I think he inexperienced at all levels and should have been given experienced support. Given the way the league has developed thus far (bizarre tbf) and the way we have played I'm yet to be convinced. Our points and position are outstanding but if we look at our opponents' form and position in the leagues comparative to ours when we played them, rather than a interesting but rather meaningless comparison with last season, we could / should have at least 5 more points. Dodgy refereeing aside we are more likely to be punished by poor decisions if we are camped around our own penalty area. We have a very good 1st team, lacking (depending on your point of view) in only a couple of places; and we have 4 or 5 good PL / competent subs. Our defence hasn't leaked goals although we have given soft goals away and let's be completely honest how some teams have failed to score is unbelievable. Some of our transfers / none transfers have been questionable. Our style of play has changed by replacing style for solidity. Monk stikes me as a typical English manager in the Kenny Jackett mould - solid. Reading Matrinez' comments after the Everton game was really interesting; he obviously feels his legacy has been watered down to a point that is unrecognisable! What I have disliked is Monk's ability to wind people up, managers, players, refs, other managers. I also dislike the hypocrisy of some statements being made about how fantastic Monk is when he's not; typical would be the praise for our style of play which, in my opinion, should be described as type of play (as apart from brief moments) there is little stylish about it. The 'soft' criticism of previous regimes when the alternative has made little positive improvement, fitness & discipline being the obvious candidates for discussion. I can only appreciate so much defending and watching the opposition have the ball. Other than that all is well. I do and will support Swansea City fully and loudly from the stands but reserve the right to express my honest opinion on issues on this board.
Failing to replace Leon with like-for-like is what's hurting us. Along with playing Shelvey deeper. Shelvey, no matter how much you tell him not to, likes to knock the ball long. Shelvey should be back up/interchangeable with Gylfi - high up the pitch. But we shouldn't be squeezing him into a deeper role where he struggles to tackle effectively and hasn't got the discipline to keep things simple over a long period of time. Get Leon back and push Ki into Shelvey's position and 'The Swansea Way' will continue. Leon, Ki and Gylfi will be reminiscent of the Leon, Pratley, Gomez midfield of old - much better balance, and all with a head to play football. Edit: We must replace Leon with a like-for-like player sooner rather than later. Our reknowned style of play can't be maintained with a central midfield player spraying long balls 50% of the time. The midfield always dictates the style of play, and I feel it's Monk's selection of Shelvey in a deeper role that's hurting us. No matter how much you train and tell Shelvey to keep it simple, he'll consistently revert to self in the heat of battle.
It can be if there's no desire to get the ball forward. For a team with flying wingers we often slow everything down far too much imo.
The cliche that's usually aimed at it is 'passing for the sake of passing'. Some sort of middle ground is probably ideal.
That wasn't really the point of my post, but if that's what you picked out...fair enough. I was responding to a point that suggested that we don't even pass the ball any more (i.e. Bob's comments about Martinez seeing his legacy evaporate under Monk). We're renowned for passing the ball in some way, shape or form. We averaged over (or at least close to) 60% possession under our last 4 managers, each to varying degrees of excitement. The one common denominator was passing the ball. Martinez almost always exciting, Sousa dull as old boots, Rodgers hit and miss, and Laudrup started with a bang but faded - we passed it under all managers, just in different ways with different emphasis on attacking/defending and adventure/safety. So 'renowned' for Swansea currently means 'passing team', a team that likes to keep it in the deck. The point I wrote my post against was that, under Monk, our possession statistics are down, our total number of passes are down, and, to the eye, it looks like we're playing more balls in the air. Therefore, for the first time since Martinez, it seems that it's not the interpretation of our passing game that's changing, but the style of play itself. My post offered a possible reason why this might be.
For me anything would be better than watching the 'rope a dope' defence and occasional hoof upfield to gift the opposition possession. Tika-taka got us where we are, we just don't have coaches and players who can make it work any more.
I like your thinking - in fairness when Carroll has been playing well there seems to have been a sharpness to our passing and we have attacked with the ball on the ground; so may be we can play passing football with someone (perhaps a bit more experienced / robust than Carroll) in the Leon position. Ash seems to clear longer than he used to and Fab elects to kick long more often than not, so with Shelvey's preference for the Hollywood pass we do have an increase in long balls out of defence. Something I noted about Jazz when he played in the League Cup matches was how well he passed the ball. Even in very tight situations he kept cool and got the ball to Federico, Montero and the more central midfielders with accuracy and pace.
'a method of tiring out a boxing opponent by pretending to be trapped on the ropes while the opponent expends energy on punches that are blocked'. Ali used 'rope a dope' when he beat George Foreman in the famous 'Rumble in the Jungle' but it more or less ended Ali's career.
I agree. At the end of the day it's down to the Players. Bony, Gylfi, Ki, Shelvey, Ash, Fernandez, Dyer, Routledge have so much quality, but if they feel they're getting the necessary support and happy with what monk want's them to do in order to improve their game I guess it's ok. Just not sure about that because SO FAR it seems possible to get more beautiful play out of the quality players there are in team. That said it's not a very big squad either.
There are two ways to cure the Shelvey long ball to nowhere syndrome: a) put him on the bench and play XXX, Ki, Sig; or b) move him further up the field .... so his desire to hit something long is damped or it becomes a shot instead of a "pass".
Can't complain at our league position at this precise moment but imo our tikki-takka-punch game is rarely seen these days. It's either tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka-tikki-takka in our own half or tikki-takka-long-ball-to-Bony. When we're allowed to tikki-taka at the edge of the opposition's 18 yard box it often results in a goal with Bony and & Siggy teaming up well but teams are getting wise, or will get wise to that so we need to bring a little more variation to our game, maybe. These days we don't seem to be scoring much from what Wilf does best- simple goals with his head from a quality cross. Surprising considering we're renowned for our wing play. Just an observation. I'm tikki-takka'ed out now.
Read "Pep Confidential" about his first season at Munich. Pep (and I quote) hates tiki-taka. For him that's passing without purpose. He wants to dominate and control possession then attack sharply when the opportunity presents, which involves a lot of movement and passing, but the object of the passing is to distort the shape of the opposition, weaken them on one side, switch it and them attack on the weaker side. I'm not too sure that he would appreciate how we do it, which is to say the least often too pedestrian and doesn't seem to have much purpose.
Give ne rope a dope and points rather than tika taka and getting stuffed every game. If Monk had us playing the best passing football in 10 years and lost every week youd be calling for his head.
Then Monk's done for ..... HJ wouldn't recognize it as the Swansea way and when the Sousa-esque jeers emanate from stands ....
The ones normally who say it's dull to watch are the opposition , keeping procession is another tactic to be used but the trick is when and where to use it . We haven't seen a great deal of it and that imo is sometimes where we have failed to hold onto leads in games ,sitting back and allowing the opposition to play .Sharp one touch football with movement off the ball kept us in the PL in the 1st season now we've become a shadow of that but still competing so what is the right way ?
