Match Day Thread Swansea v Bristol City -Pundit Predicts Loss.

Ok, only saw one angle on Sky, thought it hit him top and inside his shoulder..
One thing I think we will get from Pearson is the ability to get the best out of the players we have. It’s a young squad and With a few additions if he’s still with us in the future will give us something to challenge with..
Maybe this season is a bit out of our grasp, although this is the championship and anything is possible but looks promising for next..

 

And what I am saying is they are now looking to get the ball forward and that is something that has been sadly missing for far too long. Even though we were under the cosh for most of the first half, we were still looking to get the ball forward, the final pass was missing. A goal against over the past 12 months would have destroyed us, but I never saw a head drop, which is another good trait and we played some terrific stuff.

In short we look like we are trying to win and not trying not to lose, which is where we have been going wrong, we are better when we try to win.

And most of the players that we disagree on weren't playing, except Hunt, Diedhiou and Nagy, but I am big enough to admit Nagy along with Bakinson have improved with our more forward looking attitude and even Diedhiou today held the ball up as well as I have ever seen him and Mariappa is a better centre back than he is a full back.

To be honest had we lost today, given our 2nd half display I would not have been overly disappointed, because at the moment we look to be on the right track again and certainly far more forward looking, which is a bonus.

 

You are right about the Bentley save, he made himself big in a Schmiechaslesque fashion. I said after Middlesborough that Hunt had to improve his blocking and today he did better.

Palmer has confirmed it was a penalty, but as I said I never saw an angle that was conclusive, the ref was a long way back, he had to be guessing.

Yes things went for us, but we played well from their goal onwards, something that we have struggled to do when we go behind in nearly a year now, our equaliser was a terrific goal and at that stage I felt that there was only one team that was going to win the game.

They got what they deserved the whingy, whiny tossers.

 

I saw the highlights and we had our share of luck particularly in the first half. A Bournemouth or Norwich would have scored a couple with that amount of pressure.
However, full credit to NP changing the formation and the team for not letting their heads drop. A great comeback!!!

 

R&W
You didn't need to see the highlights of the game, all you need is to read my account of the game.

No saves, no penalty. (Could have been 3 with some refs).
Some read the game better than others.

Ps - where's the whoosh emoji when you need it

 

I've never said I was a fan of Hunt or Diedhiou, so I'm not sure what you've been reading..
There's a bunch of players that I like and you don't, of which most weeks you criticise one way or another.... it's opinions.......It's not my fault you can't see potential..
I have said from the beginning of the season, we are a few players light and a leader on the field away from being a decent team....Deano failed more times than not to get the best from them IMO...I believe Nige will do better.

 

You've met them then..........

 

Would that be the same Bournemouth that have managed just 1 more point than us in their last 13 league games?

 

I put up this list Paterson, ODowda, Diedhiou, Hunt, Nagy, Mariappa and Lansbury. Now I would keep Nagy as long as he is happy and committed.

How long do we wait for 'potential'? from Paterson and ODowda?

 

Both would have a role to play in a well organised side, as will the others I mentioned.

 

Well it's all about opinions as you say. But both of them have had close to 5 years at the club and apart from odd flashes have not shown consistency, so either we haven't been well organised or they ain't consistent enough. I would be amazed if Paterson in particular was a Pearson type of player, far too weak.

I would not be surprised to see Paterson join Sunderland in the summer.

 

Perhaps Watford would have been a better example.
I hadn’t really kept an eye on their results tbh.

 

Maybe he will, not sure he's supposed to be a strong player for us, more about being nimble and being able to create as well as knock in the odd goal.
Being in a poor organised side doesn't suit him, but Nige will hopefully change that.
Apart from Bentley & Kalas, whom would start in most teams in this Championship, I also like
Palmer, Messengo, Dasilva, Nagy, O'Dowda, Semenyo, Mariappa, Vyner, Adelakun, Sessegnon mainly players with a bit of flair, but would also be made better with good players around them .

Be interesting how they feature into Nige's plans.

 

Wonderful result for his first game in charge. I believe this is our "B" or "A-" team, after a number of games and the shell shock of conceeding 6 goals, and the defeat by Reading they are beginning to jel. With the few important injured returning to the squad we should do well, may even scrape into 6th? With an easier looking run in than our last few games, after Bournemouth! we should at least get another 24 points.

 

This quote intrigues me. To say it's a B, or A- team would imply, to me at least, that 5 or more players are missing from the team, so in your eyes who are they? For me, the only 2 now missing that were regulars before their injury, and we have not adequately replaced are DaSilva and Weimann.

The argument about Williams could be had, but we don't if he would be in the A team as we simply haven't seen enough of him. Baker would also possibly be in the starters list, but with Mariappa and Mawson at CB, we have covered that, even with Mawson injured again now.

 

... and no sending off either. Towler was very lucky.

 

Very unexpected result. From what I saw and heard we were under a lot of pressure early on, but again we rode our luck.
So is it Nigel Pearsons presence that has turned this bunch of wasters and underperformers that could barely muster a shot on target in 90 minutes, into a team that's scored 6 goals away from home in the last 2 games.
It's quite odd when you think about it, as very little has changed

 

Have said it before, I think we have some decent players................just looks like they need guidance in what they are supposed to be doing!!

 

Instead of attempting to play out of the back every single time (especially in dangerous positions) we are not averse to hoofing the ball upfield to relieve the pressure.
In a similar vein if a ball needs row Z treatment (again instead of attempting to play it out from the back every time) it happens.
There are a few more meatier challenges.
Everybody is prepared to put their bodies on the line and put in last ditch blocks (not just Kalas).
When possible our press is higher and more physical.
And most importantly everybody, especially our midfielders first thought is to get the ball forward to actually feed our strikers (strikers who are now being mainly utilised in their best positions down the middle), especially in and around the opponents penalty area (which for us is a total revelation) and the balls in are trying to play to our strikers strengths (low for Wells to run on to at pace and higher for Diedhiou to have a chance of getting his head onto) I cannot recall many if any at all occasions when from a promising move on the edge of the opponents penalty box in those 2 games have ended up at the feet of Bentley, from sideways/back passes, the strikers instead of selfishly taking on rash shots (because usually that is the only chances that they were getting) are instead now playing in their strike partners who are usually in better positions.

The strikers are playing together and are looking more like the strikers that we thought we had signed.

I would say quite a lot has changed, in short we are looking to try to win games and not just looking not to lose games (like we have done for well over a year now) we actually look as though we might score now.

Pearson made the old school comment about 'football being a simple game', I suspect that he and probably the coaches believe that this bunch of players have been over coached, with far too much technical mumbo jumbo forced down their throats and somewhere along the line the fundamental point of scoring goals has been lost, data from games is helpful but it should never be king, if a coach relies too much on data and not what we sees with his own eyes, then maybe we will end up with computers instead of humans coaching the game.

It is good once more to see the players playing with a smile and not the resignation of defeat etched over their faces even before they take the knee.

Next season maybe better with a few more fresh faces in key positions and moving several players on and obviously having another look at the long term injured players. The good news is those 6 unexpected points have left us probably needing only 6 to 9 points for absolute safety and with 5 games left this month, we can look forward HOPEFULLY to the international break at the end of March without having to look down the table.