Jack Stephens to sign?

If only you new how long it has taken for me to get it on site!!!!!!!
Then my grandson (who has also joined us) told me how to do it after he joined. i will change it to something more appropriate at a later stage when I find something more permanent

 

Not quite. He was on the bench at the San Siro though

 

Blimey there is some posters on this thread I had completely forgotten.

 

Itchen North Matt and SFC4BAG were regulars back around then.


As for Jack, still a long way to go imo... not convinced he's better than Maya at this exact moment.

 

The only thing harder to grasp than "Aaron Martin, rock of our Champions League side" is "fending off interest from bigger clubs, like Fulham and Sunderland".

(Irony being: I think that Stephens might be better equipped for Fulham or Sunderland at this particular point in time.)

 

I am100% behind Jack, however you are right, there is a long way for him to go. Defensively he needs to improve. He also needs to get in the gym and strengthen himself a bit more. Shirt pulled or not, he is too easily bullied in the area.

 

Agreed.

 

To be fair at the moment he's got goals to go with his defensive errors unlike maya!

 

I was thinking exactly this after the last few games, but especially after seeing the first Albion goal yesterday. He is great on the ground, remember that tackle on Origi in the League Cup at Anfield? His weak points, though, are being pushed around in the box at set pieces, and a seeming inability to compete in the air. If he can improve his strength and his jumping we wouldn’t be letting in goals like both West Brom’s yesterday.

 

Although I thought it was Wes was out just
outjumped for their second???

 

Probably, he could do with some jumping practice as well!

 

For which? Think Stephens lost Hegazi at the corner. Brilliant movement from Hegazi though tbf

Both of them were poorly positioned for Brom's second. Brilliant cross too though, tbf.

Still, we should have done way better collectively for both. Not fair to single one player out imo, but we're piss poor at defending high balls into the box.

 

Agreed.

I might be wrong on second goal, but thought Wes was caught flat footed whilst marking Rondon. Not 100% sure though.

 

I'll be having another look at Motd later - funny how I haven't done that much this season


Both our CBs will keep improving together, hopefully. They will imo with Cedric and Bertrand either side of them, and McCarthy growing in confidence in goal.

 

Spot on. We lost more than a CB when Virgil left, he was a very good organiser too. Yoshida is good at that too, but isn’t a good enough CB to displace Jack or Wes. It’s really the most important thing Pellegrino has to get sorted in the remaining games, now we seem to have at least partially solved the goal scoring problem.

 

And much as we said we wouldn't, we have really missed Jose. Although I gather he hasn't been playing much for the Spammers due to injury anyway.

 

He only improves with game time. Agree it’s a close call in the here and now though.

 

He has got all the raw materials to be an excellent footballer, I like his calmness and composure on the ball which you can't teach, but, like others, I feel that he must improve at dealing with high crosses. He is still raw at this level and shouldn't be written off too soon, is Jaidi still at the club?, maybe some extra training is required.

 

Just like to add that he is an excellent back up option as a CDM in an injury crisis.

 

Both Jack and Wesley Hoedt are pretty decent footballers, which seems to be the requirement today.

So long as we aren't planning to go down the Arsene Wenger route of ball playing CBs who haven't a ****ing clue how to defend, that's probably a good thing.