A big difference is that Monk has been allowed to move on perceived trouble makers and those who perhaps don't buy into him while Laudrup wasn't allowed to do the same because of the standing of some of those players within the club and the closeness to board members. I don't think it was a mystery why Laudrup looked to move Ash Williams on, the guy has alot to say for himself,same with Monk. The Irony was that Monk and Ash were two of the quietest people in the Liberty yesterday . As soon as leon was starting to be rotated it all went pear shaped, as we can clearly see now what Laudrup saw over a year ago is that Leon can't go on forever and we cant rely on one player to make the difference between good and bad performances . It didn't progress the way it should have because IMO some players didn't want it to progress they wanted to stay the same and do what they were comfortable in doing. Monk is in control he has spent time deciding plenty of players wern't up to it now its up to him to get it right . He will be gone in October i think, looks like another Cusack.
Maybe but Cusack had little or nothing to work with whereas Monk has an established core of players and a budget to work with Cusack had nothing to compare with
No question, we have the players with more to come and we have the manager and his team of highly trained staff and we have a good chairman and board who will back the manager....We cant ask for anything more than that and other teams would love to have what we have got....no problem..
Yes, but they need bring in a few more for depth. You can't have up to 12 players leaving and only bring in six and not think you're going to have depth issues. 4-5 more quality player and we'll survive over the like of: Hull, WBA, Sunderland, Burnley, Aston Villa & Southampton.
I don't know how the hell you can make these conclusions after yesterday's game, or even after the pre-season! Monk may simply just be trying to work out his plan B and C for certain games this season, and I'll put money on us starting with just Bony upfront at Old Trafford, in our usual formation, yesterday's game was down to some obvious factors, mostly due to Leon, Routledge and Dyer being out, who are all very key players for our passing game. We all know that Leon is the oil that keeps things running smooth in our midfield, and replacing him will be the clubs most difficult challenge, and the only player that I think currently that could step in is Joe Allen, but we are living on borrowed time with regard to Leon, but that is for another day, what I do read on here is a lot of negativity, from those that would love to see Monk fail. Monk has never been one of my favourite players over the years, he was never a fast CB, but he was always intelligent enough to never get caught in possession most of his playing career which made him a dependable solid CB who served us well, and right now he is our Rookie manager that has been thrown in the deep end by our board, who obviously see potential in him, so lets not right him off before a ball has been kicked for crying out loud, get behind him and lets see what happens!.................
Unless one of us is Martin Morgan or Brian Katzen, then Huw (with 12.5% of the shares of Swansea City AFC Ltd) has more to lose than any of us on this forum. So, and if for that reason only, I would expect Huw to do his utmost to ensure that we remain in the PL and protect the value of his investment.
The players on display yesterday should have been good enough quality to perform well, but they didn't individually (Rangel and possibly Bafe and Bony excused - just) or, more importantly, as a team. Make no bones about it Villarreal didn't get out of second gear and changed 10 players without missing a beat.
No one wants Monk to fail, we are Swansea fans and want our team to be the best it can be. But Monk is showing himself to be out of his depth. I like your support of him when you suggest yesterday might have been working on plan b or c. but the week before the start of the season and 5 friendlies yesterday was not the day to experiment. Even it had been, after half time it was obvious that the team didn't have a clue what they were supposed to do and time to change things. Monk didn't, Monk sat in his chair looking lost.
Must echo most peoples thought.I personally think with a couple of additions we will be okay.Monk however the jury is out ,still feel he is tactically naive .Yesterday to be fair we were against a well drilled team and without any width to our game we were well beaten.When dyer and routs are back it will be a more expansive team
Part of the reason for my pessimism is we played that narrow game under monk last season. The difference IMO was we were playing very poor teams and had Chico, Leon, DeGuzman (whom I was never a fan of) and Pablo picking passes through the middle. Too often for me Monk's teams look for the 'Hollywood' pass out from the back.
Monk has a vision of a system. The three critical questions are: a) Is that system well founded - i.e. coherent and likely when well executed to be competitive in the Prem; b) Can Monk coach his system; and, c) Can the players play Monk's system. If the answer to any of this is NO we have a problem. The simple resolution is for Monk to be honest enough with himself and act accordingly - change to a system that he can coach or is easier to coach and one that the players may already be familiar with and fit better. Who trusts that can happen. The transfer window is closing rapidly and the only players likely to still be available as the window closes are those that nobody else wants - do we want them. Yesterday sounds like a square peg trying to be banged into a round hole. If this persists, we could be several games into the season with a point and goal difference deficit before the "big ship" starts to turn - the question is can we turn it enough, soon enough to make a difference. Since Rogers arrived, we have played 4-5-1 for a reason, IMO, it was the best fit to the players we had, and to the passing style of football that we seemed to be good at - a legacy of Martinez and maintained by Sousa. Basically, it gave us numbers in midfield that allowed us to exert control and provided width. Our main problem was always the lone striker - his quality and our ability to link and create for that player. Graham to some extent, then Michu and then Bony seemed to solve that problem for us. All of our Plans B, C, etc when we had them were variants on this theme with different players being sub'd or swapping positions to bring their own attributes to bear in a different role. If yesterday was a trial Plan B or C then we should have been able to easily revert to Plan A after it became obvious that it wasn't working and played a more competitive game. Since people are reporting that we persisted with this starting plan and Monk looked incredulous from the touchline and sounded the same in the post-match interview ... then it is fair to assume that Plan A is what we saw yesterday. Yesterday, we could have tucked Sig back inside and sent Gomis out wide - not the best solution but it would have been a better fit to 4-5-1 and Gomis seems the flexible type ... but this wasn't really done, was it? We persisted with the starting plan ... our new Plan A!?! Who's up for the new Plan A.
I don't think yesterday was plan B.Unfortunatly as someone has previously mentioned I think this is GM favoured system.Hope he quickly learns that you must utilise what is at your disposal.This team GM has is a very good one but if it means we lose the opening game with said formation so be it,lets hope he quickly learns that the system we have developed over the seasons is the best for our club
I find it hard to believe that this would be Monks favoured system. The one thing I thought would be a given was the fact he knows the system that works as he has seen it and been part of it from the beginning. My fear is that he may well not be able to coach it. If he was just trying to see if we could play with Bony and Bafi up front why not experiment with 352?
Joe Allen will be spending most of his time on the bench at Liverpool from now on. I can see him coming back to take over from Leon next season. IF and it's a big IF Bony were to go to Liverpool this summer, we should demand Joe as part of the deal. No Joe, no deal
I cannot believe that some on here are thinking that 4-4-2 is Monks favoured formation! So if that be the case then form an orderly queue and I'll wager you we will start with one up front, I'll take your money all day long!.................
Yes but Rodgers tried that at the end of one season, and Wolves I think it was made a meal of us, only just managed to draw the game!.............
Would I have experimented with that formation? NO I would not have, we do dot have the World class players to play 4-4-2, and indeed there is an argument for that formation to be well and truly dead and buried anyway in the modern game, but Monk knows we need 5 in midfield to compete with the big top class clubs, so why he chose this against such an accomplished Spanish side only he knows, but I am only speculating that he wanted to see how it would work against such a side as Villarreal, why he didn't change things again I can only speculate, but if he is trying to keep 2 high profile strikers happy by playing them, then he is simply deluded, and we will be found out very early on this season, I suspect the missing players had something to do with this choice, and I'm sure he will not make the ridiculous mistake again of playing 4-4-2. We have for years played 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1, and if he is about to change this, then he is on a death wish, and Jinx has lost the plot!................
I agree although if he was experimenting with formations I 'd have to say the timing imo was wrong ,Much better opposition then we've played during the summer so maybe he thought he'd learn more of what the players are capable of producing so he's gained something from that ,maybe he's not expecting a result next Saturday but yesterday would have brought a few down to earth and that hopefully includes the Board if they think the squad is as competitive as it needs to be for the season ahead , even with Routledge & Dyer to return .
The formation wasnt as much a problem as the missing players and Siggy playing wide ... not sure what was to be learned there but I hope Garry keeping notes ... they 'd get a good fire going ..
