Don't be so stupid and pig headed Dai! Football is about winning, I've never ever seen such a great chance of going into the quarter finals of the FA Cup squandered in such a way, all monk had to do was bring on bony for 30 or 40 minutes, not going to kill him for any other game, it was criminal to have not done it, and clearly we had decided to dump this competition before a ball had been kicked, after coming so far? I'm glad I didn't travel, I'd be wanting my money back, I have a feeling that Huw and martin Morgan are calling the shots on the pitch far too much currently, amazing what £70 million will do.............
Just a thought about putting our best side out and then beating Everton People do realise we have NEVER actually beaten Everton. Ever. Drawn yes beaten No. So I'm not quite sure where the assumption about marching past them comes from. Added to the fact that their 2nd half dominance was helped by them being fresher with the cancellation of their mid week game. We will be in the FA Cup next season but will probably never be in the Europa League again so I for one could understand his team selection. I accept that goes against the majority of posters here but the Manager has my support.
Then the majority of the posters are wrong because big changes were always on the cards. Garry Monk made the correct decision and if not for an uncharacteristic error from Tayls we might had gone on to draw or win the game, at least some of the other lads got a run out, like Lamah, great ball to JDG.
In response to this. 1) Premier League. 2) Europa League. 3) FA Cup. It's all about priorities man. What makes you think we'd had won at Goodison Park anyway we couldn't beat them with our A-Team under BR or ML! We do not have the squad to compete on all three fronts. A win against Napoli would be MASSIVE. We'll be in the FA Cup next season.
I'm not disputing the team selection Cwm in it's entirety, but seeing the way the game was going, it could easily have been won by us, by just bringing on Bony for 30 or 40 minutes second half, surely that's no threat to the Napoli game, I can see that Europe looks like taking priority next to the League, and can understand that, just don't understand bringing on Lita instead of Bony? Because we could play Emnes or Michu midweek against Napoli!............ This reminds me of Laudrup last season at Liverpool where he overreacted with so many changes think it was 9, and they sunk us well and truly.
I must be speaking Welsh or something? Yes I agree Kieran, have no disput with any of that except that this game was definitly winnable with Bony coming on, anyway what's done is done..................
I see your point Dragon but if had got injured we would have been in trouble then. I think in reference to Lita GM has said in his post match remarks that he had told the players everyone would get game time and he stuck to his word. With Vasques completely shot confidence wise perhaps Lita will move up the pecking order.
The game was a possibility and nothing more, We could have taken a chance with our best players but what was the point of risking injuries in a game that was in evertons favor.....Can you imagine if bony got injured or michu or any other first teamer. I could guarantee the same fans complaining now would be the first fans slagging monk off for risking the first team and key players.....Monk had to make a tough call and he called it right...
Michael Laudrup made his bizarre changes in the Premier League. Garry Monk could not had picked better teams v the scum or Stoke City. And I'm sure we'll see the 'A-Team' against the boys from Naples too.
Players will get injured, though Bony is built like a brick house!, Vasques has been shot for some time, Lita needs game time now and has to replace Vasques as back after Emnes, I really cannot cope with seeing Aloevera being rolled out any more!...................
That's correct jack and by doing that ends any laudrups influences once and for all. Nobody knows the players better than monk and certainly not laudrup...
In hindsight , looks like Everton were there for the taking . Quarter finals of the FA Cup and semi finals after that if successful, 2 games before the long wait till the final.Would that possibility really throw such a wrench into our plans . Europa 2 seasons in a row . Nothing to sneeze at the old F A Cup .
This coming from the same guy that was slating other fans when this was the same reasoning they gave when you had a tantrum at ML not using Bony in a few games.
I think the arguments for and against today's line-up are going round in circles. The key points are probably: 1) Is it better to concentrate on one cup competition and give it everything rather than half-heartedly try and stay in two. 2) Is it better to give priority to The Europa League (as I assume we probably are) as the chance of being in a European competition doesn't come around very often for a team like Swansea. As people have stated, the FA Cup comes along every year. 3) If the aim is actually to win something, then to win the FA Cup would have involved (only) winning 4 games at the start of the day. With a lot of big clubs already out or in the process of knocking each other out, this was a good year to give it a good go. The Europa League would require 9 more games. But I suppose with two-leg games you can afford to actually lose along the way and still progress. Tough choices.
8 of our side hadn't played for how long so the fresher aspect doesn't come into it m, and the fact we've never beaten them before makes no sense at all .
exactly aswan tough choices indeed and as we are in the mix with the others for relegation then we cannot take any risks that we would normally take if we were safe.....
You been having tantrums over ML for quite some time, so don't tell porkies I could picture you being all arms flung around and screaming when you were typing some of those posts
Obviously the Europa is the Bigger more glamorous competition and the Napoli game will be a big one, interesting to see how this fixture pans out, but an early goal will bury Napoli, Serie A is not the Prem.....................
Is this really what the FA Cup has come to? Everton won the tie so comfortably they could almost pull on the slippers, and yet the fact they did it with perhaps their most insipid display of the season speaks volumes. You can always rely on Roy Keane to offer a brutal perspective and he did not disappoint afterwards, putting this tie into painful context. “I feel strongly – shame on them,” he said of Swansea, and it is hard to disagree with him. Why did the Welsh side make eight changes for this game, when they are not playing again until Thursday? Is the Europa League really that much more important than the world’s oldest knock-out competition? There is one last question too, for which there is a simple answer. Does Europe offer a better or stronger route to success for Swansea? I’ll leave you to provide the laughter soundtrack. Garry Monk has done many admirable things in his brief tenure in caretaker charge of the Swans, but his team selection was not only baffling, but almost an insult to the FA Cup. And the thing is, with Everton in this almost sleep-walking state, they had a great chance to win, and as a club they have the pedigree to go a long way in the competition just as Wigan did last season, with far weaker credentials. Monk was unrepentant afterwards, insisting his team’s congested programme was the real villain. He said: “When you’ve got seven games in 21 days it is impossible to play the same team. “I can only judge the boys on how they’ve been in training and they’ve been magnificent. “I said when I came in everyone will play, and I have been true to my word. They have deserved their chance. “It is a squad game, everyone seems to be amazed when there is rotation but it is a squad game these days and we will make changes, especially with the European competition. I don’t think it means Thursday is the priority really, but you have to be clever. “We were a case of still being in the game and doing well until *individual errors cost us.” What Monk did not acknowledge though, is that so many changes makes it hard to keep consistency. And when he admitted his side gifted the game to Everton, he must surely realise the unfamiliarity played a big part in that. Certainly, a bigger part than Everton’s form. The home side seemed nervous and pressured by the expectation that they would win easily, and showed within 30 seconds of the start their concentration was not right. From the kick-off Alvaro Vazquez should have scored, and probably his inform team-mate Wilfried Bony would have done. But even though the Toffees capitalised on the let-off, they were still strangely disinterested. They punished Swansea though, with a goal of their own on three minutes, when Sylvain Distin showed great composure from a corner to tee up Lacina Traore for a debut Everton goal with a clever backheel. Yet even that did not rouse the team or the crowd on a hazy Sunday afternoon. Make that lazy, because Everton were guilty of a shameful lack of closing down when Jon de Guzman casually headed home a Neil Taylor cross with no defender in sight. In fact, Swansea had further moments in a first half that had the feel of an end-of-season, mid-table game with nothing riding on it, and you cannot help but feel a stronger visiting side would have capitalised. They did not though, and as the game wore on, the lack of familiarity in the visiting side grew increasingly apparent, though it took the introduction of Steven Naismith on the hour to exploit it. The Scotsman showed an energy and desire that had been lacking, when he burst on to a poor back pass from Taylor to convert cleverly. He had time to win a penalty for Leighton Baines to put the game beyond doubt on 72 minutes, and then did his best to forget what he had just done after taking a bang to the head and exiting to tumultuous applause with concussion. Everton could have increased their lead, but perhaps courteously realised the Swans were hardly worth it. Instead they chose to stick with what they had so as not to rub the visitors’ noses it in, leaving Keane to do that with his brutal honesty. - David Maddock/Mirror
