Yes - today was disappointing - Blackburn were there for the taking but we couldn't capitalise on it! But why all the doom and gloom? I found it quite amazing and naive that we were nailed on favourites for this one in some quarters! Blackburn had targetted this game as a must win and, whatever our mentally challenged cousins down the M4 thought, the Carling Cup was a distraction of little importance; todays game was the one Blackburn placed more importance on. We are still learning how to play in this division, and our inexperience was there for all to see - had Sinclair put away his chances it could have a been very different result and everyone on here would have been praising Brendan and the boys! But we lost and all of a sudden the style of play that took us to the premier league is being criticised! Just bear in mind that our first game in the Premier League was against a team whose substitutes cost more than our whole squad and stadium put together! I am loving life in the Premier League; we are the little Welsh club punching well above our weight - financially we are in a very healthy position so can't understand those who would have us throwing money away in a vain attempt to buy our continuing participation in this league! We will never be able to compete with the big spenders so why try? If we go down that road it will only end in tears and financial embaressment! So get behind our boys - they won't always deliver the results we want but you can guarantee they will try their hardest - they are not superstars, just good and honest professionals - so don't be so quick to criticise them when they struggle to beat sides whose wage bill would put a small country to shame! We are Swansea - and we are punching above our weight - support our lads and cut them a little slack when things don't go our way!
It's a bit difficult trying to keep the faith on the heels of 4 successful , peanut spending , league climbing seasons of wonderment shielding you from nearly anything else . It's very unusual , but inspirational , to watch a small club crawl up through the cracks , rather than fall through . Time to spend big on a player though . Loan one or two but we need a player the team , and the fans , can rally around . Preferably a high jumping , play anywhere defender .
Agree with you Cartoon, I was amazed too, how some thought we were going to walk this one, I've watched a few Blackburn games and their position was deceiving, and yesterdays game proved so, but that said, there is need for Rodgers to strengthen our back line, having Monk at the back with Rangel out, is an issue that will need addressing ASAP, and we are not clicking into place with our forwards and wingers, so those issues up front need addressing too, I think it's time to drop Gower for Dobbie in midfield, to play an advanced roll behind our striker, or if not Dobbie who I would prefer, then Moore. We need to shake things up and try to get the midfield moving closer to the opposition box!............. please log in to view this image
well if you cant understand cartoon then you have a problem of not seeing what most of us are seeing... I always keep the faith but its blind faith im afraid......
Reminds me of the lone ranger riding over the hill , SEEING Tonto at the big rock & saying " There's 5000 Indians coming over the hill .. what are we going to do " to which Tonto replies " What do you mean WE white man " .
Bad result and a bad performance for some reason beyond me very flat, but we will learn from it and we wont go down
there is always an excuse every week, What about facing the truth and accept we are not good enough with to many lower league standard players in the squad.....There is one saviour that is in our favour that may help and that is our goal difference is far better than most of the bottom sides also the relegation battle is between the team in 8th spot to the bottom......its going to be a long hard season ahead......For everybody....its all about who strengthens their squad best in january......
Look on the bright side 99 , we didn't even have a hope in hell of getting to the Premier League in the first place ... maybe you could also be wrong about our ability to stay in the Premier League . Are biggest problem with the squad is not so much not having one as much as not giving any minutes to it . Guys like Lita & Routledge need minutes almost as much as Graham , Dyer & Sinclair need rest . Playing the same 10 guys is great until you have injuries . Depth is built with minutes & a few signings IMO
Well on that basis, no other team in the bottom half of the table is good enough either! I agree it will become a dog fight and every team in the bottom half of the table is potential 'relegation fodder', as Norway puts it
i know there are not many good sides in three quarters of the league but its very worrying when even those teams in the dog fight with us are stuffing us big time......we had a good spell like nearly every other newly promoted sides have, it called the honeymoon period and now we know that period has gone and its back to reality im afraid, if we cant compete with teams that will also struggle this season then what hope have we got......anyway its not the players fault or the managers but come january it will be someones fault if we dont sort it out
it wont be huws fault. he has no say in it anymore but it will be the boards fault if they dont give Brendan the tools to do the job he is paid to do and that is the bottom line
What if the board give him all the money he wants for 4 to 6 players & the team goes south . We picked up Vorm , Graham & Routledge in the summer , just enough to improve the team without losing our identity . Same in January , 2 new defenders would suit me just fine , maybe one other midfielder but not a must IMO .
9 out of 11 players who played on Saturday are no better than championship players and it shows, but you have to give them credit for battling as hard as they can and its unfortunate that when we play teams that have been in the premiership for a while then even if the team is struggling themselves then we will still find it hard against them. Its the way it is and thats where the manager worth his salt comes into play in january by knowing which players we need to help the not so good players the confidence they need to go for goals and utilise all the possession we get in nearly every match to go and win these games against teams that are struggling ......I have all the faith in the world that if brendan gets the right tools to do the job that we can be better than at least 3 teams, so i wait with bated breath to see what happens in january....
Dai mate - I see the same things you do and agree that we must spend a little to strengthen the squad, but we have to realise that the club are not going to throw money at new players. Why is your cup always half empty? The Premier League is quite a nice place to be and I am quite enjoying it; yes, I was gutted at yesterdays result as we all were but throwing money at the problem isn't always the answer. We will always be limited as to the players we can attract or afford, but I think we could start by offloading some of the fringe players that realistically aren't going to figure in our season. We all knew that this season was gonna be backs against the wall time and that a relegation dog fight would be the most likely outcome - what I don't understand is how some had us down as nailed on favourites to win away at an established Premier League club like Blackburn! And then when we lose it is the end of the world. Blackburn did a job on us yesterday for sure, but we had enough chances to win it - as Alan Shearer said on MotD the other week - the time to worry is when we are not creating chances! I will remain optimistic and continue to enjoy our time in the Premier League and if that offends some on here then I apologise but am not gonna lose any sleep over it! I have followed the Swans through so many bad times that I am determined to get whatever enjoyment I can out of our time in the sun. So Dai, take a chill pill and relax - I know you are the eternal pessimist and that optimists like me must really wind you up but the bottom line is that football is meant to be entertainment - it's not life or death, whatever Bill Shankley says, it's a game and there are more important things in life - if you're not enjoying it then try another hobby - think you'd be a dab hand at knitting!
football has been my life for a very long time i live and breath the swans and i want us to be in the best league in the world with all its benefits for a long time. we are all managers and we all see things differently, some are optimists ,some are pessimists, some cant see the wood for the trees and some just turn a blind eye in the hope its not what they are actually watching, Me im a realist and will only say what i see, i will praise the team for doing their best, i will praise the board for doing their best, but if i see that we just cant cut to the chase then i will say so as it means a hell of a lot to me and i have dedicated thousands of pounds to the club for many a year, the premiership has been our aim for many years and we should have got here under martinez reign but thats another issue, We are here now and i dont care what it takes we must do everything we can to stay here, I believe that we have the right manager in brendan and i also believe that given the right backing we will stay up. there is so much riding on us in the city that it would be a huge disaster for everyone if we went down in more ways than one.......
Dai - I don't doubt your commitment - I might not agree with you at times but I value your input on this board - you may rub some people up the wrong way but isn't that the point of this forum?! Opinions and debate! So keep posting fella - although we may agree to differ at times - we both have the same goal at heart - and that is our passion to see SCFC succeed at the highest level! I really believe that there are at least three teams worst than us in this league and that we have the quality to survive - so keep the faith matey and rest assured that it could be worse - we could be Wigan!!
Our boys are very resilient, and will bounce back their usual way, here's to a good win at home against Fulham! Dai is Dai............... please log in to view this image
Thing is Dai, you went on record (I'm sure) as saying the Swans would never get promoted with Huw in charge (you sidestepped that nicely, I'll add ) and that Pratley had signed for Forest (Fact) and numerous other things, so you'll forgive me if the glass-half empty thing is running dry for me. As you said earlier, most of our squad is Championship quality, but whereas you choose to highlight it saying we need to replace half the squad, I say look how well our system is doing us with players who, agreed, normally wouldn't be playing at PL level. The over-achievement of the Swans playing in the PL is half the fun for me, because no matter what we do, we ARE a small club and we'll always, at least for the foreseeable future, have to pick up bargain signings and players on frees etc. I wouldn't change it for the world!
