Fabianski, Fernandez, Naughton, Ki, Cork, Gylfi, Montero, Jonjo, Gomis. I agree, the recruitment policy at our club is a shambles
you are getting picky Valley, what about Oliveira, loaning fullbacks when we have no reserves and I would not be jumping over the moon re Gomis, Shelvey and Cork, far better out there. Best for me by a mile are Fab and Montero with Ki a close 3rd, however we all have opinions
TBF to Olieira he had no support and no service - certainly no worse than Bafe in January but a very different player. IMO Taking Ki off was mistake as he's the only player we have who ghosts in behind defences and could have done well with Montero wide. Another game where Siggy was lost for long periods & Cork was overrun as there was little effective defensive support ahead of him. That said we were out played, out manoeuvred and out-thunk & lucky not to have conceded a few more.
Cork - didn't have a good game (nor last week) but I take your point about quality a the price - maybe we need to look to increase our budget in the first team squad before we start parting with millions for academy players (that will come in time). I'm not taking the bait over Jonjo but I'll be in Newcastle next weekend if needed.
With the huge increase in monies at the end of next season with the new deals coming into effect, survival next season is critical so I see no reason why Monk shouldn't be given a good 20-30 million to spend this summer as combining the money we have made this season (excluding Bony's transfer fee) we do have the money. Hopefully we can sign a few more quality players rather than a couple of 2-3 million pound players as we should be looking towards the 5-10 million area now, and imo in the 10-18 million bracket for a top quality striker.
not much quality strength in depth here a couple out and we struggle against bottom team who put up the type of fight the swans used to do. 36%
Would disagree but we may find a fair bit needed to off load Gomis. OK he's scored a couple or so goals but age is against him
Alli from MK Dons, Hourihane from Barnsley, Ritchie from Bournemouth I could go on are as good as Cork imo, and Shelvey is too inconsistent, would rather spend a ****load to get a decent midfielder
Gomis was a very poor signing imo, too much too old for a player with a minimum return and as Bob says a poor sell on value
I think I understand why some people rate Jonjo - Monk says he's good so he must be. He will have to improve 10 fold before I's acknowledge Jonjo is worthy of wearing the Swans shirt. (My opinions are not set in stone Ki has been wonderful, Taylor is improving).
It's the huge signing on fee I don't get. Why would you agree a £8mn signing on fee over 4 years + wages for a player who was no more than decent and already 29? Unless you were lining up the sale of our established striker in the summer!
Just got back. We were absolutely dreadful,no fight,no guts,and already on holiday Leicester ran us raggged from start to finish,out tackled and outplayed us,and we didn't have a clue,or the will, in how to combat them. You'd swear that we were the bottom of the table side. The players should take a long hard look at themselves after that embarrassing display. I can't bear to watch MOTD tonight,it was bad enough live..
It's what I was expecting, and it's why I had us down for losing this one, but Monk could have done better than using Oliveira up front, would have been better using Shelvey or Routledge leading the line or even Emnes. We have been due one of these schoolboy performances, and Leicester for me was the game I thought we would roll over, because our lads new that it would be a tough one, and were just not bothered to put the shift in, clearly with one eye on the beach. Monk has done well to arrest our usual end of season roll over and tickle my tummy job, but today was the day I new it would return, shame Monk didn't set the team up right either, but he's still a Rookie learning on his feet..........
Just be thankful it didn't turn out to be drubbing if it wasn't for some poor attempts we could /should have lost that by 4/5 .No width pace passing accuracy or interest by too many players .Monk was slow to change things and took Ki off when Siggy should have been pulled who imo was total non entity .Playing two fullbacks with no protection in front of them against aside who were always going to be in our faces didn't work .Oliveria had no support or decent ball to do anything with and when Montero made his apperance it was too late as our recognised striker had left the field .
I find it hard to give any player credit after that game. Cork and Ki were both passengers, jogging around at half pace, bullied from possession, losing 50/50s - Ki was the worse of the two in my opinion and was rightly hooked. Shelvey and Siggy, while also very disjointed, offered a decent attacking threat, but couldn't link with Routledge and Oliveira well enough. Leicester targeted Siggy (probably after what happened at the Liberty) and often had 3, sometimes 4, players rushing him whenever he received it - he won't have many harder days than today. Amat proved to all touting him as full back cover that he is not a full back! The type of running and fitness involved in FB positions is so different to CB - you have to get up and down the pitch, you have to sprint longer distances, you have to support your winger - Amat really struggled today, at one point keeling over with fatigue after failing to get back in the second half, but I still rate him as a CB. Oliveira wasn't even doing the simple things well - when he let a 6 yard pass from Cork roll straight under his foot it really typified his display - he should have scored his chance, or should he have just taken the penalty for the rash challenge? He went for far too many flicks that didn't come off. We definitely looked more balanced when Montero came on and we reverted to 4-2-3-1. I think against weaker teams our usual 4-2-3-1 beats our 4-4-2 (midfield diamond) formation - Monk has developed a good new formation with the 4 central midfielders playing together, but I think it works better when we have our backs to the wall against strong opposition, not when the opposition are weak, energetic and pressing us hard into mistakes. Most of their chances came from counter attacks or from winning the ball in our half. It wasn't like they dominated play, they just tactically and physically out-did us. We lost today because of poor work-rate more than anything. Leicester were up for the fight, we couldn't be bothered. Against teams who focus more on pressing and disrupting, we need more width. Going up the middle all the time was a bit tedious and frustrating. If we'd played 4-2-3-1 from the start, we'd have been able to do a lot more with our possession than we did as we'd have been able to be more expansive and stretch them. There is a time for both formations and we have to learn when to use each, rather than to prefer one over the other. It seems that end of season syndrome is starting to set in. A few games later than under Rodgers and Laudrup, but it appears that it's nigh on impossible to stop your players dreaming of the beach. Let's see if Monk is able to refocus this team for next week. Whoever is going to Newcastle, see you there!
