Stephens speaks of van Dijk influence
Southampton defender Jack Stephens has spoken about the role team captain Virgil van Dijk has had on his development this season.
The England Under-21 international spoke to the Daily Echo ahead of Saints’ trip away to Chelsea on Tuesday evening and discussed his progression this season, with him stepping in after a defensive crisis.
Virgil’s been fantastic to me all season, even when he was playing next to Jose Fonte they were both very helpful towards me and helped me in improving as a player.
Van Dijk suffered a long-term injury midway through January against Leicester and he’s since been sidelined, seeing Stephens fill the void left by the powerful Dutchman.
Since his unfortunate injury he’s been great and we speak after games. He’ll send me a text if he’s watched the game.
Stephens has formed a consistent partnership at the back with Maya Yoshida, who has been excellent this season, and is set to continue that in the majority of the remaining fixtures in the 2016/17 campaign.
Although he has made a few errors here and there, Stephens has had a fairly good breakthrough season with Saints and has shown his quality to Saints boss Claude Puel.
Stephens and the Saints fans alike will be hoping that van Dijk sticks around beyond this summer.
It’s nice to have someone of his quality to look up to and help me improve.