Up early this morning and watching the swans on motd on sky+ a few times don't know who posted about losing our triangles when playing, but if you watch the sequence after the highlights you will see that we have not abandoned it at all. And in fact I would say that we've added an end product to our game.
I just can't help feeling that the concerns over fluency of passing (which I can understand as there were a number of stray passes, esp in the first half) are really because a) Laurdrup wants players to try killer balls earlier, b) we are bedding in a number of players (Chico, De Guzman, Michu) who are excellent players but not yet familiar with the positioning/runs etc of the existing players.
I saw the two sequences on MOTD last night when they speeded it up. 43 passes wasn't it? That's more than some hoofball loving beer mat for a badge team do in a month.
17 passes fro Danny's goal. Think it was Ivor mentioning loosing our triangles, but Ivor's a quality poster so not going to have a go at him.
Not having a go at him, just pointing out that we haven't dropped our style of play despite the preseason games. It's probably why cesc fabrecas was so impressed by our game yesterday. The comparisons to barca are there for even a barca player, respect indeed of course we got a long way to go to get to their standards, if ever
Ivor had a case of premature speculation. Easy to see what he was getting at even though I thought at the time he was wrong. The thread was something like "Goodbye triangles, goodbye possession"? Something like that. Ivor is one of the best posters we've got but he was wrong on that one imo. The MOTD sequence was almost a re-run of what they did with us last season. Always find it funny, but it's fascinating too. What was refreshing for me was Laudrup saying after the game "We made some small changes, but it's just the way this team has played for the last four or five years". That comment showed two things. Firstly, that Laudrup isn't the kind to blow his own trumpet, and secondly it puts to bed the myth perpetuated by Rodgers and the media that he manipulates so well that we were his creation.
Valley I know your not having a go, wasn't meant to sound like having a go. I think the passing and triangles now have more purpose and not just passing for the sake of it.
WHAT!!! Me WRONG??????? WTF!! How DARE you!! Seriously, lads, I still think we don't do it anything like as much as we used to - particularly when we move forward in midfield. We have, understandably for the moment lost some fluency there. I made the comment after the Stuttgart (granted, a high quality team) game when we played very few compared to our usual game. Thing is, look at yesterday. The first half, despite our goals, was abysmal in terms of our passing, a point I made on the match thread. Triangles are played by players in reasonably close proximity and we rarely did that first half. Passes were being intercepted or misdirected because they were being played OVER DISTANCE - few triangles and not a lot of our usual movement to support the man in possession. In rugby terms, the man on the ball was often isolated. The second half, when we got our act together, was literally a different ball game. West Ham had fallen off the pace and were going for damage limitation - their body language said it all. We were allowed the time and space to dwell on the ball so we reverted to type and stroked the ball around in accomplished style. We can kill any team doing that. Now, my point is, can we play these triangles when the other team is more organised and going hard at us and pressing tight for the full 90? It is safe to say that none of the top teams will allow us the freedom we got in that second half and you can add the likes of Everton and a few others to that. West Ham were not good enough to contain us but we all know that there are far sterner tests in front of us. Laudrup knows this because he emphasised it in his post match comments - enjoy the moment but don't get carried away, was the message. And he conceded that we might have been a little fortunate to go in with a two goal half time lead. He certainly knew we could play better and commented that our passing had been ragged. We put it right with a vengeance, though, and it was brilliant to watch. The thing is, I do recognise that we won't be playing as many triangles now because ML wants us to look for the killer pass sooner, to be more penetrative. Amen to that. We were all crying out for it last season. So, was I wrong? I still believe that my comments were justified at the time but I also believe that Laudrup will reincarnate our triangles and integrate them with far more positive effect into his game plan. Finally, I always respect the views of most of my fellow posters and have no problems with differing views.
"...none of the top teams will allow us the freedom we got in that second half and you can add the likes of Everton and a few others to that" In other words, no difference to last season, Ivor.
There is no doubt a slight change in style that i,m pleased with,Even though we are keeping the ethos of pass and move but the odd longish ball over the top is very welcome to turn the opposing teams defenders which sets the likes of Dyer off to put pressure in the right areas of the pitch.. One slight down note from me was in the first ten minutes or so of yesterday's game we were giving the ball away cheaply well inside of our own half but hopefully it wont be regular occurence in the coming games..
I agree, MS. We are unusually passing the ball away on times - particularly first half - and that has to be ironed out. Chico was particularly guilty imo.
I liked Henry Winter's comment in The Daily Telegraph "Swansea played more triangles than a school orchestra ....................................."
Yeah I was mate they seem to be the worst for shouting about how much we are spending so felt the need to just question their policy of £20+ mill on 2 players Johnson's a good buy no doubt but Fletcher? Mind you the b*stard will prob make me eat these words. Are you playing them next? If so give em a drubbing, enjoyed your 2nd game of the season more than your 1st Playing well like I say, think Sinclair is rather silly leaving you lot tbh, but you ain't gonna miss him thats for sure
We've got them Saturday which is why I was taking a look at their board. I'm a bit wary of Johnson and Fletcher 'cos they have both scored against us at The Liberty so hope we can keep them quiet on Saturday. They are a tough side to beat so I would be more than happy with a scrappy 1-0 nil win. Man City for you. They are not on fire at the minute but it's a big ask to get a point there.
Big ask??!! That's an understatement... Wallsall tonight is a big ask the way things have started City is a a an unanswerable conundrum
"more triangles than a Dairylea factory". Good to see that you have managed to retain your sense of humour,Stan. ...
