I'm not singling out Shelvey for special treatment after yesterday because I thought we were poor almost everywhere (not to be debated again here) but is he turning into something of an enigma already? He began his time here by winning us over with some excellent performances pre-season but his passing game is proving to be very hit and miss. I can't remember the last time that any of our midfielders had a passing success rate of 56% yet that was his yesterday. His strength is supposed to be the long pass, of course, and there is an argument that we need this in our game to mix things up a bit. At one point yesterday one commentator questioned what had happened to our tikki taka style of play. I wouldn't go that far as we still do that and I think Shelvey will prove a useful addition to our team in the long run but his introduction has had a dramatic effect on our passing stats and we are definitely not keeping the ball like we used to. So Shelvey - has he disrupted our mojo or will he come good?
at this point, i value Ki more. Against prem level teams, Shelvey has shown nothing to warrant his automatic selection, or priority over any other player. If we lose Ki for him, we've made our first retro step in years.
His first touch is poor which of course then means he has to rush passing the ball, he is not good enough at this point in his career for the PL, he may get better but he's not good enough for your team at this moment imo.
I will pass judgement on him when we play a team at our level, not top 6 teams, who we know tend to be in another league. It is still early in his career here at Swansea, its hard to judge him on a) fitting into our style, b) what he is like as a player when we are comparing him in games against Man Utd and Spurs. Give the lad a chance, and judge him on performances against clubs on our level, and least give him the chance to get used to playing our way, and with our players. Even Hernandez, who is more mature took time to get used to our style. Same goes for Bony, he will take time, as will most of our new players, we don't play like most teams.
I think he tries too many clever passes. Maybe he only needs one of them to come off the create a great chance though ? I certainly don't understand why we are not seeing more of Ki..... I know he may look a little lightweight at times but his passing really cuts through teams. He seems to look for passes forward more than our other midefielders.
I agree kj. I have noted the amount of times he hits it Long for no apparent reason almost as if the short pass is too easy for him,truth is that his short passing game is very poor and he can be very pondorous when on the ball slowing things down and telegraphing his Long hit and hope passes. he had an almighty bollocking off canas at one point yesterday, you could see it in the corner of the screen, im guessing it was because shelvey was spunking away ball when we needed to keep it. He needs to learn to look after the ball better, but early days
Bit of a mixed bag really. He definitely adds something different to the team. His pass percentage rate will be lower because he does try the risky passes no one else does - but at times he does seem wasteful. For him to develop he has to get the right balance between risk/pass and hopefully Laudrup will sort that out.
Shelvey does have a wide variety of passes, his problem is as said is that he tries the extravagant pass thats not needed at times. The lad is young and a bit raw, and who better to educate him in his passing than Laudrup. The lad will come good and be a star asset for The Swans.
Laudrup and the club have a major fitness and attitude problem with Ki and i suspect he will be gone on loan by the end of the transfer window
Hes raw and he tries the hollywood ball too often but he will learn as he gets older. Gerrard was hoofing balls into the stands for sport trying the over ambitious pass when he was this age. The thing I thought that let him down at Liverpool was his tackling, hes sometimes very rash in the tackle.
This, together with the posts from PGF and Never seem to cover it. There is definite room for improvement with his short passing but not only that, with his movement as well. That has to come after the pass to create options for the receiver and to maintain fluency and rhythm in possession. I'm sure he will get that right after more input from Laudrup but I know he is under instructions to look for the long pass whenever it's on. Long passes are always risky but, when they come off, a devastating weapon to turn a stubborn defence. Not only that, it keeps defenders honest and prevents them pushing too far up on our midfield in case the ball is played in behind them. The only way he, and others, will improve with the long ball is to keep trying to use it in match situations. Eventually it will become second nature and give a much needed variation to our game that Laudrup is looking for. But remember, Shelvey's team mates have to be doing their part as well. They have to be on the move looking for the long pass for it to be effective. If they are not, or they don't move quickly enough, the whole thing breaks down.
Ivor that last sentence is bang on the nail, the wider player must anticipate this sort of ball. In years gone by we never attempted this sort of ball, so our wingers have to learn this as well. It will come, i'm sure of that.
Another good post from you - I might become a fan. The Whole team were out of their depth (can you say that?) yesterday. Our competition starts against WBA!
