So Everton did their Homework on us just like Norwich, i felt that Moyes did well to counter our football and targeted us in the right areas, do you think that other teams will now look to play the exact same way as Everton and Norwich? I have to say that i thought the same after Norwich beat us at home but it never seemed to materialise which i found a bit strange. Doesn't our "secret" always gets found out a few times a season in every league we've been in since L1 !! why do you think teams have generally failed to contain our game as well as Norwich and Everton? Some of the reasons i came up with were; 1. There is still a level of arrogance by other prem teams towards the Swans, and they tend to just focus on their own game plan as opposed to special plans for us. 2. When we are on our game and focused(unlike saturday imo) we are just very very good at keeping the ball even when teams have been pressing us. 3. Other teams dont have the same work ethic as the likes of Everton and Norwich and their "big" players dont like to run around like headless chickens chasing our lads around the park,especially when they are earning 100k a week !! 4. There are alot really crap and over rated managers in the Prem league. Any other reasons ?? The final 8-9 games will ask a very big question of us, i will be very comfortable thinking about next year if we manage to gain points and play our usual style until the end of the season, i will be slightly worried if all teams take a leaf out the Moyes/Lambert play book and chase us down for 90mins. How we finish this season will set a marker for next IMO. I also wonder if other teams will keep their tactical powder dry until next season,they will have built up alot of info on us and there is no way we should be a suprise package to anyone,being prepared for a tactical battle will be bucks biggest challenge next season,the early signs are that he has no answers to a certain type of game played against us, he is still finding his feet at this level though. Finally what are your thoughts on Dyer coming back into the team? My choice would be to drop Sinclair and start with Dyer and Routledge, these 2 seem to have more end product lately, also i would give DG a rest and start Luke moore, i would like to see if he can do something from the start of the game instead of coming on and having to adjust to the game in the last 20mins. Personally I dont think buck will drop sinclair because he is his favourite, there is also the unsigned contract on the table and the fact that every chance scott sinclair gets he talks about how he is garenteed to play 1st team football at Swansea (or words to that effect) which i think is quite disrespectful to other players truth be told. Anyone else pick up on scott sinclairs constant mention of this? Thoughts of my fellow Jacks??
Dyer will come back in for Routledge against Tottenham. I bet you 1p. Looking forward to seeing Nathan back on the pitch tbh.
Norway, your 100% right. I to have picked up on scotts remarks that he is always guaranteed 1st team football. Trouble us, if we drop him now, will he sign?
I get the feeling our last 9 games is going to be all about experimenting with a plan " B " Norway . Especially for those teams who have been pressing us back , leaving the center of midfield abandoned ... stay tuned !
I've mentioned this on another thread...the result was a wake up call the football we play when it works (which is more often than not )is beautiful to watch but sometimes you have to win ugly and i think thats all we need to learn .horses for courses ..or in short a better plan B
Sorry Bongo i dont think i read that . Problem we have is that we only have 1 type of player in our squad, the plan "B" is only ever going to be the same as plan A . Kemy would be the answer for me in these types of games just his size is enough to make sure we hold the ball but i dont really see how much we can change, i think its pretty much this system or bust !! The areas where we need to improve would be in closing down the ball when we dont have it, when we do it well we do it really well, its why anything less than 100% affects us greatly. The problem with experimenting is a potentially massive loss of millions of pounds in prize money, and i really think bucks idea of a strong finish is more to do with instilling confidence for the following season, to say to the players "look, we not only survived we prospered" if we end up finishing too low it might affect the players,thinking all the pretty football and plaudits they got and they finished 16th !! if you get my drift ??
I agree with you mate thats what i'm saying we need a plan B that actually works, the likes on the mancs or chelsea and arsenal all good footballing sides know how to win ugly we dont so that makes us a little one dimensional
This is the main reason IMO. This is the Prem, every team has advanced scouting, every team analyses videos, every team has a plan for every other team. Truth is, which has been born out by results, that when we come to play mentally switched on and kick it into gear we can deal with the opposition's Plan A, B, C ... Man City is a classic example of this. Mancini is no fool and he has a great, healthy pool of talent to pick from. He's not too proud to sub-off players after 30 minutes if the plan or a player or two is not working; and he did. He doesn't care about players' egos; he cares about results. He is also an Italian coach and in Serie A, as Mourhino has been quoted as commenting, coaches often will make 4 or more adjustments during a game, to counter, counter the counter and so on. It's more of a chess match than traditional English football. If we can handle the likes of Man City, then when we come to play we can compete - may not win all the time, but we'll look the part, play the part and win our share. On Saturday, I don't think BR was really trying a Plan B, more of an attempt to put 3 players on that might actually feel like putting in a shift. In midfield and going forward we were just not clicking at all. Not so much an issue of Everton stopping us from playing but some basic elements of our play were just misfiring. As precise and clinical as we were against Fulham, we were sloppy and lethargic against Everton. If we'd have played Everton with the same level of execution that we played against Fulham, we may not have won, but we wouldn't have lost (well perhaps 0-1, cause that was a cracking free-kick), but we wouldn't have been having a discussion about Everton having our number, we would have been discussing why we had not created enough chances perhaps, or gone another round about our lack of a cutting edge in the final third.
Good post yankee, application of the game plan seems to be key in this league, i sometimes see the players and get a feeling they arnt quite up for it in certain games, and it usually means we get well beaten as a result. Make no mistake though, teams we mugged this year will be very much switched on next year, we have been extremly lucky with injuries this season and it has made a hugh difference to our fluid play, there will be games where mentally the players will be below par but as i said the other day its the job of the manager to pick this up in training. I agree our game was a bit off but i dont really want to takw anything away from Everton, as others have said ,we dont like it when other teams level that at us when we win so i wont level it at them, i think the first 5mins of that game kinda showed that Everton wanted it more, i have a feeling a few were saving themselves for Spurs and the big glamour game up in London,hope im wrong but battling against a hard ,strong,street wise Everton team in the sunshine wouldnt have been appealing to some especially wanting to be at peak level for a big SKY game
Something else we need to accept is there are always going to be certain teams in the PL that will handle our style of play where others will struggle and as long there will be teams like that we will finish comfortably in mid table this season and hopefully build on in the coming seasons.
everton beat us because we was trying to win, if we had played josh in the middle instead of siggy, we'd have had more ball in the middle of the field and probaly played out a bore draw, like we saw quite a lot early in the season
you are reading to much into it norway, the fact is that no team can win every game and it does not matter how good a team is they will lose games, thats the way football is. they were better than us on the day thats all, our finishing was poor and that happens in football. man utd lost heavily at home against man city and then we beat man city so that confirms that you can never tell in football how any game will turn out....
Im not reading too much into anything, There is a definite way to play us ,Norwich and Everton have proved it. Nothing wrong with debating the inns and outs of it
i think you might struggle to get the upsets against the likes of man city next year, simply because i think theyve been the most guilty of complacency against you, and not viewing you as a team they'd have to adapt against to win. Next year they might not make the same mistake. That said, You'll be in a stronger position next year too. I think BR will have lots of ideas about how to 'do a stoke' when the Tika Taka is suffocated out of the game. And i think a lot of managers in the PL just aren't that good at reading a style and countering it. You were beaten at home by Ferguson, Moyes, and Lambert, all members of Glasgow's managerial 'master race':
That's a fair point. In a nutshell if you want to beat us you have to press us and not let us play our possession / passing game. Thing is, not many teams can do that for a whole game, if any. We had a few clear chances on Saturday and had we taken them we'd have got something from it, even if that would have been undeserved. When we are pressed our players seem to get flustered and that's when we start making mistakes. Got to the stage on Saturday that Everton players didn't need to pressurise in the end, the threat was enough. Lost count of the misplaced passes when there was no opposition player near the ball. Don't think we can read too much into it. Most teams - particularly those who don't have megastars that can turn a game on their own - can be countered one way or another if you have a good manager, and Moyes is certainly that. No coincidence he was at the Liberty to watch the Man City game. Re: Sinclair. I've noticed those comments but don't you think he might be referring to the fact that it was Rodgers that gave him his chance at first team football after being almost nowhere in the Chelsea setup? Just a thought.
Kj- RE scott s comments, may well be i dont really know, i do notice he says it quite alot though maybe it is meant as you say, seems that playing every week is a primary concern to scott on form or not, thats the way it should be but i do sometimes think he is trying to justify his selection a little too much sometimes
...maybe a spell on the bench would do him good? He knows he's a cert to start under Rodgers. That doesn't push players to perform imo.
all players from time to time needs a spell on the bench, it keeps their feet firmly on the ground and keeps them training hard knowing they are not automatic choice.
He's big he's black ..he's our favourite Jack Andy Mac ..Andy Mac Dump sinclair and get John Hodge back here i say , would be perfect for our team nowadays !! what a classy player he was
