Match Day Thread Swansea v Arsenal

So is Tim Sherwood a worse manager than he was last season? Or Jose Mourinho, or Mark Hughes?

As for substitutions, they're a complete lottery. If a player comes on and scores it becomes an "inspired" substitution. The majority of the time they make very little difference (I'm talking about all teams in general). There's several posters on here who get very wound up over substitutions. My view is that managers plan all week for the game at the weekend. I imagine they choose who's on the bench for a multitude of different scenarios that pan out during the game. It always seems a bit arrogant to me that fans think they know best. (That's not aimed at you TLF).

 

The issue is here we don't think we Know best, but we entitled to voice our opinions and our concerns at the way our club is run and also how they perform on the field. I along with probably all on here don't confess to think they know more than GM (though looking at something's he does I am not so sure). But when we start to slide down the table and have 1 win in 8 then I am entitled to question the way things are being done. So ultimately if he is not achieving what he was be the very definition he must have got worse.
I am also not convinced GM does much planning because we seem to start the same 11 from 12 every week barring injuries.

can I say I am not after him being sacked as it stands, but I do worry where we will be in a couple of months time, because the football I am watching at the moment is the worst it has been since we moved to the Liberty.

 

I thought the idea of subs, injury apart, was to keep the team performing for 90 minutes. On Saturday Shelvey's performance dropped in the second half and the Barrow sub should have been for him and earlier, which meant we would have had attacking options on right and left flanks. Our midfield would have been KI, Siggy and Ayew. Gomis was poor from the start and I would have brought Eder on in the first half. This would have meant we had a defensive sub in hand if needed. This is why I think the subs were inept. There is an old saying that attack is the best form of defence, if we were more attack minded we might score more and it would take the pressure of our defence as well.

 

I agree with Aswan to an extent. But sometimes those who have watched football for years do actually have some knowledge of the game and perhaps shouldn't be so easily dismissed. That sometimes means the fans are actually right about things. I think that when subs are used in conjunction with a switch in formation that often wrong-foots the opposition. Our game v Man U was an example and it worked brilliantly. Or maybe when a player really is out of form and should be pulled. Gomis/ Eder is an obvious one, though not to Monk it seems.

What really winds me up is making subs with 10 minutes to go - sometimes less - and expecting the player to work wonders. It can happen, but how can you really expect subs to make a difference that late in the game? Never understood it myself, unless as NS says it's for fatigue.

 

If a team is ahead it's usually done to break up play and slow the opposition momentum up, but I guess you mean if a team is behind. Fresh legs is probably the most likely answer.

 

I agree with a small part of Aswan but certainly not the arrogant part as stated by him. I do not pretend to have GM's knowledge of techniques or relationships within the club but as I have been following the Swans and football for almost 20 years longer than he has been on earth I do think I can match him on an overview of the game. I have seen a lot of relegations over the years and whilst I do not think we are in trouble yet if we keep on in the next 8 games as we have in the last we will be. He does seem to be a bit inflexible in his selections and subs and the best managers are good at both. I think that two of the promoted teams will stay up which means that two of last season's teams will go down. I don't want it to be us and whilst we air our views on this forum we must get behind the team on the pitch no matter what.

 

Then with 60 odd games under his belt theres no excuses for team selection poorly timed and personnel substitutions , even a lay man like many on here can spot the bleeding obvious

 

Fresh legs were needed when we went 2-0 not at 3 and with only sub ten minutes to play it would have been on par with the second coming if we'd have taken anything v Arsenal . the substitutions were too little too late , just a token gesture .

 

Monk has always been very poor with Subs and their timing, from the start of his managerial career................

 

Then you have to ask , who has Monks ear ? and if he doesn't take on board his assistants advice/opinions then that shows a certain amount of arrogance .He has stated on many occasions that he analysis's each game so you have to wonder what exactly does he see or more importantly look to improve .

 

Monk can be arrogant, but it's not his dominant quality, he was a good captain, but I'm not sure he knows much about the game past the half way line......

 

I don't think I have ever been so irritated by a manager's tactics as this game against Arsenal. Monks poor reaction to remove Gomis of the field of play to effect a better outcome was grossly inadequate, If Monk continues with such poor reaction to circumstances on the field, then I can see us going in for a new more experienced manager next season, sorry was just thinking out loud.............

 

Poor defending , poor ref and poor finishing.... In that order ...but I guess there is a lot of positives left to take from the game , I just wish I knew what they were.
P.S. If Fernandez falls back any further while the opposition is closing in our goal ,he might as well trade positions with Fab.