A couple of times this season Routledge ran down to the endline and crossed in front of goal just as Bony slowed in front of net to shed the defender and scored both times .Fast forward to around the 13th minute of last game , Routledge is doing the same thing and crosses as Bony keeps running toward goal with defender in tow , doesn't slow downand the perfect pass goes behind him . I wanted to choke Bony , oh well, like I say , Bony's head wasn' t right all game imo
Innit. Maybe that's why he plays for Swansea instead of Real Madrid! Honestly though I reckon he's done more for us than vice versa as in if we were to let him go I reckon about 10 other PL clubs would offer him a contract right now. EDIT - And during our first PL season despite clearly being our best winger he didn't moan once about being left out most of the time by Brandon Rowgers, he just came on when given the chance and did his best and usually performed well. Tidy bloke. Hopefully with a few decent games under his belt he'll have a better second half to the season. I don't think he deserves a slagging by any Swans fan though considering he's proved what he can do for us in the past, I'm sure the bloke is trying his best ...
Don't get me wrong , Bony is class and worth every penny . As we begin to get to a favorable list of fixtures, I believe we are going to see some special results with him involved with most goals.cheers
Apologies mate I'm not good with these forums no offense to you lol the comment was meant for swan_and_only.
That's how I saw it too Ivor. Funny isn't it how we all watch the same game but see things completely differently? Lots have praised Routledge and Pozuelo for the way they played at Old Trafford but for me their performances were just promising....in as much as their touch was mostly very good, they worked hard, some of their flicks and tricks came off, often beat their man and bought some space. But.... when it came down to it they were both guilty of not putting the ball in the box early enough, poor crossing, not shooting when they had the space too, not reading Bony's movement....in short no end product (both were guilty of not helping their full-backs out often enough also, more about not reading the game rather than lack of effort). For me Bony did about as much as he could with what he was offered. He needs accurate crosses to his head from deep wide, accurate low drilled crosses/pull backs from the byline and fast ball from deep into his feet (ideally when he is either in the box or on the edge of it). We need to do better here....positive we'll see improvements in February.
Max Hicks is bang on in his latest article for ESPN; "Sitting just three points off the relegation zone is probably not where Swansea wanted to be in just a little over the half-way point of the season. With points proving a little hard to come by at the moment, injuries piling up and an open transfer window, many are expectant of some kind of key signing to provide the Swans with a saviour, or at least shore things up. However, for all their recent difficulties, the Swans already have the power to save themselves, and the answer lies in one of football's most fundamental statistics. The most common reason rolled out to defend Swansea's underwhelming results is that the side don't create enough chances. I disagree. It would be fairer to say the Swans don't take enough of the chances they do create, and more accurate again to say the Swans don't even seem to realise when they've created a chance in the first place. That fundamental statistic I alluded to earlier is shots on goal. Take the last six games Swansea have played. In three of them, Swansea were fantastic; the 1-1 draw versus Aston Villa, the 2-3 loss to Manchester City, and the 2-1 FA Cup win versus Manchester United. In each of these games, Swansea out-shot their opponent. In the other three games, the Swans weren't quite as good: a 1-2 defeat to Everton, a 0-1 defeat to Chelsea, and last Saturday's 0-2 defeat to Man United. In each of these three games, Swansea were the ones being out-shot. The edge might only be slight -- a few shots either way -- but the difference is telling on the field. Another problem is shooting accuracy. Over those six games combined, Swansea achieved a shooting accuracy of just 21%. Swansea's opponents combined for an average of 35%. The Swans poor accuracy is undoubtedly the reason they had to settle for a 1-1 draw with an Aston Villa side that they played off the park. In that game, Swansea managed more than double the shots on goal of Villa, with 17 to 7, and yet both sides managed three on target. That's 18% accuracy for Swansea, 43% for Villa. Swansea have a side full of playmakers, but short on finishers. Wilfried Bony is more than doing his job, striking at around a world class 0.50 goals-per-game rate, and taking on average 2.8 shots per game in league play. However, the Swans' second-level attackers are painfully gun-shy; Pablo Hernandez, Wayne Routledge, Roland Lamah, Alejandro Pozuelo and Nathan Dyer have combined for six league goals, the same amount Bony has managed on his own. That same group of players seem to hate shooting. Respectively, their shots-per-game are 0.9, 0.7, 1.6, 0.6 and 1.4, respectively. Unsurprisingly, the two with the highest numbers -- Lamah (1.6) and Dyer (1.4) -- have scored five of those six goals between them. Coincidence? Hardly. If ever a side could be accused of trying to pass the ball into the back of the next, it's Swansea. While the side's commitment to attractive football is commendable, there is the feeling that too often their industry is wasted with one pass too many. With the exception of Jonjo Shelvey, who will fire long range shots given an opening, Bony seems to be the only player with license to shoot. It is almost as if nobody else is allowed, and too often, the move has broken down before the ball can reach the Ivorian. I wonder how many more Bony would score if only his teammates would be more selfish -- just think about the potential for rebounds and tap-ins if the second-level players were happier to test the goalkeeper more often. Michu is greatly missed because he is a second-level player, driving forward from the hole, who is happy to shoot. Not only is Michu confident in his shot, he has the ability to be unpredictable, the technique to stab a shot off with no backswing or to hit the ball first time. In his absence, others have to replicate his desire to score, because if you don't shoot, you don't score, and if you don't score, you can't win. Swansea's playmakers do create plenty of chances, but they just don't see them as chances -- so often a Routledge or a Pozuelo will have the ball at their feet and an open shooting lane on goal, but always the first thought is another lay-off. In fact, most of the time you'll see a Swansea player berating a teammate, it is not for selfishly firing off a shot, but for forcing a pass to someone else instead and losing possession. It might seem counter-intuitive for such a fluid, pass-obsessed team with a strong ideology of the power of the collective over the individual, but a little more selfishness wouldn't be a bad thing for Swansea." I've underlined the paragraph that I think is particularly pertinent. Take for example in the first half of the United game. Somebody (I think Shelvey) played a lovely ball in behind the left-back to Routledge....he took a heavy touch, the ball run away from him and he ended up attempting a low cross that was easily cut out. If you go and watch the Sky footage now you'll hear the commentators saying what a shame it was that his touch was too heavy....he shouldn't have taken a touch!. "Shoot first time FFS!", I shouted...if you shoot first time, even if it's just a toe poke, you tend to catch keepers out. Right now, as Hicks states above, our 3 in the second line are guilty of trying to walk it in. It seems to be a confidence thing. We had the most possession any Premier League team has ever had at Old Trafford...we opened them up a couple of times in that first half yet we either; take to long to shoot, don't shoot altogether, pass/cross when we should shoot and shoot when we should pass/cross. There's not a lot wrong with us. Let's have Michu and Hernandez back and see what we do. (Tom Ince or someone similar from abroad would be nice too).
What do we have left , 16 games . I bet Routledge start the majority of them and plays a part in almost all of them terrorwit, regardless who comes off injury or comes in the window, watch this space.
Well written and describes the side accurately , we have the capacity to compete with any one as proven but we're similar to how Arsenal were 3/4 years ago in that they would try to walk the ball into the net ,We've all seen it and heard the shouts "shoot" when the opportunity arises but either the player doesn't or chooses to ignore me It'll come as shown by Bony recently that taking a shot at goal pays off in one form or another .We just need the message to get across to the rest of the side
There seems to be a few that think Routledge hasn't been playing sublime football of late , how many games Laudrup decides to play him from here on should be a good indicator how well he's playing, thats allj
Well seeing as he is a first team regular, long standing...Dyer is currently crocked (who knows when he will be match fit) and Hernandez is habitually crocked.....and given we are competing for wide players in the transfer market against clubs with much more dosh than us (meaning there's a chance we end up with a young lad with potential...probably from abroad)... I would tend to agree with your assertion that he will play a part in most if not all of the games he is available for. However, it is my opinion that he is playing well not sublime. Sublime would involve significantly improved end product. He is capable of sublime and should be working as hard as possible to deliver sublime and get an England call up. We'll see.
I always enjoy reading Max hicks evaluation, and he's hit the nail on the head with our miss firing midfield and wing play, even Poz is now trying to walk the ball in the back of the net, are they all scared to shoot or what? I've said similar on another thread earlier on today regarding poor midfield support around the box. Even Michu has been shy of pulling the trigger this season?............
