Compare Alvaro with Borini. Admittedly it was in the Championship,but he was also full of honest endeavour,plus,he had a deadly eye for where the goal was. I just don't see Alvaro achieving anything here. I also liked the link between Bony and Pozuelo,but Bony went missing in the second half. Tiendalli was very fortunate not to be sent off. What a dolt he is to keep arguing with the ref. That kind of behaviour only counts against you in 50/50 situations. I'm surprised he wasn't subbed. I don't like him at all.
Been disappointed in him as well. Thought he was supposed to be quick but was easily out-paced by their central defender tonight
HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT to concede a late goal, but overall I was quite pleased with the way we played. Before the match started I would have bitten your hand off for a point - and I am chuffed we got it. Playing away in Russia on a pitch rutted in parts where there were players slipping everywhere, we still tried to play our passing game and for the majority of the match it was successful. Bony did his job, Lamah proved he can be a useful squad player, Amat did well and the majority of the team gave a solid performance. In our last game against Kuban we conceded a late goal when we were trying to attack - and got criticised for it. This time we concede a goal when trying to close the game down. Sometimes you can't win!! On another thread I said that our starting midfield seemed lightweight and I think that's what cost us in the last twenty minutes, with little protection for the back four. We could, and perhaps should, be through to the next round by now. But we a'int and that's set up a fantastic match for the fans against Spanish giants Valencia. With the away match against St Gallen bound to be difficult I hope ML puts a full team out for the Valencia match because for us I think it's going to be a Cup Final Europa League (and Premier League) and we're having a laugh UP THE JACKS
kuban are the worst team in our league and they made us look like fools...maybe they should have played with 10 men all game then perhaps they would have won. We never played good at all when you take into account who we were playing. we are going backwards rapidly in the way we are playing and where we should win against a team like stoke fairly comfortable then its not a confident win at home anymore....
I see Dai's point here, if we expect to go far in this EL then we should be going to Russia looking for a win. Every other European club expecting to reach and possibly progress passed the first knock out stage will see these games as vital 3pts. Valencia, Bordeaux, Udinese, Sporting etc do not go to Russia thinking a draw will be the desired result. In August we said Kazan who, much like all the others. If they score one we need to play for two.
We were 90 seconds from a win - and we would have been saying what a professional job it was. Fine margins............
Don't be such an idiot now Mr Liverpool , we are not playing well that's for sure nobody is disputing this but a point from one of the next 2 games will see us qualified
Dai, it is your first season in Europe in many years, you looked comfortable 1st half, rubbish 2nd half but it is a learning curve for you guys. Enjoy the experience.
Typical of my luck caught the last ten mins of the first half, and my boy saying how well we played, then played gash in the second half. Frustrating to concede yet again so late on. We should have qualified by now, but their you go live to fight another day. Would have taken a point before the game if I'm honest, Russia not an easy place go an play. Now onto Stoke and get the three bloody points, now if concede late on against them I will be seriously pissed off.
You can't call that a learning curve at all...our learning curve will come against a big club not the minnows, we should not have any problems really against teams of kudos standard. we have blown our chance of top spot and with valencia to play and away to gallen then we have made life much more difficult for ourselves. we wont go any further if we do qualify imo. we are just not good enough..
Some interesting stats from tonight. Possession: Kuban 38% Swans 62%, Kuban Shots/ontarget 15/6 Swans 10/4. So yet again we see a team with far less possession getting far more shots at goal. This tells me that we are nowhere near as efficient with our possession as the other team - and this has happened a number of times before. It seems that we are just not creating the chances we should given the amount of possession we have. Perhaps the reason is that the team is losing training ground time because of the number of games we've been playing. I would have thought that competitive games would have made us sharper. Doesn't seem to be the case.
Fair point Ivor. I also think we got very lucky with injuries last year which allowed a core team to develop. The medical team bigged themeselves up last year, but it seems lady luck proved them wrong. Crucial players have had spells of multiple weeks off this season for injuries, family deaths, visa issues, bans etc. Regardless of training or matchday, in football it is familiarity that breeds consistancy not contempt. Pre season, we looked on fire. 19 games in and are we any wiser as to what our best/fittest side is?
When was the last time the Swans had to fly that distance to play an important game? The same team scored in the same minute to earn a draw late on, surely you must learn from that! A tad arrogant to expect an away win in any competition Dai. You beat Valencia away so it must bode well for the home game as you must have learned so much in that game, yet you think they will be difficult to beat?
Hmmmmm you are top of the group boys and unbeaten ... yes, frustrating to concede the two late goals that stopped you beating the Ruskies but they are a dangerous team and have a couple of class acts ... enjoy the ride ... we won the 'Capital One Cup' twice in the 90s when it was the old straight two legged knock-out and were put out in the first round each time (Athletico Madrid abd Red Star Belgrade) ... set it up nicely for a 'big night' at the Liberty against Valencia ...
Fosse is right, but everyone is missing one crucial point here. The new Kuban manager. He has got them playing some decent football in their league since he took over. They haven't conceded many and look much more solid defensively. He has tweeked their counter-attacking game and they are doing really well. If they'd had their shooting boots on we'd have deservedly lost that game. If he'd had beenn in charge from the start of their campaign it would have been a different story I think because they will give anyone a game. We have to give credit to the opposition at times and stop looking down our noses at them because they play in Russia. They are much better than some Prem League teams imo, and I include Cardiff in that. A draw was a fair result on balance of play and if anything they should have edged it. Yes we gave them the goal because of rank unprofessionalism but I think they deserved it. Ultimately we got a point many miles away from home across four time zones. Not ideal, but we should still go through and the Valencia game is going to be the crunch.
