I wanted to go down tonight, but my son after waiting 20 minutes on the phone to the ticket office this afternoon, said to me, "Oh blow it, it will probably be a boring game against boro, and we'll be freezing with it"...."I can't be bothered waiting anymore with that stupid ticket office, I'll watch a live feed online", so glad we found a cracking HD feed, getting a bit lazy in my old age! Come on Wembley..................... please log in to view this image
The funny thing about this girl and get friend is they were Fcuking clueless but told me they had decided to follow the Swans as opposed to the rabble at Legoland because they understood the Swans were the best team in Wales. Saw Koreans sitting close by too. I think we're gaining a wider selection of a fanbase now.
Just walked through the door. Not happy. E played poor. The atmosphere was ****, Boro fans out sung us all game, not hard though as we didn't sing. Had a guy sat in front of me with three mates, asking who michu was and starting how crap he was. Could blatantly tell it was a cup game due to the sheer amount of plastics. Ki changed the game for us.
Not the greatest performance but it's a positive that we've just beaten the team 4th place in the Championship whilst playing at half pace to get to the semi finals of the league cup. The run in this competition has proven that we have strength in depth within the squad, we've made changes to the personnel and the lads who've come in have done well. Hope we make the final, I'd love another Wembley trip it'd be a great occasion with 40,000 Swansea fans there.
Ivor I don't think it is slipping.back more like there was no zip to our play normally we have two options to pass to but against boro it seemed slow and cumbersome until ki came on along with Moore we seemed to pass it with more vigour. It was like a library though and I think that added to the tension on the pitch
In fairness though regarding Boro having more shots, any team in the world can shoot from 35 yeards out to increase their tally which is what Boro did alot of. I am happy with the opposition shooting from that far out, they are extremely unlikely to beat the keeper that way.
I dont think the performance was that bad. They worked hard and it seemed they tried hard to win and perform well but Swansea can't play fast and dynamic football like they did against Arsenal or West brom every single time. If just a few players under perform the whole concept fails and what is left is quite ordinary football just like tonights game. But they dominated the game and won. JDG and Britton did a good job in the midfield but the front line was lacking in the decision making department and movement and that was the problem. Neither Dyer nor Routledge where much good. Dyer was full of energy but his desicion making was not good. Lost the ball unneccesary trying to take on one more man instead of just passing the ball. There were some fine opportunities for him to pass the ball forward but he chose not to, it was quite annoying to watch. I think MOM was Davies. Defended well and yet again showed progress in his offensive play. Tiandalli was ok, a bit to offensive maybe and made a few defensive mistakes but nothing that made me worry, considering his lack of game time in generel I think he's worth a contract to be honest. Tremmel, Monk and Chico were fine. Itay Schecter didn't do much, he had a good one two with Michu at one point but that was about it, but on the other hand he didn't get much to work with either. But I'm not ready to throw him over board just yet. It looked a lot better when Ki came on. All though Ki played well i'm not sure if the real difference was the two Middlebrough players getting injured at the same time. Tonights performance was far from what Swansea can do but probably a bit closer to what one can expect in most games from a still rather new team still finding each other and learning to play together. Over all it was the front line that was the problem tonight.
I agree with typær comments rambling, dyer and routs were wastfull last night but i guess if this guys could do it every game they wouldnt be at swansea so we have to expect the Odd below par showing.. Laudrup often talks about how its not very often all players Will perform at the same time,we saw it for 45 mins against west brom but it Will take time to reach a consistant level with our game if at all. Overall a decent win
Interesting quote from Laudrup; "‘I told them at half time, “I know you all want that final, but we are too tense. All of you want to do so well, it is hurting you. Do it like you are used to doing it." Finding that perfect balance between doing too much and not enough and then do it game after game is a hard task. I think that is what Laudrup meant when he said we will be better in the second half of the season. Especially when you try to play a fast and dynamic one-touch kind of football. It's simply very difficult. I simply dont believe the boys dont have the will and determination to give it all every game, even against Norwich I think they really wanted and tried to do good even tho Laudrup said they only performed at 90%.
I think you make some very sensible points. It's unreasonable to expect the team to perform at their optimum game after game - they are a group of human beings, not a machine. As a passing, creative team we will have games where it all clicks (e.g. West Brom) and games where it doesn't (e.g. Villa, Norwich first half etc.) A team like, say, Stoke are more likely to have consistent performances because (dare I say it) their skill level is not as high. I suspect that our intensity will go back up for the Tottenham and Man Utd games because we are not expected to get much out of either game and because they are 'big teams'. Like it or not, I think it's human nature to play at a lower intensity in games you think you should win.
Agree with Ramblin. The portions of the game that I saw while working broke down along two lines. First half Boro came to play. When they had possession they were comfortable with the ball and move it around much like we did with Rogers. This was tough for us to combat - kind of looking at us in a mirror. In the second half, especially as Boro started to run out of steam, we ghosted through their midfield finding all sorts of space between their midfield and defensive lines. JDG's free kick was brilliantly saved. The difference between the two teams was very evident in the second half.
I think our players had their thoughts slightly diverted by tough run of games we have between now and Jan 6. Thoughts of silly injuries had to be on the back of their minds, very easy thing to on a cold Wednesday night. Also, Spurs Sat then Man U, so maybe they didn't want to expend too much energy. Either way, crap game great result and no injuries, I'll happily take that one to the bank.
Did you think it would be any different. for us now this is not a big game. I hate to say it but for Boro it was amuch bigger game. So i expected no atmosphere from us and them to do what they did sing. They were partying. imo. With regard to the performance it was poor compared to recent weeks. Isnt it nice to play poor and win. If that had been manure, fergie would be spinning it that they got the job done professionally and won the game and are in the hat for a semi final and thats it is exactly what we should be doing. f*ck mine we are in the semi final of the league carling capital one cup. enjoy it. By the way ki did make a difference. i would have taken De Guzman off instead of routledge. Job done Semi final here we come.
Thats how I saw it aswell Stumpy Doing the bare minimum to get the result and keeping enough in the tank to have a right crack at Spurs on Sunday
