Swansea Report Card: A summary of the Swans' Premier League season Swansea City manager Garry Monk hailed his side's resilience after a 1-0 win against Hull City. With the Premier League season edging towards its halfway point, who has starred for Swansea and can Wilfried Bony keep up his form to push the Swans towards Europe? Here's a look at how Garry Monk's club have fared so far. Grade: B Your Season So Far -- In A Sentence A sink-or-swim season with a rookie manager in charge has so far seen the Swans not just stay afloat but hit a convincing front crawl. Highlight November's 2-1 victory over Arsenal was satisfying enough for the obvious reasons, but beyond the victory, the game acted as Jefferson Montero's awakening. The Ecuadorian had been used sparingly before putting in a world-class performance in that game and he has retained his place as a starter ever since, injecting the Swans' attack with pace and much-needed directness. Low Point The 3-1 defeat to West Ham wasn't disappointing for the result but for the performance. Monk's tactics failed to contain the Hammers' most obvious threat in Andy Carroll, while the Swans' attack couldn't string three passes together, barring one decent move against the run of play which produced their only goal. A difficult game made harder by a lack of cohesion or effort, the Swans will hope they don't play as badly again this season. Wilfried Bony has been in superb form throughout 2014. Surprise Star Lukasz Fabianski has been among the best goalkeepers in the league this season and is the primary reason Swansea boast a respectable goal difference. Seen by many as merely Arsenal's old backup keeper dropping down a level to get regular football, Fabianski's signing was a great move for all involved except perhaps for Arsene Wenger -- statistics suggest he kept the wrong Polish shot-stopper. Must Do Better Bafetimbi Gomis hasn't had as many opportunities as he'd have liked. Even so, a return of just one league goal at the halfway point of the season does not give the Swans much confidence the Frenchman can adequately cover Bony's impending absence when the African Cup of Nations comes around. The hope is that a run of games as the starting striker will be the catalyst Gomis needs to shine. Great Expectations There's no doubt that Swansea have been victimised by poor referee decisions throughout the first half of the season, and those decisions have cost the team points. However, great teams learn to endure such trials and still succeed. If Swansea can tighten up defensively, find some killer instinct and develop a little more self-belief, a top seven finish is achievable. Top 10 should be the minimum expectation.
Max Hicks , he writes quite a few blogs , good reading in the main , not as good as you though http://www.espnfc.co.uk/club/swansea-city/318/blog/post/2180675/swansea-report-card?
MAX HICKS loves us, and always gives us a good and objective write up, and he works for ESPN Dai, as if you didn't know, now put his name at the bottom please...................
I see the grade = B. This I presume is a club grade. I would give Monk something better than that just for exceeding expectations. I think the club could have done better with the summer's transfers. I think we let a gem in Davies slip away for Sig. I would have preferred to have paid for Sig (less the Vorm discount) and kept Davies. Bony, Ki and Fab have been our stand outs with Montero doing what a winger should do exceptionally well and being pretty decent defensively. I would also add that Amat before his injury was looking solid. I have said elsewhere that I consider this a transition season. Monk, Rangel, Ash and Leon are in transition. Monk gaining as he moves along the learning curve. Ash, Rangel and Leon becoming a year older, slower and more vulnerable in performance. By the end of the season our goal should be to have clearly identified their replacements from within and be playing them. This doesn't mean we stop looking outside for better but at least we make a low cost transition for as-good-as-if-not-better with upside and then let the chips fall where they may in terms of upgrades from outside.
