A lot has been said about Jonjo's mistakes, but not much credit has been given to Sturridge or Moses! Was watching Sturridge and he saw that Jonjo had his back to him and made a run, anticipating a back pass - OK it was a 'mistake' by Jonjo, but a great piece of predatory play by Sturridge and one of the many reasons he is so prolific - his reading of the game is superb. For Moses' goal; yep a bad pass by Jonjo, but Moses still had a lot to do (he received the ball on halfway FFS!) Our defence was to blame just as much as Jonjo for backing off the way they did - even so it was a great piece of play, and finish, by Moses! To say that we would have won if it wasn't for those two 'mistakes' is a bit of a stretch to be honest. The game would have been completely different and who knows what the result would have been. Mistakes happen, but they still need to be capitalised upon; Sturridge and Moses did that, but not out of sheer luck, but because they are top players with first rate instincts. What impressed me most was the team spirit; Ash giving Jonjo a pat on the back and an encouraging word after the 'mistake', Michu doing Shelveys 'goggles' after the equaliser and heading straight for Jonjo to celebrate, Laudrup showing great man management by keeping Shelvey on so he could redeem himself, and backing him to the hilt in the post match press conference - but most of all the strength of character Shelvey showed in putting the mistakes behind him, getting on with his job, and providing a headed assist (after a great run) for Michu to score! I must admit that I was less than impressed when we signed Shelvey, but like what I have seen of him so far - I think he will be a great player for us and become a fan favourite; he is a grafter who will always give 100% and is learning all the time. With Laudrup's guidance I think we will get the best out of him. Of course he will make mistakes; we play a high risk passing game - it is what has got us where we are - but it will occasionally lead to mistakes like the ones against Liverpool, but when it comes off it is a joy to watch and I wouldn't change it for the world!
He had a pat on the back after the first mistake - after the second one no one went near him! He was in a lonely place. The bottom line is that the fans may forgive him, the manager may forgive him - but if he continues to make mistakes like that the players wont forgive him. (Vorm gave Rangel a bollocking after Moses got past him, which is out of character for the Swans) Shelvey is a loose cannon at the moment - the other players have to be confident in him otherwise it breeds insecurity. Let's hope he learns quickly from his mistakes
Think he will learn PGF, and the most encouraging thing was his strength of character as mentioned earlier. Don't think he is quite a loose cannon yet but agree that he can go from sublime to ridiculous in the course of 90 minutes. But I like the lad and think that, if handled correctly, can be a big player for us!
Why should they go and pat him on the back after the second? They were just as much to blame as him! Vorm being the biggest culprit!
Nice article SC ... as I have commented on anothe thread and as you pointed out, IMO Shelvey was not at fault for the second goal. A poor passing decision indeed, but the ball was picked up on the half way line and the opposition still had a lot to do before the ball hit the back of the net. And, more importantly, a lot was not done by the rest of the Swans defense and midfield in getting back to prevent what ended up being a 5 v 3 situation around our box. He didn't gift them the second goal as he claims, the team failed to defend a situation. We win as a team, we lose as a team. Sometimes one person can royally **** up. But most times negatives happen because the team fails to execute properly as a unit. A close analysis will reveal that that is the situation here.
Sorry, but Shelvey was very much at fault for the second goal, YJ. I think you're the only person I've seen who says he wasn't. He even admitted it himself. The poor pass was followed by a laclustre attempt to track back and cover. Watch the replay again. He eventually manages to get back but doesn't get near Moses. The OP is trying to take positives out of both incidents and I understand that but they were two absolute howlers that we hope he'll learn from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZwwxNrbQQ I minute 26 seconds , looks familiar , and that from a full international captain worth how much ?. Could be the best thing that happened to Shelvey because memories like that will last a long time .
Even Ash has done it, hell Ash even scored an own goal passing it back to a keeper that wasn't there (De Vries) because he didn't look and realise De Vries had moved away from the goal. Was an absolute clanger. **** happens, we all make mistakes, footballers are no different.
After the pass it had to be dribbled 40 plus yards. Vorm was out of position anticipating a square pass to the overload of 'pool players to his left ..... Even Dai could have scored with a hole that big in the goal. Vorm played the pass not the shot. If 'pool players could sprint forward and create a 5v3 overload WTF were our guys doing watching it happen etc. Sorry - bad pass yes, at fault for the goal no. Too many other things had to breakdown for that pass to result in a goal. It was a bad situation, but those will happen, we have to learn to defend them.
I agree partially with Yankee. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ZcmglncDY From 1m 57s Dyer does nothing to get back, yet is pretty much in line with Moses when he receives the ball, and we know how quick Dyer is. But then that summed up Dyer the whole time he was on the field. ****. Britton for me doesn't do enough, doesn't run hard enough to get back. A bit of umph and he may have got closer to Moses to put him under pressure. Jonjo was definately at fault for giving the ball away, but Moses still had a lot to do, and Jonjo was not at fault for the goal itself.
Why did stand off Moses, we never bother to make a challenge force him out wide etc, plus as mentioned Vorm standing and not even make an attempt of stopping his shoot. So yes a poor pass, but we had a chance of preventing that goal.
For me it was a team cock up instigated by JJ. His initial pass was horrendous to be honest but our defending was equally horrendous when Moses ran at them. No defence likes players coming at them with pace but our reaction was pathetic. As has been pointed out, our midfielders did nothing to pressure the runner whilst our defenders did a quite superb imitation of an Italian tank in full retreat. Pressure creates mistakes and we applied none: also Vorm was rooted like a bollard and got beaten at his near post. Granted he was left exposed but even so...... Not a moment to savour for any of the players involved...... or rather, not involved. As for Jonjo, I'm sure he'll make sure this sort of thing never happens again and full marks to him for his second half performance which showed his character. I'm more worried about the defence. As a unit they were badly at fault because Moses still had a lot to do and they allowed him to do it. Much more focus and concentration required from them in future.
ivor is correct - but JJ had a hand in not covering as well. Look at the way he saunters back and doesn't seem to know what to do. Of course we should have defended better as a team but was he to blame for that goal? Unequivocally yes - to the tune of around 80% - and he'd probably admit that himself.
Agree, KJ. I did include JJ when I talked about the midfielders and he compounded his error by not busting a gut to get back to try and rectify his mistake. I think he just froze, probably realising that his goof was going to cost a second goal, which it did. Fortunately, he dug in for the second half and helped salvage a draw with his penetrating run and deft set up for Michu. All in all a great pity because a good Liverpool side didn't manage to breach us without our help and the extra two points would have seen us sitting in a good position in the table and done absolute wonders for our confidence. Whatever, I believe that our second half performance was superb. We outplayed a team at the top of the table, had them hanging on like grim death and we deserved the win which just wouldn't come. We will play far worse and win easily this season in my opinion.
Agreed. Looking at the positives I think that the game bodes well for the rest of the season. Really shows that without gifting goals we can mix it with the big boys on our day. A game we should have won, no doubt.
We played, especially in the second half, with a tempo and quality we have not seen in a while - certainly since after the cup final last season. We hunted down the ball in packs. Operated in a relaxed but methodical manner focused on going forward. Question: were we that good, or did we expose some weaknesses in 'Pool's adoption of our style of play. 'Pool are a useful team and will be even more threatening when Suarez returns; but ignoring the obvious errors, we just looked the part for most of the match.
Mistakes happen but if it was not for him we may have lost....ash, rangel and chico have made more mistakes in their time so its not a problem...
It would have been a different game, but apart from one header that vorm saved, Liverpool created absolutely nothing. I can't remember another save he had to make. Their goals were not through their own creative play, it was through poor passes by one of our players. So had shelvey not made that back pass in the 2nd minute, I think we would have gone on to win the match quite comfortably.
There was a lot of crap written about Liverpool bossing us They played tiki taki football in their own half - and we let them. Did they come near our are in the first half out of their tiki-taki football - no! As soon as they came near the final third they were sent packing. As for the last twenty minutes of the second half they were like a pub team.
