Thats the question that I spent most of my time driving back home after the game thinking about, lucky I only live about and hour and a half away or I'd probably have gone crazy. The whole games seemed from minute one as if we weren't sure where we were supposed to be or who was playing in which position, its felt like despite playing the same team they had been told to play far more defensive and as such the in valance of the formation was made plainly obvious. There were times when I thought he whistle had gone and i hadn't heard it because the energy and drive of the sunderland game was no where to be found. I the first half we could easily have conceded 4 and only a sliced shot and a great block from Wes prevented that. We seemed to play facets of the game wrong, in defence we should have been pressing and harrying, this is how we have played against swansea previously and have great success in throwing them off there game, instead we insisted on keeping our shape we two banks of 4 and just watched as they wold pass it through us. Attacking we played with no pace and no movement, the midfield would seemingly kick it at the first yellow shirt they saw regardless of position and no one was making runs to lose markers we were just static. The second half saw the introduction of Johnson and Gutierrez and the game was clearly lost, out two most creative forces taken off for a slow winger with no end product and another defensive midfielder, out goal difference is already **** there not point holding on to try and only lose by 2 which is essentially what we did. At the start of the half we had a few chances, one cleared off the line this was largely due to the drive of Snodgrass who, along with Olssen was actually pretty good. we largely drifted through the second half looking more uninterested as it went on. the formation looked more balanced but thee players out there were unlikely to create much in the way of attacking play. Largely I'd put this loss down to the wrong formation for the style of football that was to be played and poor subs to correct it, however it doesn't help the the defence in particular Bennet and Tettey had terrible games despite not being ask to do anything foreign. None of it worked and seemingly nobody watched the DVD of last year in the build up to the match. We were roundly and a deservedly beaten today.
The last paragraph pretty much gets used to describe every away defeat this season, of which there have been many!
Bassong has to be replaced, he is no captain and without Yobo or an inform Turner by his side he looks nothing more than average, regardless we where not able to score ( i actually thought we looked ok going forward) he seems incapable of organising his back line, hes the captain our leader and i expect a lot more, is it just me or does he not seem to care?
For some reason we can pass accurately to a fellow team mate at home but away from home the passing is awful. What's that about?
At theis stage in the season it's way too late for all these questions. We need some answers from coaching and playing staff - and we need them frickin' pronto
I think sticking with the 4-4-2 was brave but the wrong choice. Swansea had far too much good movement in their midfield to play Wes on the left. It worked against Sunderland because we were carrying the game to them and Wes was able to roam without worrying about the defence. We should have matched them up with 5 in midfield, with Wes playing behind the striker and Redmond on the right. I don't think Johnson should have come in , Howson and Tettey should really be capable of covering that midfield and are infinitely better when breaking forward. Redmond would also have stretched their defence more. The only problem is who to have upfront. I'd have RvW personally because I just want him to score a bloody goal!
