I think 7th place is up for grabs by everyone this season as the top 6 is pre-determined (2 x Man, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and prob Liverpool). The Europa League campaign will likely put a dent in our challenge, but we are capable of 7th. Or it could be Cardiff for 7th. As for tika-taka being outdated, I'm a bit torn on that one. We have greater possession stats and probably concede less goals with it but thankfully we don't see Caulker and Williams pass it between themselves 20 times before moving forwards any more. But there again we seem to give away possession more cheaply with the more direct approach.
Your point exactly - I'm convinced ML will prioritize Europa over a 7th place finish (if Swansea qualifies from the groupstages). BTW Cardiff will not get the 7thplace hence their playing style will get them a lot of tired/injured players come the close of the season...
yes it was but it got results...we have more chance of 7th from bottom at the moment and that would be safety but 7th from top is asking to much. I was hoping 6th before the start of the season but i will be happy with 7th from bottom now in the hope we can achieve that even...
If we didn't have Europe to consider with what I still regard as a thin squad, I believe that we would be nailed on for a top ten finish. As it is, I would settle for several places below that. Mind you, if Bony hits the sort of form we saw in Holland last season, we might be pleasantly surprised. The vital thing is we MUST improve our delivery into the box which has long been a weakness of ours. Bony and Michu can't be expected to create them as well as score them. They need a steady supply of decent ammunition to get us the goals and it's up to the rest of the team to see that they get it.
Rangel put an outstanding ball into the box against WBA and Bony and Michu were AWOL. Hopefully once Bony is fully fit he'll be popping those in.
@ Ivor - strange thing. Taking into consideration how much energy ML uses (in interwievs) on the defensive focus (clean sheets etc), himself being such an offensive force as a player... There is no Martinez (defensive weakness) hidden in Laudrup...
Liverpool legend turned TV-pundit Jamie Carragher believes many England fans want Roy Hodgsonâs team âto play like Swansea Cityâ with Michael Laudrup building a better side than the one Brendan Rodgers had at the Liberty Stadium. Rodgers returns to Swansea on Monday night for a live Sky television date buoyed by a 100% winning start, his Liverpool side sitting top of the Premier League before the weekend action after three opening 1-0 victories. But Carragher, who played under Rodgers last season before ending his distinguished one-club career, expects Liverpool to have their sternest examination of the season yet and drew comparisons between Swanseaâs enterprising style of football and Englandâs perfunctory performances under Hodgson. In a week when England ground out a precious, yet uninspiring, World Cup point in the Ukraine, Carragher said: âIâm sure a lot of people would like England to play like Swansea! âBrendan did a great job at Swansea, but youâd have to say Michael has made the side even better. âRodgers got them promoted and learning about the Premier League but the new boss â who after being a top player has learnt his managerial trade in Russia and Spain â took it on, bringing in Michu, Pablo Hernandez, and the centre-half Chico, and winning the Capital One Cup. âThe belief from that cup success should make them stronger this year and they have spent a few bob, too, on the striker Wilfried Bony and Jonjo Shelvey, and I think they should be looking for another top-half finish this season There you go Dai, have a word with Jamie Carragher next time you're up there
We're really only two games into the season ... forget the United aberration ... tough loss at Spurs, a comfortable victory at WBA. Let's see what Monday brings. A good testament for both teams. Are we better than we think. Are they not as good as they think. And so on. I just hope everybody is healthy so we can field our strongest side.
I actually thought about this when Swans played against West Brom (I believe) last season. Whenever West Brom got the ball I was uneasy beacause they only needed 1 or 2 passes to find the goal which the Swans defenders had trouble dealing with. Swans had most of the possesion but all the opponent needed was to intercept the ball in midfield and then counter attack, leaving the back line vulnerable. It's defenitely a gamble playing tiki taka as you'd have to move your back line forward to close down the gaps between the lines. Playing more direct makes you lose the ball on the opponents half more often instead of the midfield, making opponents counters less deadly. There are just certain opponents you can have 99% of the possesion against and you still feel that something is bound to go wrong at some point. I really hate that feeling. For that reason I don't fault Laudrup for changing up tactics depending on the opponent. And I actually think he has been doing this to some extend. But I still feel that the tiki taka approach can give Swans an edge against some opponents, it just can't be the only way to do things.
Liverpool legend turned TV-pundit Jamie Carragher believes many England fans want Roy Hodgson’s team “to play like Swansea City” with Michael Laudrup building a better side than the one Brendan Rodgers had at the Liberty Stadium. “Brendan did a great job at Swansea, but you’d have to say Michael has made the side even better. he obviously have not been following us as closely as you think....he should have checked our results under laudrup first and he will find the truth that we have got a lot worse under his management....and it will continue with the way he wants us to play with such a small squad of players where he has got rid of players we need....So carragher is way out of date on how we are. he needs to take another look..
And here I walked around thinking that Swansea finished higher up on the table under Laudrup and won a cup to boot. Silly me.
We are talking about 7 th place. And I have no doubt if we did<nt play European Swansea would end in top 7 with a budget which is among the smallest in the entire league. As far as I can see we are outpreforming most other clubs in the entire league. So something are we doing right. Do Swansea fans just tend to be negative by nature?
"he obviously have not been following us as closely as you think....he should have checked our results under laudrup first and he will find the truth that we have got a lot worse under his management." Er, sorry Dai but you're on a sticky wicket. We improved our league position last time and won a cup. If that's not an improvement I don't know what is. If you're referring to our start this season don't read too much into that just yet. We lost to two excellent sides, and were unlucky at one of them. We've also beaten WBA away. Too early to pass judgment imo but we have the potential to do equally as well this season if not better. I'm a fan of tikki takka but as others have said under Rodgers we were often mocked (rightly) for tikki-ing and takka-ing mainly in our own half. Laudrup has mixed it up and made us far less predictable. When teams rumbled us when we had Rodgers he really didn't have a plan B. Laudrup is a far more intelligent tactician imo.
He has to be Rodgers in disguise, no right minded sane guy would praise a guy like that. Either that or he and BR had some sort of affair and Dai is madly in love with him. Its scary how infatuated with the guy he is, there has to be a reason for it, as most swans fans know we are much better off now with Laudrup than we were under Rodgers. Laudrup also had it tougher, as BR and Swansea were somewhat unknown and teams didn't know how to play against us. Where as under Laudrup teams were getting privy to how we play, so his job was harder, Laudrup had to get us playing similar, whilst also keeping the opposition guessing (plans as KJ pointed out), something that BR was unable to do, he played the one way, and that was it. In the end he finished with 1 less point, but he also gave us a full cup run, we scored more goals, let in the exact same, and we all know how the end of season went, so is 1 point behind Rodgers really that bad, far from it, that's the wrongfully disallowed goal up at WBA. But it is also: - 2 positions above BR - A top half finish - One major trophy in the cabinet - European football All things BR was unable to give us in his 1 season in the Premier League, which based on the usual accounts of second season syndrome, was a fantastic achievement.
