Swansea City v The Toon

Time will tell whitey , The past is the past . Ours is a team with lots of new replacements and they are finally getting a feel for each other . I expect a convincing win away and Stoke , not just a win .Same with Leicester, getting very excited now about our possibilities

 

Agreed, Roof. I'm really liking the Bony/ Siggy link up right now.

 

Gylfi, Jonjo and Ki looked well balanced yesterday. A few times this season, Ki and Jonjo especially were in each other's ways, but yesterday they were all on the same wavelength and their movement around the middle of the park looked more natural.

 

There are many ways took critique our game and season.
Should we look at points won, points lost or league position?
Last season there was much debate as to our position and points when Laudrup left were we 12th or 3 points off relegation?
Yes we are 4th atm but only 4 points above Everton in 17th.
And yes we do have just over 25% of the points we think we need to survive after 25% of games have been played - but we have only played two other teams in the top had of the league and we lost to both.
TBH what was thought an outstanding result against Man U was in hindsight a good three points, since then we have picked up points from newly promoted Burnley (who were so close to gaining at least draw), WBA (our points banker), Sunderland (who hand't won a game and Newcastle (who were bottom but one and desperately short of confidence).
For me a little managerial nous would have had yesterday's game won. A little more quality all round would have given us 7 additional points from teams we should perform well against. Attention to our needs over transfers would have seen us with competent LB & back up DCM.
In my view we have not played well for more than 45 minutes in any game, Two possibly three players haven't performed well for most of most games, our passing has been poor, we have given away the midfield for at least half the game in all matches bar Everton, we look slow and sluggish apart from the occasional flourish, despite the reported military style fitness & coaching players are looking drained after an hour of slow games, subs have not been used effectively and we have ridden our luck.

When fans are sighing at our performances and leaving the ground disgruntled it indicates one thing ... dissatisfaction.

Someone mentioned being in crowds of 4,000 in the Vetch in the 80s. For many of us there were times 4,000 felt like a big crowd. Continue to play like have been and out seek out crowds will become a thing of the past.

 

I hope you're right!

 

We didn't win yesterday because we weren't good enough.

 

Could argue we were good enough but Krull was on fire. Could also argue we weren't good enough in front of goal. That's the beauty of places like this, get to read other fans take on things.
One thing we can all agree on is, that we were pants as a defensive unit.

 

I agree with your larger post, Bob. Not sure Monk's decisions on subs would definitely have made a difference but bringing them on with 5 mins to go didn't help imo. We look lethargic at times, and dare I say it unfit. Lost count of the times Williams sauntered forward towards the half way line, stopped and was looking for movement that never came so he ended up lumping it to Bony. Again. No fluidity to our game other than in flashes, as you say.

Valley is right though, Krull had a great game.

Nobody says we're ever going to be perfect but we're entitled to comment on what we pay to watch.

 

Being a good football manager is about being proactive, not reactive.

Anyone can be reactive - any of us could have made those two subs after just conceding a goal. It was nothing more than a natural reaction. To be a great manager, you have to learn how to be proactive. Even when things aren't going necessarily wrong, make things go even better. Making a team operating at 85% with a two goal lead go to operating at 100% with a 3 or 4 goal lead.

We had the beating of Newcastle yesterday. We had the quality on the bench to kill off the game. But Monk stood by and watched our team deteriorate and then made reactive substitutions that any Tom, Dick or Harry could've made. I'm not bashing Monk. Generally, I'm happy with our football this season and enjoy our play under him - he's doing a great all-round job on the training field, in the media and, on the whole, tactically. But we can't throw away points because of a few poor managerial decisions on match day. It undoes all of his and the players' hard work in the build-up during the week.

 

We didnt win yesterday bob , because we were extremely unlucky .Bony was a machine yesterday and expect him to start scoring at will after the break.Ki is carving out a nice little niche for himself , playing a very direct and suble game . Fernandez is coming up the pitch with reason and confidence . Siggy must be leading the league in assissts .Fab is fabulous , Shelvey seems a more involved since his call up and his long passess are just what the doctor ordered. We are fighting for 2nd place these next few games and I expect our best play to start after the break . Exciting times to say the least .

 

Krull demonstrated why Vorm isn't the Dutch number one. Two excellent reaction saves from Bony and got fingers to Routs chip. Both our goals were taken really well.
Under Brendon a big plus point to our passing game was how movement off the ball by most players was used to create space and open up options for passes. MotD highlighted Siggy doing it twice (unfortunately those were just about the only two times it happened) - Jazz was doing it but too far back from the midfield to be effective in an attacking sense, although he and Fernandez were giving pass options throughout the game.
For me Jazz passed to ball really well, he wasn't by any means perfect but his passing was very crisp and accurate.

Another thing about passing.
At 2 -1 up and with Newcastle putting 9 men in defence when we had the ball I see reason why we don't pass it along the back four until the opposition come forward and leave spaces to be exploited. Yesterday I felt the crowd got on the players' backs quite a bit unless they were bombing forward.

 

To be fair though, why would he make any changes at 2-1? Who would he bring on, and how would they improve us? We were the better team and just didn't put away our chances yesterday.

Its a frustrating result but honestly we were unlucky and I personally expected Newcastle to up their game today. I think bob is very much jumping the gun by suggesting everyone is fed up of our performances already and attendance will plummet.

 

Luck has nothing to do with it. There were no bad bounces, no dodgy offside calls, no missed hand balls in the box., no blind-as-a-bat refereeing.

We didn't win yesterday because we failed to perform at critical junctures at both ends of the field and in the technical box on the side of the field.

To reinforce the observtions of others - we were sluggish, we tried to play the game at NU's tempo and walk it instead of raising the bar, the tempo and being more urgent and sharper. We failed to create the difference instead we accepted parity. We failed to deploy resources that could have had an impact in the game - Pardew didn't.

**** luck. We got what we deserved. Luck - bad luck - might have given us less.

 

Who would have made subs around minute 60 to 65 yesterday ... Martinez, Sousa, Rogers, Laudrup, my dead granny. Anybody with any idea that at the very least that we needed to counter fresher players with fresher players (because we did), or with a tactical clue to counter those of NU, or with a sense that we needed to press our supposed superiority and bury the game because the current lot were not showing the urgency.

 

Bony always works hard and did so again yesterday with the bonus of a well taken goal. But why we should expect anything different after the break is bewildering! Why?
Ki has proved me wrong and is a revelation - not a great game yesterday but solid.
Fenandez exchanged some intricate passes with Jazz but otherwise had some very dodgy moments - no better than Amat and way short of Chico, he has at least improved his leap to head the ball (direction is another thing).
Two excellent assists from Siggy but four good passes and a couple of tackles in an otherwise anonymous game is not up to standard.
Shelvey slows the game right down, his Hollywood passes fail more than they come off and his short passing is shocking because he has to control the ball, look up,set his pass which telegraphs exactly what he intends doing - a good game by his standards no stupid fouls.
Fab made one or was it two saves neither of which was demanding. I wouldn't blame him for either goal which were down to Ash and Taylor imo. but his punch and distribution wasn't as good as it's been.

We have gifted away 5 points in the last 3 games. Given the teams we have played and the position they find themselves we should already be in second spot. Statistically we are on for 44 points for the season.

 

The problem with MOTD commentary is that it is often based on limited footage, I have no problem with them picking Siggy as the stand out player, but it's all too selective, yes he is always the creator, and his assists I have already stated is an issue if you are going to consider taking him off, but from what I saw of him, he is running out of steam come 60 minutes, looks lost on the pitch at times and disappears, not sure what the issues are, but if I was manager a straight swap for Emnes would be my answer. As for stand out players I disagree with Shearer and the Hairbrush, for me Ki and Shelvey were our best players yesterday!...................

 

Actually,you fail to grasp the content,or the intent,of my post.

I don't "expect us to be top of the table" at all. You will not find a post of mine espousing such loftiness.

Now where exactly have I attacked anyone

It's "sad" that people aren't allowed to see things in a different light,but are constantly under attack for merely daring to express an opinion.

 

I agree Phil, in that Ki was superb yesterday but I'm not really sure why you and others are so hard on Siggy. How can making the two goals not be good enough? He drifted in and out of the game for sure and that's why I'd agree that Ki deserves MOM as he dominated midfield.

 

Could these "knives" you refer to have been the same knives used to carve up our recent Manager's?

If someone pays their hard earned money to go and watch a game of football,the very least he is entitled to do is to have the opportunity of expressing an opinion on it.
If he thinks it was "effin rubbish",and that causes you a problem,then it's possibly you who have the problem, and not him.
That doesn't make him any less of a "fan" than you.

Oh,and I've stood on the North Bank when less than 1800 were present,even sitting on the concrete steps,and still being able to see the game.

Now "I rest my case",not that I had one to face.

 

That guy may have been me, Lib! I wouldn't have said we were rubbish but I did say we lacked intensity and I was well and truly pissed off at letting a **** team off the hook. If you're a true 'fan' you would be too!

As someone who has been watching the Swans since the 60's I've done my fair share of rainy windswept nights down the Vetch and it makes me laugh that people who have also done so seem to spout self-righteous claptrap about "I remember back in the day....look how far we've come..." yadda yadda yadda every time we let a game slip. As if, no matter that our team lacked concentration and our Manager missed the boat on subs we should shrug our shoulders and say 'oh well never mind look how far we've come'.

Preposterous.