First opening day win in yonks and against the bully boys of QPR ! double bonus!! So keep ball has been replaced with passing with purpose and what a difference it makes ! Having said that there was plenty of evidence that we still play the same,especially after we get the goal, keeping the opposition from getting a head of steam up is important and boy did it help today!! My thoughts and ratings on what i watched. Laudrup- Bang on with his substitutions,something that Brenden lacked. Showed plenty of passion in the dug out and was animated on a few occasions,always nice to see people showing emotion,it shows they care! lots of hugs and smiles from the bench, a great day for ML . 10 Taylor-looked rusty but got into the groove as the game wore on. 8 Rangel- He worries me, always needs to be 100% on his game otherwise looks iffy defensively, in fairness hoilett was fantastic today and will give every full back a roasting not just ours. 6 Vorm- Typical Vorm,makes some bizzare decisions and generally gets lucky with them, he is second to none when it comes to reflex saves, yet again a goal saved where other keepers would have conceeded. 7 Ash- Did solid work,got turned once or twice and a few wayward early passes but performed to his usual standard. 7 Chico- A new hero is going to born i reckon, still learning the ropes with comunication but does not look like the type of bloke who gets bullied,something we have been lacking in our team is a hard edge defensively,this boy could be the answer, looks great from set piece play as well. 7 Leon- Class 9 De Guzmen- The least impressive of the new boys, maybe needs time to find his feet but wayward passing early on didnt help his growth, his corner taking and set piece play is fantastic so he can be proud of his overall game. 7 Routledge- Did exactly what Laudrup wanted, came inside into the spaces and caused havock, he can be frustrating with his options sometimes but i thought this was a confidence building display from him, always seems to get an assist when he plays. needs to work harder on his defensive covering, he left taylor exposed a few times, but that will come with a run of games. 9 Dyer- passes were not of usual standard, a bit rusty...and scored 2 goals!! makes me wonder why people look at sinclair and they havent offered £20m for Dyer !! the brightest light of the 2 players! worked hard looked a bit tired but typical nathen all action performance. 9 Michu- Star !! what a class player this boy looks, many journo's were ****ing over this player when they heard Swansea signed him,they said he is going to be a star,well, looks like they were right based on todays performance!! world class finish for the second!. Gylfi who ? 10 DG- Worked hard and created the spaces by moving the defenders around for our attackers, 100% from him and will get his goals but today he was the ultimate team player 8 Kemy- For me the team looked more solid with him than with de guzmen, i would start him next week,looked class on the ball and looks fit as well which has been a problem for him in the past. we look comfortable in the midfield with kemy in there. 8 There is alot to work on, this was in some ways a strange result but the clinical finishing was sublime from michu and Dyer, Laudrup will see there is alot to work on still, our passing wasnt as fluid as normal but to be expected with alot of new players coming in. A great confidence booster to all the swans fans and players, its now in Laudrup we trust, one swallow doesnt make a summer but this is a result to savour and get every other team guessing as what Swansea will do next, playing narrow has opened up alot of options that other teams might take another season to work out. Thoughts ??
i must add that it was noticable how interchangable we were today, i didnt know who was where half the time, it sure confused the **** out of me and it seemed to do the same to QPR i hope its by design and not default !! Dyer,routs,Michu and de guzmen and brits were all swapping around in the final 3rd on occasion. mad stuff
bang on Norway, i dont think we could of had a harder start outside the big guns today with our recent performances at loftus road but hey what a way to put the ghost to rest, i really liked Kemy when he came on his vision is and range of passing is second to none within our squad just need to keep him fit and watch him fly i feel, kick on from here put the hammers to the sword i hope next week and what an interview from ML just watched hughes fuming
Thats the only problem with TV2 Norway, they dont show the bloody interviews !! im really happy for Laudrup, his signings so far look to be great, what a finish by Michu for the 2nd!! Liverpool losing 0-3 and us winning 0-5 has certainly made me a very happy Jack today
There was nothing I couldn't disagree with Norway, top post from you as usual, you seem to agree with my analysis of De Guzman after the Stuttgart game, he's going to have to raise his game substantially to get anywhere near Joe Allen, only criticism from me from what was an historic 1st win ever at Loftus road, and we did it in some style! Roll on MOTD.....................
Could well be that de guzman is finding his feet in that position, problem we have is that we have been so use to having players that dont spew out posession of the ball that when one does it looks horrific !! De guzmen was very very good at his set piece play and that is a hugh bonus to take from today, looking at Kemy from the bench will make de guzmen realise he will need to be on his game to keep his position in the team. nothing wrong with healthy competition. Ididnt mention Scott sinclair in my article. Im glad he was benched,not happy with him being booed by our own, but glad he got a goal, hopefully he will get his move and we will get our player in Hernandez. I have faith in Micheal Laudrups signings, even de guzmen looks the part overall, just needs to keep it better and work a little harder off the ball.
Hi NJ, good stuff as usual. I think Taylor warmed to the job as the game went on and to me looked fairly solid. Agree about Rangel but I've got a soft spot for him and he's a fighter. Surprisingly I've got a feeling that young Sinclair will have a change of heart and wouldn't be too shocked to hear something to this effect in the weeks to come ! What does everyone else think?
Not sure about that passittohim! But as you can see from today, we can play without him!! so if he wants to go, it really doesn't bother me, think he's getting too ahead of himself in my view, and I was pleased he was benched today, coming on at 75 minutes!.................
Hi FFS, i think its possible scott wants to stay..so that he can sign a pre-contract in Jan for much more money!! im not too worried if he goes, there are other players far more crucial IMO. Taylor started to get on his game in the 2nd half, mackie was a handful but Taylor was like a terrier snapping at him, 5mins before the end Taylor made a crunching tackle just outside our area, he had that "thou shall not pass" mentality running through his viens by that point.. Intresting to see where we go next. West Ham will be a right handful and Chico and Ash will need to be 100% up for the battle, as i said earlier i think this game Kemy should start, we are underway and have 3pts on the board already, only another 37pts to go !!
RedBluebird in peace Not often I come on your board (well never) but well done to you guys on a cracking start to the season. I was expecting a fairly tough game for you today but it actually appeared quite easy in the end. Being honest I hope you guys keep it up.
Mclraren- I think 99.9% of us were expecting a very tough game too !! nobody expected that scoreline, without sounding negative, it was a little bit of a freak result today, QPR were very poor at the back and we were clinical in our finishing. A great start for us and a huge boost to Micheal laudrup, west ham will offer all sorts of different problems though and we need to look at a few things in our team,hopefully Laudrup is smart enough to see what we need
Agree with that NJ west ham will I think try to ruffle our feathers but I expect our boys to be up for it. I hope de Guzman lives up to the family name!?
I fully expect us to send west ham packing back home with their tails between their legs!............
That was a very pleasant surprise indeed today as that's all i saw coming our way was a point.. So i wont grumble with three
Cracking summation NJ. It could have all been so different if QPR had had a penalty when it was 0-1, but they did`nt & it`s all history now. Superb display by our lads, at last we can now turn defence into attack at the switch of a button. Nice to see us getting stuck in and giving as good as we got, even the littler guys. Terrific performance but let`s remember this is only the first game. Long way to go yet, but the signs are looking very, very good. If we beat the Hammers then confidence will be really sky high. I reckon it`s going to be one hell of a season with Mr. L in charge, go Swans! The train is gathering momentum...... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Agree with the penalty shout, seen them given and i feared the worst when Rangel did it. Rangel needs to be on his game 100% to survive defensively in this league, a few % below that and he gets a bit shaky. Hoilett was their best player and will give better full backs than rangel a good reeming. Overall we rode our luck and were clinical when we needed to be! Roll on the Hammers game, and lets hope that train moves fast to safety swanee !!
Under Rodgers , I would play Sinclair ahead of Routledge every time . But Routledge under Laudrup is a whole new ball game . Routledge had an awesome game & that feathered pass on that goal was magnificent ... The best is yet to come .
Hey guys, just thought I'd say thanks for the lesson. You were blinding against us today. Hopefully we will improve substantially, or we will be down by xmas. Good luck for the rest of the season.
I think we can only get better. We will have some bad days at the office now and again, but we've only just begun. It's going to get better. Our game was shown 5 and half hours delayed here. So I avoided tv, web etc to make sure I didn't know the result. I knew starting off that the wheels had come off the Liverpool bus, but this result on top of Liverpool's is the just best the day I've had in a long while .... too giddy to standup.
