this season from Dec-Feb - we did not win a single one (W0 D5 L5). He returned 4 games ago (won 3 on the trot and denied a win by a contentious 90th minute equaliser against Southampton).

With Ward, this season W12 D5 L4....and many deluded Burnley fans were complaining when Dyche recalled SW to replace Charlie Taylor. Players like Ward (and Stephens) are worth their weight in gold.

Good post. Interesting that you can see the excellence of DS from afar. Players in the Stephens / Jordan Henderson role often get slagged off by "What exactly do they do?" observers, probably because they rarely score or provide defence splitting passes.

 

[blockhseagull]

I do agree we look far better with Stephens.

However, his absence wasn’t the reason we lost last week, we can still play well without him.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Dale Stephens has been a standard bearer in the centre of our midfield, he's class. Davy Pröpper is a splendid footballer, the way he moves and his generally technique are top class and he's Premier League quality without question but he's not a Stephens style shape setter in the midfield.

In a way though, Pröpper would benefit from being higher up the pitch but Gross has been so good you can't consider moving him out of his best position to try and get Davy more heavily involved.

 

[Surrey Phil]

So if Stephens is only 80% fit, he must still play tomorrow?

 

[Bob!]

Is he 80% fit then?

 

[Milano]

Has he trained at all? If the answer is no then he's out tomorrow no matter what.
I rate Kayal and he is improving with games, this was always going to be the case as he'd been out a long time.
Stephens is more important to us next Saturday IMO.
If we play like we did last Saturday then we will create chances, we need to take them this time, it's that simple.

 

[Reinelt12]

Well well well...

 

[JonnyCLately]

boom!

 

[atomised]

Not to worry eh

 

[dadams2k11]

Happy days.

 

[Weststander]

CH 1 - 0 Doomongers

 

[Kazenga <3]

Close = Out
Doubtful = In

One in the eye for the Hughton lickers

 

[scoobiewhite]

Chrissy H is such a dishonest master of misinformation...sultan of subterfuge...patriarch of propaganda...how could we ever have expected that Stephens might play being described as ‘a doubt’.

Happy days indeed

 

[chaileyjem]

Well fancy that


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[Bob!]

Naughty, naughty Chrissie!

 

[Weststander]

Well fancy that


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I’m pleased the club are fairly secretive on these matters. Why help the opposition manager?

 

[chaileyjem]

I’m pleased the club are fairly secretive on these matters. Why help the opposition manager?

If they were. But in this case They said he was “close” to playing and Hughton would made a late decision - which I guess is exactly what happened.