Why is our league form so poor?
Right, welcome back and all that. This is my first blog posted on GMT since before Christmas due to my forays to the other side of the world, and if I'm honest the FA Cup win over Manchester United seems the only thing worth writing home about since my departure.
You can take your pick of the stats which indicate our league form really should be better. No win in eight, and we've got the worst record of any PL team in the last few months - picking up just three points of the last twenty-four on offer. So why is it that we've been struggling?
Firstly, you can't discount injuries. The current injury list is as legnthy as anything I've seen during my time supporting the Swans, and we're missing almost our entire midfield. With Shelvey limping off against Spurs, it seems there's another name added to that list, so hopefully we'll see some cover brought in during the transfer window. Be that on a permanent basis or a loan, well that all depends on the player in question, but it now seems likely we'll see one or two new faces at the Liberty before the window slams shut at the end of January.
Tactics, then. Fans are growing increasingly frustrated with our inability to penetrate teams. I saw some stats in the Evening Post a few weeks ago which showed that while we top the average possession and passes completed charts, we're actually rock bottom of the "% of passes completed in the final 1/3", and we also play the most sideways passes of any team in the PL. Indicative? I'd say so. For a long time I've been saying our lack of control in the centre of the park is going to come back to bite us in our derrière, and it seems that's now happening.
At present (due to injuries and a "needs must" selection policy) this argument isn't particularly valid, but our insistence on playing one holding midfielder alongside a load of attacking players simply isn't working. We're retaining the ball, sure, but unless we're capable of building solidly then what's the point? Other teams are now routinely showing that, against us at least, you don't need much of the ball to score goals. If we could only retain possession in the centre of the park - which we've shown we were capable of doing in the past - that would go a long way in solving our problems.
At present it's going wide every time, and the amount of responsibility our fullbacks have in terms of creating attacking opportunities is too much, in my opinion. We shouldn't be relying on defenders to provide width - there are plenty of attacking players in our lineups so to rely so heavily on players whose first job is to defend is starting to look a questionable tactic. We keep getting caught out at the back, and I feel this is due to our over-reliance on Ben Davies and Angel Rangel getting forward, leaving their centre-backs exposed.
Against Manchester United in the league we started with Leon & Canas in midfield, and I felt for the fifteen minutes we looked excellent. There was a better balance to the team, and it was only after the Spaniard left the field injured that United started to come into it.
So, I'll leave you with that for now. Just a quick one on my lunch break today, but if you agree (or disagree) get in touch using the comment section, or on Twitter @TheSwanseaWay.