Anyone else notice that Maya now has "Yoshida" on the back of his shirt instead of "Maya"? That's a cooler name to have on the back of a replica.
Give it time. At the moment it's all about getting the first team gelling, bedding in the new buys and getting some positive momentum. No need to use the youngsters yet but they'll get their chance.
Apologies, but I meant to post this earlier this evening. It was available from around 8pm, so I had quite a nice watch. 90+ minutes of Swansea v Saints and not an advert or highlight in sight. Mind the adverts on the website. Have your ad blocker on. http://www.footballorgin.com/2014/09/premier-league-2014-2015-swansea-city-v.html Physical game, but not hugely bad tempered. I quite liked the fact that we can muscle it or play the twinkle-toes stuff, this season.
Fonte wasn't intending a tackle. He was actually trying to volley the ball as it came down. I think the referee realised that.
Twinkle toes stuff! Don't flatter yourself - I thought Saints were poor today and could only compete when we were down to 10 men. I was more impressed with Burnley who came to The Liberty, played some good football and deserved at least a point.
Sign of a good side then eh? Thanks for the points... Again. We've watched Saints completely outplay teams and get beat. Don't be so bitter. Accept the defeat like a man and move on. Good luck for the season. I like Swansea and Garry Monk.
And exactly how many saves did our keeper have to make? You were indeed the better side in the first half but you didn't really create anything.....did you?
Sadly I get the feeling from some Swansea fans that they think all they have to do is turn up and they will get the result. I'm told the game was physical which is not the usual style of either team, to add to that neither side has a reputation for the physical stuff either. So am somewhat surprised. I must admit I didn't think we would get a result at Swansea especially after taking the points last year.. So far as my memory goes this would be the first set of supporters in recent years to say we were physical with them. That has got to be a turn up for the book. It sounds as if RK got his tak tics wrong in the first half.
How you do in a game is decided as much by the opposition as by yourself. We are capable of playing beautiful stuff against poor sides and better sides who give us room, but it is harder against sides that can play and don't give us any room. We only got a draw against West Brom and yesterday got a 1-0 win against a good Swansea side. The important thing is that we can play tougher as well and we are hard to score against. We let in too many goals last season...am hoping we will be better defensively this year, even though that may mean less attacking play. Easier to get a close win if you are strong at the back. Am hopeful we will get better results against the big teams this season.
Well, one of the reasons we sit in second place (how good does that feel?) is that we have conceded fewer goals than anyone else, excepting Man U who might let at least one in against Leicester. 3 goals conceded in 5 games is a fantastic achievement, and scoring 9 isn't too shabby either. I am hoping that with a bit more pace up front from Mané, plus of course Jay Rod when he comes back, we will be able to break down the West Broms of this world a bit more easily. And our defensive record may not have been tested against the very best teams yet, but I am am sure that Ron has a cunning plan for those matches.
After we 'borrowed' Toby, I know some fans thought Yoshida was out...and some even thought that Fonte (our Captain!!) might be sidelined by Ramos and Toby. It shows that we do need 4 quality CBs...we have used all of them in 5 PL games. The value of depth...Koeman was able to send on Gardos at half-time when he was concerned about Yoshida and Fonte both having yellow cards.
But the thing is that you were down to ten men. It's all well and good implying that if Bony had been on you'd have won but there are two problems with that: 1. You don't know it's true. You have no way at all of knowing how we'd have played the second half if he'd still been on and (the big one) 2. If my Auntie had had bollocks, she'd have been my Uncle. Vin P.S. I'm awfully happy for you that you admire Burnley. Well done you.
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/20140920-gallery-swan-nil-win-1931473.aspx The gallery of yesterday's game. Does anyone do innocent quite as well as Fonte? You really feel it don't you? Lovely action shots of a furious Koeman...so wants to be on that pitch.
Regarding the Bony issue. He would have gone off for that first tackle in Rugby. It is very dangerous to take someone out when they are in the air...Yoshida could have been seriously injured coming down awkwardly from a height. The second could have damaged his ligaments if he escaped spinal damage from the first tackle. Bony was wound up and dangerous...he may not be like that normally, but he was yesterday. Fonte got the ball in the first incident, but he also caught the player...would have got a yellow card 75% of the time for that. He didn't catch the player in the second incident...would he have got a yellow if he hadn't already got one...who knows, but the ref certainly didn't want to send him off for it. The sending off changed the game, but a lot of teams can't take advantage. We were dangerous enough and astute enough to be able to grab hold of the game (as demonstrated by the rapid turn round in stats in our favour). It was a close game, they couldn't score when on top, and we were flexible enough to turn it round...end of story.
Meh, it's the final score that counts. And Burnley may have been impressive, but if you can't score you're pretty much ****ed. I'd rather play badly and win.
Dignity mate. You had a good first 30 minutes, and I think we all have admitted we were second best, however, we controlled it when you lost Bony. To be honest, I would be more worried about your own tactics i.e playing so, so deep and giving us, a half decent footballing side who like to pass rather than resort to the long-ball, so much time on the ball. I like Swansea, but Football is football, and every game is different.
