This 2 week break from the league . Personally I think it's come at the right time for us . With the players out through injury Ash , Ben ,DeGuzman, Pablo, Michu (to a small extent) as I beleive that cut injury carried on into the Soton game this could be a blessing as long as for example Ash doesn't play in a meaningless friendly when not fit,Pablo needs more time ,DeGuzman with groin strain , Ben with a ham string injury , we're going down rapidly in terms of injuries which are all ligament/muscular and take time to heal properly.So hopefully Neil Taylor's back to full fitness because he'll probably play on Friday .
I feel more than ever that our squad of 22 is just too thin to compete with reasonable success in three competitions. I have always maintained that we needed a minimum 24, preferably 25 players of good standard. As it is, I sense a battle in store for us and I can see us sacrificing one or both cups to concentrate on the league. Hoping against hope that we strengthen in January otherwise it will be a long hard season. Going to get pelters for this I know, but I always felt that we should have gone in for Peter Odenwhingie who offered fairly consistent Premier League goalscoring experience for not a lot of money. Very cool finish for his recent goal and we could do with some of that in the squad. I understand Laudrup's argument about working with a tight squad, but I feel that his lack of experience of the Premier League in terms of its physical attrition, might come back to haunt us. I had hoped that Curt would have marked his card having seen how injuries destroyed any chance we had of staying that season in the old First Division when he was a player - and one of the injured. I'm assuming, of course, that he's said nothing. Might be wrong though.
I think our so-called strength in depth isn't as strong as we first thought. I also believe that ML has underestimated how much of an effect the Europa League has on the squad. In one way the International break is a blessed relief as I think the squad needs to take a deep breath and take a well-earned timeout. On the other hand, Rangel summed it up in the press yesterday when he said it's a long time in between matches off the back of a defeat.
One of the best written pieces in here for a while. Good Stuff. Agree that Laudrup is unrealistic, just having 24 players, when you consider, how many matchs the clubs, play in England. We need a backup on key positions. An extra central defender and a extra backup for Shelvey and Guzman. Sending Ki to Sunderland was a serious mistake. If either Shelvey or Guzman get injured in the next match we are seriously fuccked. We do not have any player left who can cover that position and we play to many matchs to expect one player to cover it. With Odenwhingie an older player with no resale value, I do no agree. To me their is something fascinating getting these unknown wildcards and with good coaching turning them into quality players. To me that is a trademark for Swansea.
I believe you might be right about the depth. We shall see, after all, the truth is out there! Welcome to the board
Can't understand why we didn't go in for Lukaku and Caulker when they became available. Would have added much needed fire power and defensive strength for us. We also need a new winger
We had a good team on the field on Sat. We ran into a decent team, well coached, playing on their own field, who parked the bus once they were 1-0 up .... parked the bus at home FFS. We didn't have the smarts to get around that. I am not sure that depth has much to do with that. We didn't take our chances. The Ref was queer to say the least. We made a stupid mistake in the last 15 minutes that let in the killer goal. Frustrating but we're going to have days like these.
Talking of queer refs .... [video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i-3cuCEt9k8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Di-3cuCEt9k8[/video]
I was thinking, he gets to ref a game in Peru, and we stash a kilo or two of the Peruvian marching powder, then we won't have to see the bastard ever again.
