After the ****e we’ve been through last few years. 2x 9-0s. Absolute dross and mismanagement, disillusion and dread. How good does this feel? 21 unbeaten, and I’m so looking forward to the next. Up the scum.
Good lord it's so lovely to support our club right now but sport is cyclical and we all be angry at some point. Let's enjoy the good times. GONG and a cup of tea is working for me.
Also, Swansea’s subs were all good and had an impact Our bench is a bit thin at the mo, lacking Bree, Edozie and Sulemana, and Charlie not being used for some reason. So no real impact subs Mara is good when we’re controlling a game, Jack is rusty and Rothwell has only been here 5 minutes No idea why he took Che off ???
We could have easily drawn that, and against a better team we would have. My only concern was that in the last 20m we were really under the cosh, yet we persevered with slow, dangerous passes around the back. They were pressing us with 3 or 4 attacking players high up the pitch, it should have been clear this was risky after about 5 minutes. My worry is the resolute determination to play a certain way, rather than bypass midfield and get organised.
There's a good reason why Will keeps getting selected, it's simply that he's a better fit than all the options in the 8 role for our style of play. He reminds me a lot of Steven Davis in that he's not flashy but he does everything that is required really well and you can bet that his teammates appreciate him just as Davis was. His movement and passing is top notch and he takes up intelligent positions without getting tracked and at the other end as you say Badger he is calm under pressure.
RM has put his hand up and said that the timing of his substitutions were wrong and they didn’t have the positive impact that we have seen of late, and has made it clear that he isn’t blaming the players. Like us, he wasn’t happy with the last 20 minutes as we were playing aimless football, and confirmed that THB was subbed off because of the yellow card, although I personally think he just wanted to give Jack more minutes. The way we ended the game has taken a little bit of the gloss off of our overall performance, for me, but we will hopefully learn from it. I found it concerning that having allowed them to get the momentum in the second half we struggled to disrupt their flow and couldn’t, as we have done in other games, wrest the control back. (Often when we are building up steam opposition players start falling down and “require” treatment to try and calm the storm but I don’t think we did that until Baz sat down towards the end.) I think it was a bit like the end of the Norwich game where we had, perhaps, become a little too complacent by them sitting back and then struggled to contain them when they decided to play.
Just watched the extended highlights again. Wow! We genuinely were 1970s Brazil for about 55-60 mins. Absolutely devastating. Also watched a couple of Vlogs on YouTube of the day (both Saints and Swans ones). Have to say, I love this team and I love what Martin has done. "21, 21 undefeated"
Did Che get an assist for his goal, or just half an assist? Hadn’t realised that the Swansea goal shouldn’t have counted as there was an off side and handball in the build up. So 2-0 on legit goals.
Still so impressed with Fraser. If Sulemana played as direct as Fraser we would be frighteningly good. Fraser runs direct at goal and usually gets a shot off or sets up an opportunity. If Sulemana was to do the same with his pace, rather than try and beat the same player 3 times, we might just put some games out of sight.
