I thought it better to start a new thread, as opposed to the match day thread and put across some of my thoughts on Swansea and Gary Monk so far this season. I feel I can do this thanks to the mutual respect our two sets of fans have forged over the years (at least on Not 606) without risking getting slagged off. On the first half performance I thought Swansea played really well, all be it aided by some very deep defending by Norwich giving lots of space to pass the ball comfortably, but as most (if not all) of you have pointed out, there is nothing up front that is either capable of scaring defences or scoring enough goals for mid-table comfort. I know many of you are fed up, and I am not here to rub it in I promise, but to an extent I want to defend Gary Monk a little. Last season, under him you still had a really good season but this season is going sour. What's the difference? As far as I can see I can sum this up in two words - Wilfred Bony! Now unless it was Gary Monk that sanctioned the sale of Bony, you might want to vent your anger/ frustration at the Chairman. Get a good striker and Swansea will be okay. If this does not happen, I do fear for you although the current bottom three are still worse than either of our teams.
Not a question of sanctioning the sale. It had to happen at that price and Bony was bound to go to a bigger Club. I'm not sure how anyone, either inside or outside the Swans can defend Monk. Managers are only as good as their recent record and ours has been woeful. Managers cannot live on past glories and that's just the way of things. Laudrup was sacked for much less and Monk must now go. Just my opinion but I thought this was a really poor Norwich side - definitely the worst Canaries team I've seen in years - and we lost to them. A team that hasn't had a clean sheet all season. We had ZERO shots on target. Try to defend that.
Gomis is another word you could add. Seriously, I believe Bony had that certain something about him, a reliability if you like that raised the confidence of the team. Not too unlike Grant Holt did for us several seasons ago. The backbone of the Swansea team has not changed too dramatically, nor has the style of play, just the confidence.
Congrats on the 3 points , I never want to lose points but if it's a must , Norwich is as good as any to have such a horrible , unenthusastic , rudderless ****ing game against .Again , congrats and good luck
We might even have one on the bench but nobody knows as we've never seen him play! It's not just a striker... the problems run deeper. The team's unbalanced, subs are ineffective.
I'll have a go The money offered for Bony was always going to be a problem to a club such as Swansea, as it would be for Norwich, but that money has not been spent wisely. Just who that comes down to I a cannot be certain but the point remains the club "buckled" to accept a hefty fee - to me that is down to the Chairman, not the manager. I agree with your comment about ML, he should have stayed. Poor Norwich side? First half - I cannot argue. The second half was better than we showed under Chris Hughton, although it still was not all that pretty to watch.
Well.... Your initial point was the sanctioning of the Bony sale. Now it seems to be that the money wasn't spent wisely. That's a separate issue and I don't entirely agree on that either. We've actually got a striker named Eder who can start for Portugal and score against the Italians yet Gomis starts ahead of him. I never said Laudrup should have stayed. I said that Laudrup was sacked for less. Lastly, your league position tells me I'm right about your team. A deserved win today (no argument from me at all) but that's your first clean sheet. Two poor sides today imo. I think that our squad is the stronger of the two and if we get a manager who gets them playing to their potential we'll climb the table. I think Norwich will be scrapping relegation.
We have a striker that plays for Northern Ireland, and scores lots of goals for them - Kyle Lafferty, yet today was the first time he even made the bench this season and still didn't get on the pitch! So yeah, I understand what you are saying here. I can only guess that you have not seen many of our games this season but we have been really unlucky in a number of games but you could argue that it was the open style of play that was responsible for late goals conceded to either draw of lose games. That open style has been tightened up at the expense of pretty, attacking football, but that is what we need to do to survive I guess. Yes, our defence has been fragile and unless that is addressed you are right, we will be relegation threatened all season. The last two games suggest it is being addressed so I remain hopeful.
NI are ranked 29th in the FIFA rankings. Portugal are 4th. Big difference. Apparently, a striker can play regularly (and score) for the 4th best team in the world yet not start for Swansea ahead of a striker so out of form as Gomis. It beggars belief. No offence but your defence of Monk won't have many supporters here.
I can't believe that some fans are putting most if not all the blame on Ayew!!!!??!?!! If you watched the game today routlage did exactly the same on the right indicating that is tactical. My opinion is that ayew tries to take too much on himself and needs to trust the players around him because they are proven at this level. Too often he comes into midfield taking the ball off the defenders and trying to get the ball to start the play.
To an outsider it would appear that we had a good season last year. But there were still many frustrations with us fans on here mainly because what we were watching was slow, drab, boring football. Most of us tolerated it because it got us results. But now the results have dried up and the football is still ****, there's no real reason to keep monk around. Also what we sold Bony for has not even been spent. Think we spent 5m in the summer.
I don't think Ayew is to blame I think the manager is for playing him in the wrong position. Shaquiri for Stoke the game I'm watching at the moment and Montero for us are genuine wingers who use footwork and try to go outside the fullback Ayew does not and cannot do this..
Monk is killing us off fast, not sure he might well have lost the dressing room, the body language of our players isn't good............
You can't just blame him, his goals have been invaluable to us this season. I think monk sees him as the fundamental part of his wonky diamond formation that isn't working. It worked better before when we deployed the wonky diamond when the wide wing play wasn't working. So maybe better to start with routlage and montero and attack on both flanks and have ayew up top and if that fails then go back to the diamond. I also think that we should be more direct when teams try to park the bus against us. (Counter attacking) Draw them out because we have pace and the quality in our ranks to exploit teams. Possession for possession sake draws us into false security and teams know that they'll get the opportunity to punish us.
I'm not just blaming him, there are other factors, but I see his role (or non role) as a huge factor in why we are failing.
