Canas wouldn't have made much difference yesterday as he cannot play right wing. That was one of the issues, playing three CM/AM. Surely there was someone in the reserves/u21s that could have played right wing yesterday. As for the kids, who was the youngster they brought on for Bony? He seemed a better option on the right and the midfield looked a little more balanced. Shame it was 80 minutes to bloody late.
Villarreal playing like Swansea and Swansea playing like Stoke City of the Pulis era summed the game up perfectly for me yesterday.
I've always seen Gylfi as a direct replacement for Michu in the CAM position. Yesterday he kept drifting infield. The amount of times Rangel had to double up as a RW, Monk should gave taken Jonjo off, put Jazz right back and told Rangel to stay RW for the rest of the game, because that poor sod played to positions all afternoon yesterday, and played very well.
I know he made some dodgy subs last season, but I reckon this was just to get Amat warmed up and give him some time in the same defensive lineup as Bartley had been in. This is preseason after all. I agree that he was out of position, but Gylfi isn't exactly the same player as Michu. He should play in the middle but should play deeper than Michu did, creating rather than arriving late in the box to score like a second forward lying deep.
He probably should of done yes, or at half time to give them both 45 minutes. I don't think either will start ahead of Ash or the new Argie bloke if we sign him. My only worry about that is that if we bring in a new CB now he's still going to be settling in when we need to be winning points. But I suppose if he is as good as he looks from afar then he should be able to hit the ground running. EDIT - Also its a bit reassuring to realise that Villarreal are actually quite good now...I thought they were still crap, clearly I'm out of touch with their situation.
They finished 6th in La Liga last season and are apparently bang on favourites for Europa League qualification, minimum. Teams of similar quality have brushed us aside in competitive games where we've had a fit team in every season we've been in the top flight. Yet apparently this defeat is the one that signals disaster!
Villareal looked very good to watch, they're one touch passing for the first goal reminded me of the Swans 2 seasons back.
I think the worry is that with our last game of preseason done you could see that we arent quite right yet, it is only preseaon though so lets hope we have got our mistakes out of the way and that we have the team and formation we need come September.
Yes my mistake, the previous season they were promoted back . But im not accepting the Swans are 2/3 yrs behind them, despite them playing us off the park yesterday.
We probably are two or three years behind them Norway - because we're two or three years behind what we were two or three years ago.
We'll see a different Swansea at Old Trafford next week lads, lets put it down to Monk having a brain fart!................
I not fussed as to whether we're different just better , more intensity higher pressing , a more structured shape with players playing in their best positions ,everything we didn't see yesterday ,is that too much to ask for , oh yes and 3 points would be nice .
