Are we punching way above our weight though? I dont think we are much behind Newcastle,Everton and Blackburn in terms of what is on the field, we deserve to be here and we should have the mind set to go with that. Im not too upset about tonight,i knew it was on the cards ,what i am dissapointed about is the lack of forward oriented play, by design or by default its poor and we are killing DG up front !! Buck knows what we need, i think he is trying things and they are not coming off at the moment, more prem quality is needed in the team, we ve seen it with routledge and to a lesser degree Moore ,those boys have premiership qualities and it shows, they find time on the ball and have good technique more of that kind of player is what buck wants, along with somebody who can shoot from 20 m out !!!
Good comments,all round,unfortunately i did not see the game,i failed to get up at 3am when my alarm went off.(bad boy) i know,but seriously.i do think Brendan should be given around 10 million for January and try to give us maybe a 25% extra in trying to make us stay up and become an established premier team.A gamble i THINK we can AFFORD.Championship is hard to get out of theses days,just look at Nottingham and Doncaster who were good teams last year.
Terrible tonight. We didn't even start trying to play until after the goal. Ashley Williams lucky not to be sent off and a stonewall penalty to Everton in the first half. Agree with Norway over Barry Horne, that manias the most biased fcukwit of a commentator ever. I couldn't believe it when he started calling us Blackpool ! We better strengthen in January or else we will go down, no doubt about it.
Gower needs a rest . He's started 12 out of the last 13 games missing only the Norwich start . He's clearly good enough for the role , he's just been overused as his past few games have shown . P.S. We got 16 points from them 12 Gower starts & he assisted (5 ) on half the assisted goals (10 ) , it's why Buck doesn't want to sit him but it's clear he must sit a bit .
BR wants 6 players , thats a hell of a lot to bring into the squad let alone the team , if he's supported by the board who knows but if he isn't well Forest we we come next year. Regarding the teams below us ,they're turning the corner now where as we're pretty stagnant and need to start picking up more than a point to maintain touching distance of the magical 40 points
Saw a stat last night on BBC. Blackpool had 22 pts at Christmas last year and got relegated. This year 11 PL teams will have lower points totals than that...
Your all being a little harsh on Buck and the players here guys. I think a few of you may be forgetting something. We are Swansea City. A little city in Wales, probably half the size of ANY premier league club's city. Our attendences are low in comparison, because our stadium is to small, because we didn't think we would ever play in the PL. Not so long ago, our little club very nearly didn't exist, yet now here we are in the PL. We have a VERY inexperienced manager that got us here, and players that cost very little money. Week in, week out we are playing established PL clubs with eastablished PL players, and only half way through the season, we have conceded the least goals at home, and have the most clean sheets. Okay, our away form is poor. But, if we want to play the way we play at home, it can easily backfire and we could lose 4-0 every week, and then at the end of the season, when goal difference comes into the situation, this could well put us down. Yes we need players, yes we need to sort our form out but we don't need to break the bank and put our club under financial strains and then end up where we were not so long ago. I am incredibly proud of each and everyone of those lads that pulls on a Swansea shirt every week. It was them that got us here, let's not forget that. Buck is a great manager that makes a few mistakes, but he is young, he is talented, but best of all, he is our manager. So, instead of having a go at the players, why not turn the anger into support and make sure the boy's can hear us at the next game?? P.s. The guys are trying. We all have off days, I think they are entitled to some to. They are new to this, give them a break.
I'm totally appreciative of who we are and how much we're punching above our weight, but what has concerned me in the last few games is the players seeming lack of belief in their own ability. In midfield, it is criminal to go a whole game without once trying to drop your shoulder and beat a man, and from what I've seen (granted, I could be wrong as I haven't seen the games live) that's what they've been doing. As has been said, possession is almost taking precedence over getting forward, and while it may secure us a couple of 0-0's on the road, teams will figure that out fairly quickly and I doubt it'll bring us much success long term. Our home form is a lot better, but the players need to believe they can beat their counterparts one on one. The only difference is the transfer fees and the wages, and football is crazy so that shouldn't matter, but I think some of our players don't back themselves to create space on their own, instead passing the ball to someone else as it's the safer option. I'm not panicking, and as I've said before, I don't want to get relegated but at the same time I don't see it as the end of the world. However, we're in the PL and it would be criminal to not give it as good a shot as we can to try and stay in this league. I don't advocate spending a lot of money in January, but I think away from home our tactics do need to change. I'm aware the problem would then be trying to still limit goals conceded away from home, but if we don't score we won't win games!
Agree, but I think the Blackburn game might have shaken them up a bit as I feel Bucks tried to "go for that one" and we ended up losing fairly heavily to a poor side. As a result you're probably right we've gone back into our shell again for the away games to try and grab a few 0-0s.
Unfortunately, I don't think we're good enough as a team to sit and hope for a 0-0! If we play well, we'll grab one (Liverpool). If we get lucky, we'll get one (Newcastle) but I think if we play like that from the outset in most away games the outcome will be a negative one more like the one against Everton. We need to get at teams, and players need to have in their head when they get the ball that there's possibly one more option than "the easy pass", because until that happens there'll be a lot of frustrated travelling fans! I'd hate for us to end up another Stoke/Fulham, who's fans are more or less resigned to never winning on the road...
3 pts out of ? on the road, pls for one game BR should have a go at winning the game and not settling for 0-0 or perhaps pinching a goal
Its been mentioned before, but the way we play, the passing game, makes it difficult to score many goals, especially away, without a touch of brilliance or genius of a class player to brake through well-organised defenses. I'm not saying that we should change the way we play entirely, just that we need a way to `put the wind up' opponents in their penalty box and perhaps to get us a few unattractive goalmouth scrambles - at least away from home.
I think the issue is though, given our current system, even if we had said player, would he be allowed the freedom of decision on the field to attempt something out of the ordinary? Or would he be instructed to retain possession and hope we spring a gap?
Jack ash- i understand your comments 100% but you must not fall into the trap of us being " little city in Wales " that has not much to do with recent form and as for size,well swansea is still a bigger city than About six other clubs catchment, that is not the point though, we Are proud of the boys every game win,loose or draw its safe to say that is taken as a given on this board! Do not confuse construtive debate with a lack of loyalty, There Are plenty of issues that concern the fans,nmanagement and players .we have enough in our team to compete as results have proved but There is also room for improvement as well. Buck knows what is needed, i Think alot of fans know as well, being proud of the team to me is not ever up for question, its why we spend time here! What is up for question is the teams ability to be inconsistant and woeful away from home, we should be allowed to discuss this without ridicule of our loyalty to SCFC. Do you Think fans Arnt going to give the team 100% support NeXT game? Its not about turning anger into support nobody is angry, we all understand the challenge and every fan wants the best,talking about how we acheive that is all part of terrace life,just that we Arnt in the pub after the game picking through it we Are on the internet! Its all good ash , we Are all on the same page dont worry
In fairness Norway, he wasn't having a go, and was just airing his opinion. I've echoed similar sentiments many times about not worrying and getting behind the team, but the away form is a cause for concern, especially given that it wasn't particularly great last season either. We're in danger of completely relying on our home form and, given that we have most of the "big" teams are yet to come to the Liberty we really need to pick up the odd win away from home. Realistically, you've got to fancy us to pick up at least another 10 points at home by the end of the season, so 3 wins on the road by the end of the year would give us 37, which won't be far off what we need to stay up given a lot of teams points tallies thus far.
You are the manager of a team who are losing 1-0 near the end of the game. The choice is, a) Do I now give it a go and try to get the ball into the opponents area and try to snatch an equaliser, or b) Do I still try to play the pass, pass option in our own half and keep it at 1-0. Yes, I`ll do the latter and in the post match interview I`ll say that I am very proud of the lads, they played their hearts out and we were very unlucky. I thought we were excellent defensively, and it was very unfortunate that the smallest player on the field got the goal? FFS let`s try and get some goals away from home, and you don`t get goals by pissing about in our own half. We need more goals and we aint gonna get them the way we`re playing. We can say "oh but we`re playing BIG teams" till the cows come home, but that aint gonna get us wins. It`s like we`re defeated before we even start the game, and most times this season, we have been. The next three games will intimate how much we are going to or not going to struggle for the season.
Scott: "Unfortunately, I don't think we're good enough as a team to sit and hope for a 0-0!" True. I also agree with you swainseye. Rodgers is great at backing his players 100% and they love playing for him as a result but he don't half talk bllx after a poor performance sometimes. He should take a long look at Lambert and Norwich. I don't think their players are as good as ours but their manager has them playing unfettered and freely away from home and credit to them. We're playing into the hands of teams by playing deep away from home. Like I said before we got away with an average performance at Newcastle but we didn't get away with a dire performance last night and got what we deserved.
