Stevens

[The Jackdaw]

Has been called shit, wank and fucking awful a lot last season and sometimes rightfully so. Although I don’t like calling our own players names he was really poor in the latter half of last season. Against Villa and QPR now, though, I thought he went slightly unnoticed and has started to finally build some confidence and match his early form last year.

Snodgrass’ late winner at home, Millwall’s instant equaliser and his poor crossing wound me up a lot. But I think the blame set on him was slightly unfair. Norwood’s addition to the side has stopped slowing down our midfield. Now with less back/sideways passes putting pressure on the wing backs, Enda and Freeman have freer roles to move up forward and actually contribute to the attack.

Lafferty hasn’t been sufficient to compete with Enda for the LWB position for a while, so hopefully Marvin Johnson can give him some much needed competition and we can see him shine again.

 

[Barney]

Said it before and will continue to say it:

Norrington-Davies ought to be given a chance in that position going on his pre-season crossing alone

 

[Iceybabey]

Looked comfortable on Satdeh.

 

[Bladesman]

He has performed better in the last couple of games. Although with Johnson arriving and ND doing well pre-season it puts pressure on Stevens to do better to keep his place.

 

[Rodley]

Nailed it on the Norwood / Coutts point. If one of those two plays in the deep lying playmaker role we move the ball forward MUCH faster. Far more space for players like Enda to capitalise.

 

[Stretch]

His performances seemed to drop during the second half of last season, after a very decent start. But the stats didn't completely back this up and suggested that he remained fairly consistent, so who knows?

He does seem Sharper now though which can't be a coincidence after RND's performances pre season, and seeing Johnson walk through the door. The improved midfield has also seemingly lifted the whole team.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Has been excellent so far this season, and his overall performance last season was really good too. I thought he tired in the second half of the season, but stayed in the team due to a lack of alternative options.He should've been rotated. Great free transfer.

 

[The Jackdaw]

Said it before and will continue to say it:

Norrington-Davies ought to be given a chance in that position going on his pre-season crossing alone

Could do with another pre season under his belt...

 

[Grappler]

Enda has picked his game up in recent weeks and against Villa, he more than held his own. On saying that, Lafferty is not a bad player, probably not outstanding in any area, although I would say he whips a cross in quicker than Enda.

 

[Bladezz]

Said it before and will continue to say it:

Norrington-Davies ought to be given a chance in that position going on his pre-season crossing alone

He did one good cross at Doncaster second team and now he’s better than an international left back.

 

[Bladezz]

The stats bloke on twitter did the stats on Stevens and the results were that he was pretty much excellent at everything and for not bad finishing he should have had 8 assists or something.

Stevens has been good this season and now has competition especially stacking wise from Johnson.

The thing about our team is a lot of players are in the Stevens bracket of put down from fans but prove us wrong. Which shows the mentality of our team.

Billy every year (including by myself) most say we need to do better he fights and grafts his way back into the side. Leon did it last season , Stevens is doing it again this season. Think the mentality of our side shows how resilient we are and massively contributes to our success.

 

[DronnieBlade]

I like Enda. Always have done.

He ain’t perfect but the + outway the - by a huge margin.

Never understood the criticism aimed his way tbph. Smacked much more of a lack of understanding of the role he plays in the side and the demands and attributes required as much as anything else.

UTB

 

[benn5712]

Looked comfortable on Satdeh.

Finally. Someone who can spell Satdeh correctly.
UTB.

 

[coaxingstar71]

#EndaDefenda *

* copyright Beans

I don't understand the level of criticism that Stevens has had either DronnieBlade , other than we need to have at least one scapegoat in the team don't we?

 

[Revolution]

Stevens was rightly criticised because from about the Bolton home game onwards there was little or no end product to his play. The ball was not coming into the box quickly, or at all, and he wasn't adding any goals. Plus some of his defending was not good at crucial times (Millwall equaliser, Preston winner).

There are various opinions as to why this happened (most notably, the absence of Coutts, fatigue, and the opposition sussing what he was trying to do, all of which are probably factors) but this was a genuine decline in form.

The arrival of Norwood seems to have got us moving forward with a bit more purpose generally, and Stevens is part of that. Long may it continue.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Has been called shit, wank and fucking awful a lot last season and sometimes rightfully so. Although I don’t like calling our own players names he was really poor in the latter half of last season. Against Villa and QPR now, though, I thought he went slightly unnoticed and has started to finally build some confidence and match his early form last year.

Snodgrass’ late winner at home, Millwall’s instant equaliser and his poor crossing wound me up a lot. But I think the blame set on him was slightly unfair. Norwood’s addition to the side has stopped slowing down our midfield. Now with less back/sideways passes putting pressure on the wing backs, Enda and Freeman have freer roles to move up forward and actually contribute to the attack.

Lafferty hasn’t been sufficient to compete with Enda for the LWB position for a while, so hopefully Marvin Johnson can give him some much needed competition and we can see him shine again.

Is that why we signed Johnson? To give Stevens a polish?

I think Johnson is here to play a different role to Stevens. I hope so anyway. I said a few weeks ago that Stevens was becoming a bit of a whipping boy. I think it’s harsh tbh. I actually think he’s been a good signing for us. We have to remember he came out of League 2, I think he’s alright tbh - I’m sure in time we’ll find someone even better, but he can carry on for me.

Let’s see Johnson utilised in a more direct attacking role, perhaps down the centre? That’s what I’d like to see.

 

[SteveBlade]

Every fucker slagged Stevens off because he was poor for most of last season, and the first couple of this season.

Has four good games.

'It was out of order to slag off Stevens for being shit. He's always been good, he just couldn't be arsed because there was no one to challenge him.'

That's fine then.

I personally think his upturn in form is down to Norwood coming in and upping on our tempo.

 

[LondonBlade89]

Said it before and will continue to say it:

Norrington-Davies ought to be given a chance in that position going on his pre-season crossing alone

Jeeez. Football fans up and down the country can thank their lucky stars they don't have you managing the side. Every time a player falls out of form you'll have players plucked from the academy thanks to their ability to do well in one small part of what is well-known to be a pretty multi-dimensional sport. We got any lads in the academy who are good tacklers? Maybe we could stick them in to back up Egan. Great at heading? Leon, you're on t'bench lad.

 

[DazBlade88]

I personally think his upturn in form is down to Norwood coming in and upping on our tempo.

I said this too. He's actually getting the ball a couple of yards in front of him to run on to at pace rather than a nice easy pass to feet.

That gets him playing on the front foot immediately rather than having to beat men from a more or less standing start, which isn't his game.

 

[Beans]

I personally think his upturn in form is down to Norwood coming in and upping on our tempo.

Agreed, and by the same token losing Coutts last season probably had a negative impact on his form as well.

In the first few games this season Stevens was one of the players who had the most touches in our team - now the ball is reaching him faster before defences are properly set so he's got more space / time to work.

Early days but I feel like he's been better defensively the last few weeks as well, did a good job on Ameobi at Bolton and don't remember Villa causing him many problems.

 

[I should coco]

ther than we need to have at least one scapegoat in the team don't we?

We excel though.

We have scapegoats, back-up scapegoats and emergency scapegoats.

Billy is a part time scapegoat if he doesn't score for more than 4 games, Leon is a full time scapegoat and then we have Stevens. Lunny, Lafferty and occassional Stearman to use too.

 

[Mojo]

I think we have to recognise that wing back is probably the most difficult and demanding position to play in our team.

Stevens did tail off last season and was quite poor in the second half of it but this season he has been very good so far and its noticeable that he is crossing the ball earlier and more often.

 

[Pinchy]

I think Edna’s improved form can be attributed to a healthy amount of audible moaning and abuse from the best fans in the land. It always does players good. Someone from S13 told me that and they know their stuff there.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Both Stevens and Freeman know that this league is not after all La Liga.

In fact the whole team now realise it's not fucking La Liga

Even our fans can see it's not fucking La Liga

We need to let the S6 lot keep believing that though...........

UTB

 

[Trafford]

Stevens has definitely been better this season but I remain to be convinced that he is good enough for a Championship promotion chasing team. I thought that he started to struggle in the 2nd half on Saturday, leading to Wilder bringing Lafferty on to give him some protection, but to be fair that might not have been his fault, there was a gap in that part of the field.

 

[I should coco]

I think Edna’s improved form can be attributed to a healthy amount of audible moaning and abuse from the best fans in the land. It always does players good.

You must be losing your touch!

You missed off "only in S2".

 

[super_pig]

#EndaDefenda *

* copyright Beans

I don't understand the level of criticism that Stevens has had either DronnieBlade , other than we need to have at least one scapegoat in the team don't we?

not really .tbf he has beenbloody awful at times.. glad he’s got his shit together again

 

[Benny and the Blades]

Makes you wonder why he's brought in all these new players dun it.?

 

[bromtom]

Stevens just held off Gareth Bale. Good practice for the Champions League final 2022 haha

Edit: he just crossed to the far corner flag. Gerrimontbenchforthefinal

 

[bromtom]

Just stopped a cert goal from Brooks. Have that.