***Swansea Vs Liverpool Match Thread***

Well, well, well, we give you 2 free goals, and you still can't beat us!!.....................





I see your sitting top of the table? Enjoy it while it lasts, as there's only one place you can now go!..............




Fancy being outplayed by little old Swansea, who'd have thought that!..............

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I still remember when you disappeared when we finished above you last season......

Jonjo was just a confused lad today, he didn't have a scooby what was going on!

 

We battered Swansea in the first half, and as bad as our 2nd half was we didn't look like we were really in trouble until that malicious wannabe hardman cheating **** Williams deliberately took Coutinho out by leaving his foot in the ****house. Hope someone does it to him and see how hard he is then. Probably bitter because he didn't get his move to his team that he thought was on. Thank **** Brendan was vetoed by the committee as not only is he crap, he's a cowardly ****house to boot.

Swansea are not a particularly good team and haven't been since February. If we cannot see a game out and beat a team of that Caliber when were a goal ahead, then we simply are not a team good enough to be seen as a top 4 challenging club. Spurs dispatched Swansea pretty comfortably (albeit at home) and if we want to catch them (and an impressive Arsenal team with Ozil now), we need to be able to do the same.

The fact that it wasn't Swansea getting better but us just totally capitualting, running out of gas and shrinking mentally that cost us 2 points, just makes things worse as this, as well as our other 2nd half performances this season, it suggest there something inherently wrong and that really worries me going forwards.

We battered them in the first half, had control of the game & possession, and were the only team creating chances and in the game. To go from that position to holding on for dear life, mainly because our players seemed utterly exhausted after 60 mins, again, is just not acceptable for a team with supposed CL ambitions.

I have no idea what BR is saying to them at half time this season but he needs to start saying the exact opposite because at the moment its not working and its like a different team is coming out for the 2nd half.

Don't get me wrong I'm happy being top with 10 from 12, but its the least I expected on paper if we are to match Spurs/Arse as I would expect them to take at least the same amount of points from these same fixtures we've played so far, but I expected the dropped points would've come against Utd and then us beating Swansea. Its a shame as dropping those 2 pts tonight sort of cancels out the unexpected win against Utd. Frustrating as ****.

Anyway, we have a great run of winnable fixtures now and if somehow we can just grind out a win against Saints, possibly without Agger/Coutinho again, then Suarez is back and then were really in business even if Coutinho is still out.

 

"Battered". lol.

 

Just take the point and move on to the next game.

We haven't played brilliantly and yet we're still unbeaten. I'd have taken a point before the game and I was certainly happy at the final whistle. So we got away with it a bit....no worries. The fact we have 10 from 12 having played two tough away games and united at home is a decent return.

Yes we can play better but that just leaves room for improvement. We started that game missing Johnson, Agger, Toure (3 of our first choice defenders) and Suarez (our top scorer from last year) so it was always going to be tough.

Better teams than us will lose at Swansea this season. Good team who should have another decent season.

 

I agree with Billy in that if we look at the bigger picture, we've done well to date.

But I just can't help being disappointed with the performance and result. We took the lead, had 2 golden chances to score (Sturridge header, and Aspas squaring to Sturridge). Not only did we drop the 2 points, but the performance was really poor - we just couldn't get the ball and the lads were absolutely knackered. I'm still concerned with our central midfield as it lacks energy and the ability to control and dictate games. This has been evident in the second halves of each game we've played this season.

Positives
- Another display of character and spirit after we were under the cosh for the second half where we could have easily lost.
- Sakho put in a half decent performance. Granted, he dived in and stepped out a bit too much for my liking but for a player who has hardly played this season, learning a new style, learning a new language, can't communicate with his partner - I thought he did alright. Brilliant on the ball, and made some great tackles, as well giving us an aerial threat in both boxes (look at his movement for Gerrard's freekicks)
- Sturridge continues to score
- Moses was the highlight for me. Attacked with pace and strength and gives us a real direct option. Could have had an assist and he took his goal really well.
- Encouraging to know that drew even though we had 3 first team defenders and Suarez to come back into the team.

Cons
- Don't want to sound arrogant but I thought Swansea were there for the taking. They were nervous and made mistakes (Jonjo in particular) but we just sat back and let them grow in confidence.
- Another poor second half where we didn't attack at all. Whether we just wanted to sit back on our lead or struggled to get into the game after Coutinho's injury?
- Aspas looked lightweight against Swansea. Swansea! Gave the ball away a number of times and just generally didn't contribute.
- Central midfield continues to struggle to grab a hold of the game when the going gets tough. Looked lethargic and exposed our defence on a number of occasions.

 

Plus two debutants starting the game

 

Was gonna waste time adding my 23p worth (inflation), but 100% agree with this, sooo... this

 

Swansea will be top 10 i believe so in my opinion a point away from home isn't a bad result. They'll turn over a couple of top sides at the liberty this season. Next run of games looks ok so no reason to believe we wont still be top going into the Arsenal game

 

I mentioned this earlier the Swans love playing the underdog, you are an established PL team who won a major trophy and are playing in Europe. The poor little Swansea line just doesn't cut it anymore. I'm happy enough with a point at a difficult away fixture.

 

I hear what you're saying but Swansea haven't been the same since they won the League Cup, and Utd exposed their weaknesses on the opening day. They were there for the taking and they were making mistakes in the first half. We really should have pressed them in the second half and forced more errors, and Jonjo looked like he was gonna cry at HT so we should have targeted him.

 

I do think Coutinho's injury was a factor and like you say Aspas didn't perform off the bench. This is going to be his role for a lot of the season and he must perform better in terms of doing the basics right. Holding the ball up and giving the defenders some respite is an essential skill to have at this level and especially in situations like last night. He wasn't the only one guilty of it in fairness but he certainly didn't help.

All in all though I personally don't see it as two points dropped. Perversly I think how we should view last nights result depends o the result against Saints. If we draw or lose at the weekend then last nights result looks worse, win however and we'll forget last nights game pretty damn quick and settle for 13 from 15 .

What I will say is I'm pretty damn sure that 12 months ago we'd have lost that game. Playing below par and still picking up points is what good teams do throughout a season. What I think we'd all like to see now is an increase in the level of performances starting Saturday

 

We are the underdogs, small club from Wales, takes ages to get here, stadium at the moment only holds 20,500 and only beginning our 3rd season in the Premier League. A lot of pundits beleive we will be in a relegation battle. We were playing a team last night that have won the European cup 5 times, one of the biggest clubs in the world and a turnover that would dwarf ours. We are very small in comparison and punching above our weight.
That said, lets be honest here, what a cracking game of football. Both sides wanting to play in the right way, much better than watching Stoke, Villa or Sunderland. Good luck for the rest of the season

 

I thought it was a great game of football for the neutral & I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I thought once you equalised you took the game by the scruff of the neck & there only looked one winner for about 25 mins of the first half & you deservedly took the lead (albeit aided & abated by the hapless Shelvey). At that point in the game being honest I thought you looked a quality outfit.

Second half was a different story though, Swansea looked to take the game to you & once Coutinho went off, it was one way traffic & their equaliser was no surprise when it came. For the last 20 mins you were under the cosh & the first half scenario was reversed as Swansea looked like taking the 3 points.

From your perspective I think Moses had a good first half, the team performance was great for 30 mins +, on the negative side Sakho looked like a yard dog to me based solely on that performance, so you'd better hope that was just first night nerves.

 

Bitter or what , if we're not a particularly good team then after watching your second half performance how good do you think you are , too much to soon , 4 games and your Champions again (sorry forgot you haven't been that for how many years is it ), Never mind good game for the neutrals and us

 

Yeah right

 

I thought lfc's midfield was totally flat last night, no energy. I just don't buy that swansea were "that good" nor that we played well for "65 minutes"

Shelvey gifted us 2 goals. We were just lacking any sort of energy in the midfield and felt thats where we lost it. our defense was cobbled together but i thought sahko did ok and wisdom was average.

Swansea second goal was a gift cos if you watch it gerrard was ball watching and standing still while shelvey ran past him. has he been awake and tracked the runner? no goal easy as.... I thought both lucas and gerrard just were not there and i don't understand how lucas in particular could be that bad as he was first half.

all in all... moses looks short of match fitness and sharpness so we need to work on him for a month or so, did ok. Sahko looked very confident to the point of cockyness but did fine. enrique was very introverted i thought... not a good showing there. aspas I am afraid has been utterly blown away by the prem. Swansea were not physcial last night they just showed he couldn't get to the pace of a game nor the spped of thought. He is in danger of being a total flop unless he starts getting the basics right.


MOTM was mingolet for me.. without question. we good performance and given no chance on either goal.

Oh and wilfred bony is a donkey. People were on about this lad before the season start but he let lfc off the hook on 3 or 4 occasions to my mind.

My verdict?

Lfc lost it in the middle of the park, the defense did ok, moses and sturridge were reasonably good.... there is a trend emerging guys in the past 4 games of us simply fading badly and this defendng thing while its "character" and such fine but i think i've seen the same midfield issue in all 4 games where our ability to retain ball and pass and move is severely limited. why is a question. 10 points out of 12 though is a nice return for that problem so I'm very grateful to sturridge's form right now and can't wait to get suarez back in to improve things. We need to take a look at midfield before long though.

tactically I would have gone 4-5-1 in the second half and pushed on right wing on davies. We were way too narrow and henderson expended too much energy covering the midfield two and his wing. Moses to right side and frankly no aspas would have worked better for me. at least a tight midfield 3 would have got possession and got the whole team higher up. Once aspas was on we were 4-4-2 and honestly we were too narrow o nthe right all night.

Hopefully we can pick it up and not look so jaded in midfield in the next game.... moses can only improve. He's a lot to get used to. suarez will come back in and i think we'll see the back line return to some normality. mingolet is a great shot stopper (so was pepe so leave off the past it rubbish) and sturridge can't stop scoring. time to go to the next block of 4 games and take another 9 points minimum

 

Having slept on it, I've changed my mind about Coutinho's contribution last night. I think he started to slide out of the game during the last 10 minutes of the first half. The tackle just finished his night's work for him.

I agree that last season we'd have lost that match. I disagree with JS about Sakho. Given that he was playing his first game in a make-shift defensive line I thought he did really well. Sure there were some mistakes but he was confident and efficient, he can tackle and adds hight and pace. I predict big things for him as the season progresses.

 

Yes. I listened to it and that welsh **** (Hartson) was wetting himself over Ford. It changed almost the second he went off. Anyone any ideas about how serious it is? He's not one for playacting, so the bird from the Swansea fans was a tad out of order.

 

Your logic seems a bit confused. IF we are the deluded poor side you suggest and your side could not beat us AT HOME then the facts support the contention that your side is not that good. Therefore, whilst it may have been a good game for the neutrals it has to have been a bad game for you as you didn't win AT HOME.

Never mind sonny you can keep looking upwards in the table to see where we are!