OK I've only just watched the Swans v Stoke game, good result for Swansea, and it looks like you are finally coming to terms with what is needed to survive in the PL, you tried to take on Chelsea at football, admirable, but always destined to fail.......then you stuck to your footballing ethos and had a good win against WBA...............Next up Stoke, a different kettle of fish, they can play a bit of football true, but their strength is shall we say their "battling" qualities, Swansea were always going to match them at football, but I honestly thought you would get steamrollered.........your mixture of football and battling qualities stood you in good stead, and it looks like you have finally realised that you need to scrap as well as play the pretty stuff......good win
Prophet Just goes to show the amazing qualities that our manager has in getting the absolute maximum out of our players. They're continually raising the bar & the steelieness is there for all to see now!! Chelsea's away answer themselves. The pace they moved the ball when watching at the Bridge last Saturday was breathtaking. Bolton this weekend proved that too.....
proph. very true in all fairness. But whilst i dont mind physical. down right dirty is unacceptable and the ref completly bottled 2 dcisions. Stoke could have easily been down to 9 men. But fairplay they stuck at it and battled extremely hard. Dont think i could watch that (stoke) every week> Pulis made DJ loke like Wenger in terms of trying to keep the ball on the floor.
Decent post, Proph, and a fair enough summation. I still think that it will be a battle right to the end of the season but the comforting thought is, we can only get better as we become more attuned to the pace, power and skill level of the other teams in the PL.
"...you have finally realised that you need to scrap as well as play the pretty stuff" If by 'scrap' you mean that we outbattled a more physical side then you're right. But I don't think anyone has 'finally realised' anything. I'm not looking for an argument but it's a complete myth that we can only do tippy tappy. Remember the 91st minute at Donny, Kemy Agustien pings a long both over to the right that Rangel vollied into the net. Dyer's goal v the Baggies couple of weeks back. We've always done it when needed. But we are known for playing with the ball on the deck and keeping possession - a style that has had those up the M4 (including you, Profit) mocking us with great glee at times. Nice to see you're taking an interest though.
Thanks prophet for a thought provoking thread, think we need to mix it up a bit to get results at times, think we should play two up front as well, I don't subscribe to the plan a,b,c that people say we need , what we need is to bang the goals in and defend with a purpose, if that means we play route one sometimes so be it. What I don't want is to play like Stoke yesterday, they are a very negative side to play against, they remind of when we played qpr a couple of seasons ago, they didn't even manage a shot at goal with Tate there as dorus broke his jaw with the rugby team we were playing. Stoke yesterday were anti football and if I was a fan of them it would be soul destroying, how they can be so different away from home baffles me, if they played like they did against utd yesterday it would have been a hell of game.
Well technically we're 4-3-3 and it worked well for us last season, is working reasonably well this one and is the modern, continental way that many clubs are starting to favour. There may be times to switch the system if things aren't going well during a game but I'm not keen on 4-4-2 for us as a rule. We're set up to play a certain way and it's been very effective. So if it ain't broken why fix it?
I think a 3-5-2 is also a good way to play mate, I am not saying to sacrifice what we have been playing for years, but having two up front works in certain games
Well I agree with that. I think the Manager has actually done that this season when we've been chasing games. Not sure.
