I played football in my younger days - nothing serious, just school and university department teams. I started travelling a lot when I started working and that effectively put an end to my footballing days. Here's some words I would use to describe Ben Davies - solid, dependable, strong tackler, good in the air, chips in with a few goals. In my view he is not going backwards, nor is he 'one of the worst defensive fullbacks I've ever seen'. I'm not from this area (originally) so that fact of whether he is a local boy or not doesn't come into it. When Ben Davies broke into the first team last season when Neil Taylor broke his ankle you were saying he wasn't up to the job and 'needed a rest' or words to that effect. By and large I think he has done an excellent job. Equally, Neil Taylor is also an excellent left-back, maybe better than Ben offensively, probably an even stronger tackler. Ben is not faultless; no player in the team is. It would be interesting to hear other views on this to get a balanced viewpoint. If everyone agrees with Norway that's no problem at my end.
A lot of differing opinion here and no bickering Regarding Ben, one thing I've noticed when we're pressed back is he doesn't attempt to bring the ball down but instead heads it unconvincingly, usually to an attacking player more often than not. Taylor should probably get a run now and that would keep him happy at the club too. JDG - thought he was ok overall and seemed to be putting in more effort, pushing forward with pace. I'm still not convinced by Pablo but we'll see. I thought we were good second half, deserved win, nothing lucky about the goals as we actually had seven shots on target, nice to see that stat increasing! It was noticeable we tried attacking more directly, with pace and we were shooting more, which is good as defences now can't just happily watch us push the ball about outside the area. We should be targeting a win against the 'ammers, with a draw the booby prize (IMO). Consecutive (good) wins, injuries back and confidence rising. I'm very optimistic for the next few games and a vital points haul!
My problem at the moment is the wayward passes that have crept into our game especially in the defensive area. Sometimes they need to just hoof it forward because teams are pressing more and more so they're getting less time on the ball. As for Ben I wouldn't say he's the worst I've ever seen but there are many times during a game where the attacker has stolen a march on him and he's struggled to get back leaving the centre backs exposed. Would I drop him for Taylor. Probably yes for now. We have been leaking goals of late and the defence need to be told to defend first and foremost just to get some more confidence at the back. The defence is probably the weakest area at the moment and they do seem to be frantic at times.
Yes I did say that and the goals he conceded by poor positional play last season have not been improved on at all! I also said which you failed to mention that he needed a rest so that he could sit and take stock of where he was going wrong, I also mentioned that he was forgiven these errors because he was on a learning curve and new and mistakes were to be expected! This season he has not improved in that department and we leak goals because of his poor positional play and failure to read the game and sniff out danger. As for being a good in the air well quite frankly that's laughable, there are at least 2 goals conceded from his poor headers that I can think of,not getting any distance on them and them falling to the opposition to bang in. His heading and from corners is woeful,that's if he manages to connect,most of the time he gets beaten by the movement of his marker and is left floundering and grasping air as his opponent gets a free header! He is solid in a 50/50 tackle and he is brave with it. Dependable is not a word I word use,liability is more accurate for me, when he first game into the team he was unknown to the opposition, now he isn't and he is a target for opposition teams, he has no real pace either which is a big problem when he ventures up and can't get back ,he is no slouch but doesn't have a burst of pace over twenty yards like all good full backs do,very rarely have I ever seen him make a recovery tackle when being done like a kipper ! Nearly all of our goals conceded this season have been coming from set piece,and from our full backs being positionally poor ,it's pulling our centre halves around and that is making matters worse,defensive midfielders don't know what holes to fill ! His attacking play has slowed down of late too,as I said he has been found out both offensively and defensively and he hasn't improved on where he was last year. Now for the good bit ! He is still a cracking prospect but he needs to grasp the nettle and improve the ugly side of his game ,he is a defender and he must remember this is his primary job . He has the ability to able to do both things well and get the balance in his game correct,I like him a lot ,he is honest and willing and there seems no attitude with him at all,he is a cracking young pro in fairness but there is no getting away from the fact that as a defender he has an awful lot to learn. Time is on his side but we arnt faking about now it's the real stuff we are into,survival in the hardest league in the world, it's easy to see his confidence is being eroded and he looked crestfallen when ash blasted him last night after yet again being nowhere near his runner who nearly scored! I'm not Ben bashing I'm desperate for him to progress and I'm sure he will but one of the main reasons we are crap at the back is because of young Ben ,the others arnt blameless either but with a better defensive option in Taylor it's clear laudrup has a blind spot ! I can see why Taylor is a bit miffed to be not playing more games ! Chico has had a bad season but last night he was absolutely superb,he had his business head on and did the correct things,kept his shape and didn't gamble,Ben needs to remember he is a full back. He will come though but to pretend he isn't a poor defensive full back is sticking the head in the sand as far as I'm concerned.
Ben has served us well, but I have noticed that he is caught out of position far too many times and Ash and Britton have to come to the rescue, he is after all a defender first, and if he is going to play like a Wing Back, then he needs to track back better than he is doing of late. Regarding his heading of the ball, I think he's a work in progress, some good some poor, but we should remember that he is still very young, I would like to see him rested to freshen him up, and get him focused more, it would also give Taylor a well needed run out to get back to his best.........................
Last season I think we expected nothing much from Ben as he was thrust into the team because of Neil's injury, and he surprised everyone by how well he did. This season I agree with Norway in that I feel that he has flatlined in improving and maybe even taken a dip. Basically our expectations of him were set by how well he was doing last season - anything less and we are disappointed. He is still very young and will improve but I feel the time is right for him to become the understudy again and take stock of where he's been.
Ben has not been that bad and have had many more good games than bad and when you consider how he was forced into the first team then i think he has done tremendously well...You just don't all of a sudden become a bad player, There has to be a reason why....If he was in his early thirties then you could say it's his age and he is slowing down, But he is very young and it has to be something he has been asked to do differently now to what he was doing before...
Well I blame Laudrup for us winning last night. He made a inspired substitution in bringing Dyer on, and he changed the whole ethos of the game.
Substitutions were bang on last night , they tired and then we bring on the explosive pace of Dyer and what an impact he had .
dyer made all the difference last night but we were at home and it was fulham who were below us so its not that good that we could not win the game more comfortable than we should have.....I said we should win 4-0 at home against a very poor fulham side..
A genuine question but why do think we didn't win the game more comfortably could it have been the tactics , player's confidence ,players performances and with so much resting on the result , which do you think it may have been or a combination of them all ?
Im still trying to figure out when the Swans were suddenly supposed to be smashing premier league teams off the park even though they have a lower playing budget and cant compete financially with the other 19 clubs !!... So we win 2-0 but dai thinks it should have been 4-0 and he wonders why people think he is taking the piss out of this board,its fans and thewhole forum!...
We were terrible in the first half and having read some of the posts today it confirms what i saw live what they saw on the net. We were the better team but fulham were bad and we cant really come to any conclusion other than it was great to have dyer back...
Agree we should have at least emulated Arsenal and Chelseas results when those teams played them at the Emirates and Stamford Bridge !
You were warned for multiple derailing, then you were banned when you took no notice. So stop playing mr innocent here Dai. Not to mention calling other members plastic, deluded and all sorts when they didn't agree with your view point, and you can claim it was cos you were being insulted, but that wasn't always the case was it. I also notice it hasn't stopped you doing in this thread already.
FFS Dai, don't you learn. Stop calling people plastic. You were banned after being asked to stop derailing threads and you decided to ignore the request.
