Swansea Post Match Thread

[taffyfox]

Beaten a team that were second in the league with only ONE LOANEE in!!!!

OK, didn't play too well, but remember when we were bottom despite playing well?!! Which would you rather? NP side never blew me away with passing fluent football but they grinded out results through passion, determination and discipline. Not sure having loads of loanees helps the side in terms of passion and desire.

Competetive division = battling personalities

[colbo68]

Well there's a lot of sarcasm in this thread already but the truth is that much of what the fans have been complaining about seems to have been addressed.

Vassell has been moved to what many thought was his best position and what a huge difference that seems to have made because we have a man who can play the lone striker if necessary, can retain possession, can take a half-chance and can see what's going on around him enough to bring team-mates into play.

For me, despite the contribution of Berner - which I'll come to - Vassell was far and away our man of the match. Decent goal - so close to a spectacular second, won so much his marker virtually gave up, and all in massive contrast to the donkey that was Bednar.

With Dyer and Vassell in same team we'd got some real pace with which to ask questions of defenders and yet could play the ball on the ground right across the forward line.

With those runners it meant midfield five - for 4-5-1 was our approach - had options and, finally we'd got 4/5ths of the Pearson defence and it all looked mostly sound again.

How sound? Well they had three real chances as I remember. The goal, a second shot which went wide from a similar situation to the first and a break in the second half when Weale did brilliantly to come out so fast and crowd the man enough to get him to shoot wide.

It wasn't the perfect storm of a performance by any means. First half we sat back too deep and allowed them to turn and pick their passes. Their goal and the second one that almost followed came from a startling failure to close down quickly.

But second half we showed much more urgency and won far more of the first and second balls to the point where I really didn't see Swansea scoring and we might easily have plundered another, Vassell's shot and the save which resulted being quite spectacular and Kingy should have scored with a glancing first half header..

Berner has made a habit of scoring the odd goal and what a popular opener it was. But it also highlighted the greater danger we present with Hobbs/Morrison able to join the attack for corners. Gallagher, to his credit, varied his approach by clipping a couple of corners short but having Hobbs/Morrison/King/Berner getting in there was much more threatening than what we had previously and Berner added to that by bringng a solidity and consistency to the left-back area.

Altogether while we had a slow start and conceded a disappointing goal it was a smashing result and one which confirms we should fear no-one at home. It was also victory for a system which seems to work well with our current players, most of whom put in a decent shift.

super post as usual... agree with everything in this post

[Jakemoore]

Totally unrelated topic here, is the Man City game on TV?

Yeah, the games is on ESPN, which if you don;t already subscribe too will cost you a tenner for a months viewing Robbing Yanks

[The Doctor]

cracking result, good start to the new year and given the 3 games before saturday an important win to follow up on the efforts at hull.

[surrifox]

OK cheers. So if an extension isn't agreed, that was his last game? Hope he stays of course.

he's definitely not been tied up as the papers were reporting that grayson has him on his target list to join leeds for the rest of the season -not as a transfer but as a loanee. I am sure spurs would be happy to be beneficiaries of an auction for his services but as policy always demand a hefty hire fee for players sent out on loan

[leicesterseddon]

Let's face it, the division is very poor this season. If they are 2nd, well, that just proves it...

Good win, but still cannot understand some of Sven's tactics. Why play Dyer (who has no right foot) on the right wing, and play Gallagher (who has no left foot) on the left? Why play Vassell (at 5'7 or something) up front on his own?

If that Swansea team has climbed to 2nd we should be looking at the play-offs. Jesus...

[dannythefox]

Great result i said 2-1. Just hope we can 4 points out the next two at worst 6 would be amazing.

[MC Prussian]

Some Welsh brabble...

It's alright. I don't understand you, either.

We just won against the former No.2 team in the league. Our side shows signs of improvement, we had a solid display from almost all players.

You expect us to play like a domina against Swansea, who obviously have at least some quality players, right from the start?

If you can't be happy about the way we played and expect us to do a Barcelona FC week in, week out with our Cymru Messi in the middle of the park, I suggest you consider emigrating and spreading your Welsh WUMing on some Spanish boards.

Comprende?

[The Doctor]

Good win, but still cannot understand some of Sven's tactics. Why play Dyer (who has no right foot) on the right wing, and play Gallagher (who has no left foot) on the left? Why play Vassell (at 5'7 or something) up front on his own?

dyer and gally were swapping sides during the match, you don't have to be left footed to play on the left wing and vice versa, cut inside onto your right or left - the way dyer did for the goal v reading earlier on this season.

Vassell has played his best for us when in the central striker role, and if you're going on height as the be all and end of being a lone striker let's not forget that mark de vries (over 6 foot) was possibly worse in the air than iain hume who was about 5'6 or so.

[iBleedLeicesterColours]

Couldn't make it today due to illness so can't comment much.

Glad to see Hobbs n Morrison at CB. Not Davies (who thinks hes special & doesn't want to play for us) and Vitor who doesn't speak fluent English. Also good to see trusty Bruno back.

Decent result anyway, not a bad position. Couple more wins on the bounce and we're right in there. However I feel we have to bring In a couple of defenders. Would rather see proven Championship defenders come in but I'll give this Bamba a chance.

[Finnegan]

It's alright. I don't understand you, either.

We just won against the former No.2 team in the league. Our side shows signs of improvement, we had a solid display from almost all players.

You expect us to play like a domina against Swansea, who obviously have at least some quality players, right from the start?

If you can't be happy about the way we played and expect us to do a Barcelona FC week in, week out with our Cymru Messi in the middle of the park, I suggest you consider emigrating and spreading your Welsh WUMing on some Spanish boards.

Comprende?

Don't be such a simpleton your entire life, Alex. For someone so worldly you aren't half completely thick sometimes.

We were immensely pedestrian today. Football is a very simple game, it's a game of movement. When the opposition have the ball you move to close the space in which they can pass and you move to put pressure on the player on the ball. When your own side has the ball you move in to space to stop your rival side doing the same; to give you the chance to move forward, to attack.

We did neither, today. We were limited to a few scrappy set pieces and a ranged effort from Darius Vassell (brilliantly hit, to be fair to the bloke) and otherwise offered little to worry a very average side. In addition, we backed off and backed off, played with no urgency or enthusiasm and committed the cardinal sin of letting them come at us on our own soil, drawing the vocal frustration of nearly the entire fan-base.

A lack of any movement frequently saw King, Wellens and Abe forced to pass either backwards or play simple, sideways balls to stationary targets and our few attempts at more adventurous balls to Dyer or Vassell were often hopeful and off-target. For much of the first half, poor distribution from our back four saw us playing ridiculous long-ball to the smallest front line we've fielded all season.

To win today is a good result, this doesn't make it a good performance and that doesn't mean we should be happy - by default - with today's events.

As I said, there were many positives from today and I'm happy with all of them. Nobody can accuse me of being a needlessly negative poster, it just isn't in my nature and it's very rare I come on here purely to have a winge. But nobody should be delighted with what went on on the pitch today, it was an incredibly boring spectacle and we'd certainly taken steps backwards compared to recent home showings against Doncaster and other strong sides Derby and Forest.

It's not about playing like Barcelona, it's just about playing with confidence, commitment and putting in 100% - something we didn't do today.

Oh. And Cymru means Wales not Welsh. If you're going to try and be clever then at least do it accurately.

[Thracian]

... are you having a giraffe?

Two of the worst performances I've seen in a long while today and easily the most boring game of football. Two clumsy goals from set pieces and one deflected hit-and-hope.

They were shit but at least they had reasonable ball retention for ninety odd minutes. Mostly aided by the fact we decided we didn't want to press anywhere on the pitch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted with three points, glad to see us stop a reasonable team getting any chances and I'm thrilled we've managed to score twice from a set piece. There's positives, sure.

But beyond there? Jesus wept. Here's hoping we play with a bit more enthusiasm next week.

The lack of urgency in the first half-hour was extraordinary - it was as if we had a game plan and daren't move out of formation.

[Finnegan]

The lack of urgency in the first half-hour was extraordinary - it was as if we had a game plan and daren't move out of formation.

Precisely. I figured you and I might actually see eye to eye for once about today's game.

Obviously I don't agree with your match rating for Andy King but then I don't really think anybody today deserved a seven-point-seven-five.

That aside, I can imagine you were about as likely to fall asleep in your seat as I if not for the cold.

[Corky]

Result was better than the performance, we actually did something from our set-pieces then contained them well in the second half (apart from Sinclair's shot wide).

We will play better in the future but we've added another win, another home game unbeaten and two victories in three days. Little complaining from me this evening.

[Kent]

Don't be such a simpleton your entire life, Alex. For someone so worldly you aren't half completely thick sometimes.

We were immensely pedestrian today. Football is a very simple game, it's a game of movement. When the opposition have the ball you move to close the space in which they can pass and you move to put pressure on the player on the ball. When your own side has the ball you move in to space to stop your rival side doing the same; to give you the chance to move forward, to attack.

We did neither, today. We were limited to a few scrappy set pieces and a ranged effort from Darius Vassell (brilliantly hit, to be fair to the bloke) and otherwise offered little to worry a very average side. In addition, we backed off and backed off, played with no urgency or enthusiasm and committed the cardinal sin of letting them come at us on our own soil, drawing the vocal frustration of nearly the entire fan-base.

A lack of any movement frequently saw King, Wellens and Abe forced to pass either backwards or play simple, sideways balls to stationary targets and our few attempts at more adventurous balls to Dyer or Vassell were often hopeful and off-target. For much of the first half, poor distribution from our back four saw us playing ridiculous long-ball to the smallest front line we've fielded all season.

To win today is a good result, this doesn't make it a good performance and that doesn't mean we should be happy - by default - with today's events.

As I said, there were many positives from today and I'm happy with all of them. Nobody can accuse me of being a needlessly negative poster, it just isn't in my nature and it's very rare I come on here purely to have a winge. But nobody should be delighted with what went on on the pitch today, it was an incredibly boring spectacle and we'd certainly taken steps backwards compared to recent home showings against Doncaster and other strong sides Derby and Forest.

It's not about playing like Barcelona, it's just about playing with confidence, commitment and putting in 100% - something we didn't do today.

Oh. And Cymru means Wales not Welsh. If you're going to try and be clever then at least do it accurately.

You're exactly right. Like I said earlier, the result & points are very good but I didn't think the performance was that great. We've played as good as or better and lost/drew games before

[MC Prussian]

Football is a very simple game.

Yes, it's about winning.

Three points in the bag. Thank you.

[Finnegan]

Eh, if you're happy taking that shallow a view on life then to each their own.

[Leicester_Loyal]

3 points is the main thing today, 3 points against a team that was 2nd in the league.

The best teams play shit and win games, which is pretty much what we did today.

[hackneyfox]

A good result with 4 of Pearson's back 5 playing.

But as he's already brought in and sent back one goalie and one left back and he's now signed 2 new centres then I don't expect to see much more of Weale, Berner, Morrison or Hobbs, whatever the results have been in the last 2 games.

A change of personnel will bring back some decent passing from the middle of the defence.

Parker will hopefully replace Dyer or Gallagher.

And Sven isn't happy with the midfield so won't play 442.

2 good results but I still expect to see a different team and a different way of playing by the end of January.

[Leicester_Loyal]

A good result with 4 of Pearson's back 5 playing.

But as he's already brought in and sent back one goalie and one left back and he's now signed 2 new centres then I don't expect to see much more of Weale, Berner, Morrison or Hobbs, whatever the results have been in the last 2 games.

A change of personnel will bring back some decent passing from the middle of the defence.

Parker will hopefully replace Dyer or Gallagher.

And Sven isn't happy with the midfield so won't play 442.

2 good results but I still expect to see a different team and a different way of playing by the end of January.

I'm hoping Hobbs will stick around.

[marbelladave]

Strange game, very Pearsonesque in a way.

As has been pointed out we were poor for much of the game and clearly second best. We had a couple of spells in the second half when we played quite well but overall were clearly there to be beaten.

We really should have lost, but like a lot of games last season we conjured a win out of nothing, very pleasing in a rather perverse way and the first time we have managed anything like it this season.

Great result, but a fairly mediocre performance, unusual to see so many posters accepting that fact!

[Smudge]

Well there's a lot of sarcasm in this thread already but the truth is that much of what the fans have been complaining about seems to have been addressed.

Vassell has been moved to what many thought was his best position and what a huge difference that seems to have made because we have a man who can play the lone striker if necessary, can retain possession, can take a half-chance and can see what's going on around him enough to bring team-mates into play.

For me, despite the contribution of Berner - which I'll come to - Vassell was far and away our man of the match. Decent goal - so close to a spectacular second, won so much his marker virtually gave up, and all in massive contrast to the donkey that was Bednar.

With Dyer and Vassell in same team we'd got some real pace with which to ask questions of defenders and yet could play the ball on the ground right across the forward line.

With those runners it meant midfield five - for 4-5-1 was our approach - had options and, finally we'd got 4/5ths of the Pearson defence and it all looked mostly sound again.

How sound? Well they had three real chances as I remember. The goal, a second shot which went wide from a similar situation to the first and a break in the second half when Weale did brilliantly to come out so fast and crowd the man enough to get him to shoot wide.

It wasn't the perfect storm of a performance by any means. First half we sat back too deep and allowed them to turn and pick their passes. Their goal and the second one that almost followed came from a startling failure to close down quickly.

But second half we showed much more urgency and won far more of the first and second balls to the point where I really didn't see Swansea scoring and we might easily have plundered another, Vassell's shot and the save which resulted being quite spectacular and Kingy should have scored with a glancing first half header..

Berner has made a habit of scoring the odd goal and what a popular opener it was. But it also highlighted the greater danger we present with Hobbs/Morrison able to join the attack for corners. Gallagher, to his credit, varied his approach by clipping a couple of corners short but having Hobbs/Morrison/King/Berner getting in there was much more threatening than what we had previously and Berner added to that by bringng a solidity and consistency to the left-back area.

Altogether while we had a slow start and conceded a disappointing goal it was a smashing result and one which confirms we should fear no-one at home. It was also victory for a system which seems to work well with our current players, most of whom put in a decent shift.

Thanks Tony you an M Dave seem to always capture the essence of the match. Happy New Year mate!

[Kitchandro]

We played really well today, should've scored at least one more. But either we failed to convert some great chances (sic!) or De Vries was in the way. Swansea had some decent passing play to offer, but apart from two long-range shots on goal and one that went in unfortunately, were neatly contained by a superb back four. Hobbs and Morrison were playing together the way they used to last season. Naughton had maybe one slip-up in the entire game, but was again a threat on both ends of the pitch.

My MOTM award (and surely many other will agree) goes to Bruno Berner. I mean, you look at what working rate he put in today. The amount of tackles he won, the headers, the positioning, everything just clicked for our Swiss left-back. To top it all, scoring in your full comeback just made my day even better. He needs to stay and I hope both him and Sven-Göran Eriksson find a mutual agreement. Yes, he's probably not the fastest (anymore), but what he lacks in speed he makes up with sheer dedication and determination.

What annoys me though is Eriksson's love for Gallagher, something I'll probably never understand. Yes, he won more headers today than in all of the past games this season, yes he assisted Bruno's goal from the corner, but once more, he just couldn't be arsed to move his arse around on the pitch. Gallagher, out of all the players, frustrates me most and that on a constant basis. He's a luxury item to have. He scores penalties, fair enough, but from open play? Maybe he's just fed up with being played on the wing - so I ask, why not playing Moussa instead?

Oh, and Sven: Why only two substitutions and why after 80+ minutes played?

Please keep up this winning streak, hopefully a series of positive results will see the Foxes regain the confidence they'd lost in the early stages of this Championship campaign. Concentrate on the league, take the FA Cup game as a bonus, work hard and get it done with

a) an away win against a Preston side desperately trying to stay alive in this division

b) a home win against Millwall (one word: REVENGE)

c) an away win against a struggling Sheffield United

d) a home win against Barnsley, because we always do well against them

The schedule does work in our favour, I think. Now c'mon - you know you can do it! Wins are needed mainly because the teams around us in the table have the advantage of having played one, two or even three games less than us. If we want this momentum going in 2011, we can't afford to drop points so easily (e.g. the way we did in the first half of the season).

We have a good keeper and a proper defense (I didn't miss Davies one bit today), now all the manager needs to focus on is getting the midfield playing together with more ease (Abe and Wellens were too playful today; King almost nowhere to be seen, but had two wonderful chances to extend our lead) and have them supply the striker(s) with good passes going forward.

I just knew someone would come on here and slate him, I just knew it. Sorry but apart from a couple of poor passes he did not do much wrong today.

I didn't want to mention the negatives after a good win and a good second half performance but if you are going to pick on Gallagher for no reason then I'm going to have to mention that everyone's favourite Abe was again mostly terrible, as he was against Leeds. He put very little effort in the first half and IMO you could not accuse Gallagher of that today. He was better in the second half, as most players were after a poor first half.

It baffles me that Gallagher is slated for not trying yet Abe, King and Dyer all escape a slating for their lack of effort in a first half where we didn't play well at all. I cannot believe some people are saying Abe 'worked tirelessly'. Absolute rubbish. I'm fed up with this favouritism where some players can do no wrong and others can do no right. King went missing again, Dyer looked frustrated and disinterested. Why does nobody slate them for that? Because everyone's forgotten the first half? Because it's not the fashion to slate those 3 players?

I'll accept he's shit at tackling but he runs far more than some of them - Abe, Dyer and King covered very little ground in the first half, there was no way they were giving 100%. Taking the foot off the gas was one of the reasons we conceded and there were plenty of players guilty of that. The defenders stood off Swansea too.

Thank God Fryatt's gone and wasn't sitting on the bench because I'm sure someone would have found a reason to slate him if he was.

[Kitchandro]

... are you having a giraffe?

Two of the worst performances I've seen in a long while today and easily the most boring game of football. Two clumsy goals from set pieces and one deflected hit-and-hope.

They were shit but at least they had reasonable ball retention for ninety odd minutes. Mostly aided by the fact we decided we didn't want to press anywhere on the pitch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted with three points, glad to see us stop a reasonable team getting any chances and I'm thrilled we've managed to score twice from a set piece. There's positives, sure.

But beyond there? Jesus wept. Here's hoping we play with a bit more enthusiasm next week.

Have to agree there, delighted with the result but we were terrible for most of the first half, we didn't look interested and took our foot off after the first goal, which let them back into it. Few player looked like they were giving 100% yet again, Abe and Dyer just walked around in the first half, very poor.

Second half we were better and mostly solid but never spectacular. Berner and Hobbs were our best players IMO and Vassell got better as the game went on.

Main positives were Berner's overall performance, the 2 centre backs, Vassell scoring again, scoring from 2 setpieces and beating a team which was second before today.

Very pleased with all of that but if I was being negative I'd have to say we looked weirdly demotivated after our first goal and we only looked bothered again in the second half. They could have easily equalised again with the Sinclair chance and it was frightening how much space we gave them. Decent performance overall but had we drew I would have said average at best.

A win is a win though.

[Finnegan]

Not entirely sure you were watching the same Yuki Abe as I was, mind. Not saying he was perfect - I definitely saw him give the ball away a couple of times with wayward passes - but to suggest he lacked effort seems a bit off. He was one of the few people I actually saw putting a foot in.