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After arriving from Plymouth back in 2011, Jack Stephens has spent a good few years learning his trade whilst on loan at various sides in English football.

Since making his Premier League breakthrough for Southampton in the 2016/2017 season, Stephens has endured a rather indifferent career at St Mary’s.

The centre-back has found himself in and out of the team, and has struggled to really nail down a place in the starting line-up under a number of Saints managers.

After getting the nod for the side’s opening Premier League clash of the season against Burnley, Stephens had a performance to forget and looked all at sea at Turf Moor.

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The 25-year-old didn’t complete a single tackle whilst on the pitch and registered a very measly 61.1% pass accuracy, before being hooked by Ralph Hasenhuttl in the 73rd minute.

Following the side’s disappointing 3-0 defeat, Southampton fans took to Twitter to voice their displeasure and many were furious with Stephens’ performance.

Many felt the defender simply “isn’t good enough” and had cost the side numerous points over the course of his Southampton career.

Indeed, some insisted Stephens is not of the required quality at Premier League level and urged Hasenhuttl to stop playing him in the first-team.

Check out some of the reaction of Southampton fans below:

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Wolves’ run without a Premier League victory this season continued on Sunday as they were defeated 3-2 at Goodison Park.

An entertaining five-goal thriller was played out which ultimately handed Nuno Santo’s side their first defeat of the season, leaving them 17th in the table.

Richarlison scored both the opener and the winner whilst Romain Saiss, and Raul Jimenez netted for the visitors – Willy Boly was also sent off deep into stoppage time for an unnecessary challenge which earned him a second yellow card.

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The Portuguese boss made four changes to the side that defeated Torino in midweek to earn a place in the Europa League group stages.

Saiss, Ruben Neves and Leander Dendoncker were deployed in a three-man midfield in a move that looked somewhat defensive.

On the Chalkboard

Wolves were outplayed in pretty much every facet of the game with the scoreline flattering them slightly even despite the defeat.

Everton had more possession (58.8%), recorded more shots (15) and had a better pass success rate of 80%, per WhoScored.

The problem appeared to be in attack, where Joao Moutinho proved to be a disastrous absence.

Have you heard the strangest chant in the Premier League yet? Hear it in the video below…

Wolves made just 108 passes in the final third, 80 less than Everton managed whilst their entire team could only muster five key balls, three of which came from the defence.

Moutinho is one of the best passers in Nuno’s side, averaging a success rate of 82.4% per game, higher than any other midfielder in the squad – he is also just one of two players to record an assist this season in the Premier League.

The 32-year-old also averages 1.8 key passes per match which is again the best in the team – considering an international break is on the horizon, it seems like it was the wrong decision to rest him for this game, especially as the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva are likely to be favoured over the 32-year-0ld.

Moutinho registered eight assists last term so it was hardly a surprise that they lacked creativity without him. This was a baffling call from Nuno.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Former Sunderland man Stephen Elliot has hailed the technical ability of one of perhaps the biggest talents ever to go to waste on Wearside – Sean Thornton.

What’s the word?

After the Black Cats shared a throwback video of a 4-1 win over Rotherham from 2005, Elliot reacted by lauding the “technique” of Thornton.

“Sean Thornton’s technique was outrageous at times. Sure he was on a two day bender before this game too,” the former Republic of Ireland international tweeted.

Thornton had curled in a truly remarkable free-kick from about 35 yards within minutes of coming onto the pitch as a substitute, but what ever happened to the now 36 year-old?

Wasted talent

As Elliot alluded to, Thornton’s reputation preceded him. The talented maverick, instantly recognisable from his brightly coloured hair, was a sensational player on his day, racking up nine goals and four assists in 53 games for the Black Cats.

Unfortunately though, he also held the longest losing streak in the Premier League prior to Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish breaking that record, and his off-the-field problems are well documented.

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An article from Roker Report back in 2017 detailed his sharp decline, as he even had a song based around him, in which the lyrics read: “I wanna go down the pub with Sean Thornton.”

The article anoints Thornton as “incredibly talented”, but says he “wasted all of it (his talent)”.

The Black Cats have had one or two (or ten) troublesome characters down the years, from Darron Gibson to Jack Rodwell, but Thornton may just be the most talented of the lot.

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England beat Bulgaria 4-0 on Saturday in a Euro 2020 qualifier but Gareth Southgate made a puzzling decision during the encounter.

Snapshot

The Three Lions enjoyed near-total domination at Wembley as they continued their 100% start to qualification.

A Harry Kane hat-trick and a Raheem Sterling strike were enough to secure victory for the Three Lions, who began the game with a midfield three of Jordan Henderson, Declan Rice and Ross Barkley.

It seemed bizarre, then, that Southgate opted against giving James Maddison his full debut.

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A simple gesture

It must be said that Mason Mount did make his debut in the game, coming on as a second-half substitute after some impressive performances for Chelsea thus far this season.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jadon Sancho also came off the bench but it seemed strange that the majority of the midfield remained untouched.

Indeed, Barkley, Rice and Henderson do not offer much dynamism or forward thrust, even against a team as defensive as Bulgaria.

It seemed like a perfect opportunity to give Maddison some minutes, then, and allow him to get up to speed with international football.

A gifted playmaker with excellent technical attributes, he may even have been able to bag an assist or two; he already has two to his name in the Premier League this season.

It may be that he is being saved for this week’s second qualifier against Kosovo and, who knows, he could even start that game.

But this felt like a missed opportunity for Southgate as he watched his team relentlessly batter their outclassed opposition.

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Lots of West Brom fans have taken to Twitter to heap praise on Sam Johnstone, after the keeper managed to salvage a point for the Baggies with an excellent penalty save.

The Englishman did more than just save the second of Martyn Waghorn’s penalties however. Johnstone earned the WhoScored Man of the Match award and also completed seven of his attempted nine long passes on what was a great day for the 26-year-old on a personal level – even more so after recent incidents.

The former Manchester United glovesman took to Twitter himself recently to respond to criticism about his performances over the last few weeks, telling one supporter that it ‘must look so so easy from where you sit’.

In fairness to him, he responded superbly to the harsh words and it certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed amongst the Baggies fans on Twitter.

Let’s take a look at how they reacted to his performance…

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فاز فريق برشلونة على مُضيفه فريق أوساسونا، بهدفين نظيفين، في المباراة التي جمعت بين الفريقين، مساء أمس السبت، على ملعب “السادار”، ضمن لقاءات الجولة السادسة والعشرين من الدوري الإسباني.

انتهى الشوط الأول من المباراة، بتقدم النادي الكتالوني، بهدف نظيف سجّله الدولي الإسباني، جوردي ألبا، الهدف جاء بعد تمريرة طويلة من ميسي، انطلق بها ألبا بسرعته، وتوغل لمنقطة الجزاء، وسدد تصويبه صاروخية من داخل السكس يارد، سكنت شباك أصحاب الأرض في الدقيقة 30.

وفي الشوط الثاني من اللقاء، تمكن إلياكس موريبا من إحراز هدف تأكيد الفوز للنادي الكتالوني في الدقيقة 83، بأسيست مرة أخرى من ميسي، الذي مرر ن على حدود منطقة جزاء أوساسونا، تسلمها الشاب صاحب الـ”18″ عامًا، وسددها مباشرة في مرمى أوساسونا.

انتصار برشلونة، رفع رصيد النادي الكتالوني للنقطة 56، بفارق نقطتين عن المُتصدر أتلتيكو مدريد، الذي لا يزال لديه مباراتين، فيما توقف رصيد أوساسونا عند 28 نقطة بالمركز الثالث في سلم ترتيب الليجا. شاهد اهداف مباراة برشلونة واوساسونا

Fulham’s display against Millwall has won the Whites all sorts of praise – be it from Scott Parker, the adoring fans or even opposition manager Neil Harris.

Parker’s men played the Lions off the park at Craven Cottage, dominating the possession and passing statistics in record-breaking style on their way to notching their third successive win.

Ivan Cavaleiro’s double gave the on-loan winger a third goal in two games after his match-winning strike against Huddersfield Town on Friday, while Anthony Knockaert scored his first in a Fulham shirt before Aleksandar Mitrovic grabbed his third of the season from the penalty spot.

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But with Fulham putting on a show for the fans under the lights, it was the man with the armband that may have been underappreciated for his part in the Whites’ commanding victory.

Tom Cairney, who capped his last home appearance with his beauty of a strike against Blackburn Rovers, was very much conductor-in-chief for last night’s performance.

His performance adds to the midfielder’s impressive start to the campaign, with his tally of goals and assists already surpassing that of last season’s after a brace of assists that led to Cavaleiro’s double – the latter of which being a perfectly-lofted through-pass over the Millwall defence before the Portuguese rounded the goalkeeper to add further gloss to the scoreline.

The team also reached a pass success rate of 94% – helped in no small part by Cairney’s individual total of 98.2%, which is no mean feat for the 28-year-old having achieved a higher percentage in the win over Huddersfield last weekend.

So while Cairney was not able to put his own name up in lights by getting in on the act during the Fulham rout, there’s little denying his influential performance judging by his individual accomplishments on the night.

Is Cairney the best midfielder in the Championship? Join the discussion by commenting below… 

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And now it’s already official – Liverpool have confirmed that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has signed a new long-term deal with the club that will keep him on Merseyside for a while longer.

The Reds’ number 15 first signed for the team back in August 2017 when he joined from Arsenal.

Since then, he has made a total of 47 appearances, scoring five and tallying eight assists to date.

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He spent almost the entirety of last season sidelined through injury, but the fact he has been offered fresh terms suggests that Jurgen Klopp has big plans for him after returning to full fitness.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has quickly jumped to

/B1ed_P7g_D-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link” data-lasso->Instagram and his social media accounts to celebrate his contract extension.

And soon, his teammates were also there to celebrate it with him, posting their messages of support and showing their excitement.

The likes of Jordan Henderson and Andy Robertson were among the first ones to the scene with their snaps, and Oxlade-Chamberlain responded through his Instagram stories.

So far this season, the Ox has made three appearances across all competitions.

He appeared once in the Premier League, once in the UEFA Super Cup and once in the Community Shield.

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According to The Telegraph, Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Eric Dier is set to make his first appearance of the season in his side’s Carabao Cup clash against Colchester on Tuesday night, and Spurs fans on Twitter appear pleased with the update.

The 25-year-old has been an unused substitute on six occasions this term – missing the north London outfit’s only other fixture through injury – but it appears as though Mauricio Pochettino has made the decision to name him in the starting XI at the JobServe Community Stadium.

The Argentine manager has largely decided to play without an out-and-out defensive midfielder this term with Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks and summer addition Tanguy Ndombele preferred in the centre of the park, although Victor Wanyama did come on against Leicester at the weekend – the less said about that outing the better however.

That particular spot looks to be up for grabs given the number of goals Tottenham have conceded on the road already this season – two in each of their four games on their travels – and Dier will know he needs to impress against the League Two club to force himself into contention.

Spurs supporters certainly seem pleased with the Telegraph report, with one labelling it as “the positive change we needed”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Louis van Gaal recently spoke to Fox Sports at a Dutch gala and he talked about some of the awards that were handed out and also particularly about Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt, both of whom made big transfers over the summer.

The former went to Barcelona and the latter ended up at Juventus. Van Gaal, however, believes that the Catalans and Ernesto Valverde are not really utilising De Jong the way they’re supposed to be. Mundo Deportivo also states that De Jong himself had to justify his time of adaptation since he found himself playing in some different roles from the ones he had at Ajax.

Here’s what Van Gaal had to say:

“Barcelona are not using [Frenkie] De Jong’s qualities well,”, he suggested and then continued, concluding: “it’s about adapting to it”.

And that statement can especially be applied to Barcelona’s recent ventures in La Liga. De Jong was one of the Catalans’ big summer signings and just his price tag and undeniable quality suggested that he would bring quite a revolution in their midfield. But so far, he’s been uncharacteristically quiet which was mostly due to a simple fact: Ernesto Valverde is not utilising his qualities to the fullest.

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That much was visible in the first couple of games he played so far in La Liga. But that also seems like a pretty common thing in the team, and it’s something that cost Philippe Coutinho his career at Barcelona and judging by the initial games of the Dutchman at the Catalan capital, Valverde might want to rethink De Jong’s preferences once again.

Last weekend, Barcelona drew with Osasuna and De Jong, although pretty solid, was quiet for his standards. He still managed to deploy two key passes with 93.4% passing accuracy but he was subbed off in the second half and even admitted himself at that same gala that he knows he can play better and that he has to grow in this new role.

But would it be too big of a stretch to say Valverde is slightly missing the trick by not utilising his big midfield reinforcement in a proper way and that it, in fact, might be affecting their overall performances?

Maybe there is something in Van Gaal’s words that the Ant should consider going forward.

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