Why is it when we are faced with a team down on their luck and also one of the few that are on an equal pegging we play like a bunch of pricks ?? I must give full credit to the finishing of Fulham, it was superb in fairness but this is so typical if the Swans and it doesn't half piss me off !! A tremendous season that we cant complain about but every tme we have played a team struggling for form we roll over good and proper! Reading,Villa,Sunderland and now Fulham. I have to say that there appears to be a lack of discipline in our team in terms of positional play,since we have become settled into a top half finish im watching Ash and Chico play more as strikers than as defenders! if they were so good at playing up front why the **** do they play at the back ?? There isn't a whole lot to gripe about I guess,the season has been kind but there has recently been a tendency to not ot want to put the hard yards in and I find that a very dangerous road to go down, watching Williams trying to bend it in from 30yards sums up where some of our players heads are at !! Our sloppy play got well and truly punished today and I cant help but think that it aint such a bad thing!! We seriously lack somebody to finish,Michu was total ****e today so was rangel even though he worked hard, Chico and Ash were playing like it was a training game and the defensive shape was a joke all game. I think Laudrup needs to be careful giving these boys too much "responsibility" because they showed a lack of it today and in previous games. Pablo showed up well as did routs and dyer but dyer really needs to work on his final pass and his shooting its becoming a total embarrassment now!! Overall an end of season let down, if the team played the game like it mattered with the required discipline then they would have got something from the game. A final word about about the ref Lee Mason...what a total **** of a bloke, his performance was perfectly summed up when he booked Pablo for coming together with frimpong even though that was 1. his first foul of the game 2. it was dubious that it was a foul at all Frimpong kicked Britton all over the park and all he got was a quick talk from the ref with no action even though he was persistently fouling our lot. Ash couldn't even question the ref !! and he Is the captain!! how can the ref have a go at the captain for trying to protect his teammates ? this Mason guy is one of the worst ive seen but lets not blame him for what was on reflection a real **** game from the Swans . Well done Swans on a fantastic season but im Glad the season is over, Laudrup needs to work his magic in the summer !
I thought we dominated about 80% of that game...A bit of a shock result. Just glad the season is over. The squad is pretty bad overall...No options from the bench. Is Itay Shechter the worst striker we have ever had?
I don't think we were that bad up until the 2nd goal. We bossed Fulham but they set out in a very defensive fashion and Hanglaand was superb for them as was the keeper. I could stomach an unlucky 1-0 loss but 3-0 is a real freak result. Ho hum. The work rate and intensity was better than it had been for a while but the ball never seemed to drop kindly for us. Agree about the pablo booking. The 2 holding CM's for Fulham were running a fine line all game, Mason has had it in for us for a while now, he allowed Fulham to take quick free kicks but kept calling us back. Twat. I think the second 2 goals came from us pushing everybody up to get something out of the game leaving too much space behind (not like us to do this). Chico played well but Ash had a terrible game defensively. Fair play to Fulham they finished all three chances they took very well indeed, berbatov's and the first one were quality goals few teams could have prevented. Schwartzer was the major difference for me though, he looked unbeatable all game. Another thing ML needs to look at post season is our set pieces. We don't score them and don't defend them well either. Maybe a specialist coach is needed in this area? Anyway, look forward to seeing who ML brings in next season and looking forward to Europe. Finally, congrats to Fulham, I'm glad they didn't suffer relegation as they usually play much better football than that.
Believe me, there's not one Fulham fan who would play Enoh and Frimpong together by choice. We know we need to sign a new CM, we've known it since Dembele left and Diarra got crocked...
We probably had even more than that in the second half rhys!! The summer cant come quick enough can it? if we get £10m for Ash Williams it would be great, there doesn't seem to be that mental toughness there at the moment. Its difficult to say too much because the team have done so well but I can garentee that Laudrup will not be thinking "good enough" he will be thinking about why the team cant win when they play teams equal to them, that's a mental thing IMO. End of season games are always a bit weird and I cant really say there was too much wrong with todays game other than our defence wanting to be in the final 3rd every time we had the ball!! I know Fulham were dropping everyone back but I thought it was a little bit ill disciplined of us to play the game that way today. The captain should always be your rock but he is anything but when there are headlines to be made for an end of season stroll ! The team can be forgiven for a fantastic season but I bet you £100 quid the alarm bells are ringing with Laudrup , hence the wanting of 7 new players
The points of issue are: 1) Clueless in front of goal, and why we are in relagation form 2) Poor defensive shape, and poor organising from Ash 3) Dyer for a pro winger, has the worst final ball probably in the Premiership, and he'll never get into the England squad, unless he learn's to up the quality of his final touch, pass, or shot. 4) De Guzman is a weak link in Midfield 5) Are any of our front line players capable of shooting acurately from outside the box? We seriously need a quality striker, and we seriously need a midfield general, in the mold of Bodde, and we need to get a serious quality CB if Ash goes. Anyway season is over and we finished 9th, which was within my pre-season prediction of between 10th and 7th, but a new front line is neeeded for next season!.......
Can't disagree and if things don't change (and they will) we could be in real trouble next season. Teams know how to soak up the pressure and then hit us on the break. We just can't deal with it. A very poor team made to look very very good yet again. My Fulham season ticket holder mate was in disbelief. Fulham defended well and in numbers but we had enough possession and attempts to win at a canter. We played some wonderful stuff in the build up but the final ball / shot was usually shocking. At this level you'll get punished for that and we certainly did. Like NJ I'm glad the season's over. The last 10 games have been awful, and although the table doesn't lie I can't help but feel our final position is rather flattering. The substitutions today were terrible (Agustien is a defensive midfielder, Taylor is a LB and Schechter is next to useless) but I'm sure ML will see where we're failing and put things right. He has to just for us to maintain where we are.
I don't think Ash is captain material. He just doesn't lift the team when needed, very really shouts at players.
agree Phil. The striker thing looks like a dead cert. 2 strikers at LEAST will arrive in the summer. Canas will help in the midfield general role. De Guzman is the one player I don't understand Laudrup picking for every game. He is, quite frankly, gash. Dyer does need to buck his ideas up with the finishing and crossing but he does worry defences with his pace and willingness to run at them. I think if we had a more predatory striker in the box and Michu arriving from deep in his preferred AM position then we would have more joy exploiting the space that Dyer makes. On the bright side Pablo was fantastic and is looking like the player he was pre-injury. How we need a player like him firing on all cylinders. When Schechter started warming up I thought 'OK JDG off and play with 2 strikers' as Fulham sat so deep but no, Pablo comes off instead.
You want to buy De Guzman for CM? Take Schechter as a freebie too. Actually even better, let Cardiff have him. so surlyc do you think Jol will be there next season? Lot's of gossip about him leaving/ being shoved. Gonna be quite a tough rebuild for the cottagers over the next season or 2 due to squad age. Are you seeing it as a chance to improve or are you worried about losing quite a few players in a short space of time?
I think the League position does indeed flatter us . Plenty of things to work on the most important being the winning mentality when we play our equals. Laudrup says the thing all the time, its easy to get motivated for the big teams but to do it against the teams around us is a different matter. our intensity is **** in these situations and we must try to move away from "well we are safe" to "we need to win at all costs" I know this is the difference between the top players and the also rans but i get the feeling that we have small time attitudes in these types of games. "just enough" is not good enough and when we play some unheard of team in the Europa league they will pull our pants down very easily with this mind set. Laudrup has to change the mentality or at least bring more winners into the team instead. It all sounds a bit unfair when you consider the overall season but i can garentee Laudrup will be a bit concerned with what he has seen since the final. If its one thing he knows its how to be motivated to be the best you can be, application of that is somewhat lacking in the Swans team at times aand has done for a while. I have no problem when we play the big sides but that is easy to get up for. Next season teams will be looking at our Thursday fixtures and targeting us so i hope to christ the players get switched on for a battle!! There is no over reaction here just a well placed thought on how we will approach next season. Laudrup has been quoted as being very trusting towards the players, im not so sure the British players know how to deal with that responsibility. Watching Ash play like a striker and not a defender is a case in point! the other week he was demanding free kicks in the opposition area FFS !! Not what you need from your captain, he and others need to do their own job first !
we have been crap for most of the second half of the season so i dont know how we should expect any different...Its ended 49% swans and 51% fulham and they deserved the victory at the end of the day.......
ML will get us strength and options on the bench and also improve certain areas in the first team squad next season. It will be hard with europe to contend with but the fact that ML has stated he wants 6-7 new faces speaks volumes. ML can see the failings in the side and will address them for sure. Have faith Jacks, the viKING is going to plunder and pillage the continent (on a longboat perhaps?) and improve the squad with the higher tv money available. He has been smart to wait and not pay excessive winter transfer fees, saving it up for the summer when spending is needed.
We are very fortunate that the premiership was very poor this season and we got enough points when we did because we have been in relegation form for the last 3 months at the very least and i dont think we will be so lucky next season ....Laudrup has a hell of a lot of work to do and i hope he gets the funds to do it or we will be in trouble. 9th place flattered us in all honesty in the worst premiership league for a very long time....
Its all well and good having faith but what laudrup has shown in the last 3 months does not really give anyone much confidence does it...Im not so sure he is up to the job myself so he had better start showing his skills as a manager or we will be in trouble...
Dai you are right about funds, and ML has said that we will need to spend just to stay where we are. We do play some lovely stuff and move the ball forward very well at times, we just need a striker or 2 of real quality to make the most of the chances we create (today being a prime example; we looked cracking at times but just couldn't finish the chances). Defensively we need to strengthen because of the extra games in Europe as well as needing a bit more quality anyway. As I said before, by waiting for summer ML can get players closer to the end of their contracts for much less money (or even free like Canas). If he had bought players in Jan they would have been much more expensive and we wouldn't have had enough games to play them in. Wages paid for players to sit out games doesn't make sense. Bearing in mind we have a major trophy and we finished higher in the league than last season all on a 'bare bones' squad that includes Itay 'What's a goal' schekter we have done remarkably well under ML. All the turmoil of Brenda buggering off and losing loads of first team players would have buried most teams. This season was almost an excercise in firefighting. Next season we will be much stronger. The only way is up!
You dont think its been a strong premiership this year norway ?....you only have to look at some of the scores between the so called big clubs to the rest of us to see its not been one of the best seasons anyone has ever had...
Well, that could mean that the gap between the top clubs and others has been reduced. In effect meaning that the prem leaugue is stronger overall
