I said it was going to be 2-1, but not to Spurs! Just came back from the match and I think you can safely say we were mugged. Having said that it was a magnificent game of football and Spurs did well to hang in there - that's the Premiership for you
The pattern continues. We keep doing well against teams near us in the standings last year, and poorly against those farther away. We desperately needed a win and couple of goals, so I canât complain. But now we need to work out a team and tactics that will work against teams weâre favored against at home. Before I get critical, I think some of Pochettinoâs adjustments are making us look a bit likelier to score, though only a bit. The ballâs getting wide a bit more, and establishing Eriksen and Kane in central roles has helped them grow. The biggest problem is defending. How we only gave up one goal in the last two games Iâll never know. It should have been four or five. We expose our CBs far too often, and today they seemed to have gone missing too. I vote "not at all." We have a team younger, more talented and with a shorter attention span than most. Itâs not the team for the offside trap. After the first goal, we changed our style to prevent goal scoring opportunities, and we did, for ourselves, while multiplying Swanseaâs chances. We should have been trying to get three or four, certainly, rather than try to ride a very shaky defense against a dangerous team. While I think we have picked up our attacking a bit, Iâd love to see stats on Spurs vs. Man U in terms of how wide the ball is, on average. Man U has always got it on the touch lines. We have a break thatâs unique looking: three or four players in the exact center of the field, in a clump. However...big win. Eriksen emerging as a star, and Kane, too, I think. And a very enjoyable game.
you have shown as much class as your manager mate...others could learn a lot about how to behave after a harsh defeat...have always had a soft spot for the swans ...took my girls to the Gower for 5 or 6 holidays and we visited swansea each time...good luck for the rest of the season mate... and have a good xmas and new year
He was complaining of "tightness" after Thursday, although he was expected to be ok for today. Maybe things changed, but I don't think Poch likes him.
What has happened to Townsend guys? Haven't seen much of him the past 18 months or so? Kane has a bright future. Impressed me today.
Another perfection 1-1 prediction ruined by another late Spurs goal. Three away games running . That's how I see it anyway.
I don't think Pochettino's improved much except that the players seem more together and happier. The performances still aren't there and apart from Kane I don't think any player has improved much either. It was always going to be a case of getting by in these early stages though and we're just about managing that at the moment. Still, a loss to Burnley and we're in trouble again so it's far from where we'd want to be. Pochettino might be right though, playing for 2 months with the Europa League could reap rewards as most times when we have a midweek game the opposition will have had one too and we won't have had to travel across Europe to play on some crap pitch. Come to think of it I think we've had some good Christmas/January form in recent years. Whilst I've been critical of the protection our midfield has given to the defence this season, I think dropping deeper would only exaggerate it unless we play a disciplined holding player, which messes with the rest of our set up. If Fazio and Vertonghen had bothered to actually mark Bony we'd have saved ourselves a lot of problems. When you're the centre back on the far side and you don't know where the striker is you should be panicking, all Fazio and Jan did was have a quick check over their shoulder and go back to ignoring him. So ridiculously poor. As for the offside trap, it just doesn't look like they're communicating at all so there's no real push, we just seem to stand in a line or jog back a bit slower. I think we're sorely missing some experience and leadership in this department, someone like King would improve the defenders around him no end. The selections in attack need some work again. I've no problem with Eriksen on the left, or Kane in the middle, or Lamela on the left but together it just doesn't work. It doesn't need to be all about width, running channels on the counter is just as effective but there's too much sideways movement from all of them, all the time. Add more width and we still have the same problem with getting bodies in the box, variety is what we desperately need. We do seem to be trying to work in combinations at times and it is starting to work but today really wasn't the day for that. Swansea didn't cause us problems by mixing up their play, they got it to their midfielders who tried to find Bony everytime and in the conditions it worked much better than Soldado, Kane, Eriksen and Lamela all running around trying to get quick link ups to open up the pitch. It wasn't pretty but it was sensible.
Will do, but I'll be coming up to White Hart Lane in March to get those three points back Glad you enjoyed the Gower, it's a wonderful place. I spend a lot of time down there
Not sure how much insight into the team we can gain from a win over a team we nearly always beat. We did our normal botch job against Chelsea so to me nothing much has changed with this win.
Put it this way. We don't normally batter teams, but we battered you in the second half, but you still won. We SHOULD have won, but didn't. We had chances, but Lloris didn't have many good saves to make. Good defending? From a neutral point of view, Spurs have been poor this season. I think your manager needs to find his best team and stick with the. First person in your starting line up next week - Harry Kane.
Quite an enjoyable game today. Swansea are improving under Monk and are probably the strongest Swansea side we've faced since they came into the Premier League, so a win at the Liberty for us was hard earned and impressive, especially considering they've only lost once there this season prior to our visit. Both teams had spells of good possession and I'd probably admit a loss for Swansea was harsh, I think a draw would've been fair but naturally delighted to leave with the full 3. Kane was fantastic and ran himself into the ground, apart from the lapse of concentration for their goal I thought Davies also had a good game and getting the assist on his return to the Liberty was impressive. Eriksen showed he's got that "magic world class player" moment in him, no I'm not saying he's world class (yet) but he has that ability where even if he's not having the best of games he's still dangerous and only needs that one moment to do something special, there are elements of his game which are comparable to van der Vaart which is great - not surprising seeing as both came through the famed Ajax academy. Massive improvements are needed but there were some good positive spells in the game which gives a bit of confidence that the talent and potential is there, it just needs to be unlocked on a full scale level, not just for periods in games. A nice confidence booster for the lads after the poor performance and draw vs Palace and the loss to Besiktas.
On a more negative note, Lamela and Soldado's performances remain concerning. Neither are improving and I'm amazed Lamela has started the past couple of games baring in mind Chadli is back from injury. Fazio too remains a bit of a liability, he got let off today when Bony chased him down. Another CB is without a doubt the main priority in January in my opinion, reports in Italy claim a deal for Raul Albiol could happen.
Enjoyable game? I nearly had a heart attack. It was one of the best games I've seen at The Liberty. I know we've been in the Prem for four seasons, but for the Swans it's a privelige to be on the same pitch as Spurs. We've come a long way but to play Spurs is still a major game in our season.
Eriksen's proving to be a great taker of chances under pressure. Swansea are a good team, but they lack the kind of players who can snap up those matching winning chances which come along and the top sides take. Utd are poor, Spurs are worse, Arsenal are in and out, but they all have those players who take those chances. It's like darts - you can get the 180s and 140s, but can you take out the double when it matters? Crap analogy over.
Haha sorry about that, PGF. Thanks for the kind words though, it's incredible how far you've guys have come since League 1 in '07, one of the most enjoyable teams to watch in the League and without a doubt the most improved in my opinion, with players like Bony, Gylfi, Williams and Montero, if you can add a bit more quality in January then I don't see why you guys can't aim for a top 6 spot, it's wide open at the moment and with Chelsea and City aside, I think 3rd downwards is up for grabs to about 6 or 7 sides. All the best for the season (bar our game at the Lane )
Thank you. I think Swansea's problem is that you have plan A- play the ball to Bony,either as a cross or split the defence. We would do well with him in our team. I like Gomis but don't understand why Michu is out on loan. If you don't want him, I think we should buy him instead of Ade.
OK - mugged by Spurs, but Hull, Aston Villa and QPR next up - gotta get some points out of them! Remained in my seat at the Liberty for a good 20 minutes trying to figure out he we were beaten by a s**te Spurs team, but its the Premier League and s**t happens - we didn't put away our chances and at this level you are going to get punished - Spurs had two gifts from us; well it is nearly Christmas - remember Newcastle doing it to us a couple of seasons ago! Madley was his usual ineffectual self, but we are beginning to realise that referees are gutless scumbags where we are concerned, but that is no excuse - if we had converted just a few of our many chances the ref decisions wouldn't have mattered! We need to find a killer instinct to put teams as bad as Spurs away! For all our dominance it was almost inevitable that they were going to scrape a lucky winner! Great first save by Tremmel but WTF didn't he grab the ball from Jazz's feet? Jazz was like a rabbit in the headlights and Spurs got an undeserved winner! They were one of the worst we have seen at the Liberty and we still contrived to lose the game - but they are a 'so called' big team so we can take something from the fact that we made them look worse than ordinary! But that is no consolation - we will be fine this season, but we should be thrashing w**kers like Spurs - regardless of their superior spending power and the inclination of their players to cheat at every opportunity - Soldado is a diving scumbag and I lost count of the number of hand balls! But as I said at the start of this thread, we have an opportunity of serious points in the next three matches - Hull, Aston Villa and QPR! So keep the faith - 9th on 22 points after 16 games and if we replicate today's performance then we will take points from the next three games!
