Swansea's pre-season finishes abjectly
Today's
friendly against Villareal promised to be a brilliant day out. The sun
was shining, we were due to see what most assumed would be our "first
eleven" which would be used a week today against Manchester United, and I
was fairly confident when I eventually got to my seat (more on that in
another blog) in the East Stand that I would be seeing a Swansea
victory.
Sadly,
by the time the final whistle blew the sky had darkened and a chill was
in the air. Quite apt given the performance of our beloved team today.
We were second best all over the park, and Villareal's early goal set
the tone - we never competed and struggled to impose ourselves, or to
get to grips with the rather lopsided diamond formation we set out in.
The formation is so wonky and avant-garde that I had to get my phone out
to do a little graphic. For those who couldn't watch the game, it was
something like this:
As
you can see, it's a bit bold. The result today was that Villareal found
endless space in behind our wingers (as our fullbacks had little
protection given where their respective wingers were most often to be
found), and worryingly also seemed to be able to waltz through our
midfield too. I say midfield, at one point in the second half there was
no Swansea player to be found between defence and attack - it was very
disjointed and this system relies very specifically on Gomis (or Bony,
but mainly the Frenchman today) drifting out right, and occupying the
space left by Sigurdsson on the wing as he cuts inside.
This
then allows for a combination move between the forward, Rangel &
Sigurdsson, and in fairness you can see why they're trying to make this
work as all of our best chances today (though there weren't that many)
came from moves of this nature. It's bold, and it's got potential, but
it'd be hard to make the case that it worked today.
I
made some notes today (oo get you), some of which I've covered above
but something else I made a note of is that if one of your strikers
continuously comes deep to get the ball, you're not really playing with
two up top. You're most definitely not getting the most out of having
two strikers on the field, that's for sure.
There were
positives today. Let's finish with something nice eh? Gomis looked more
of a player than I've previously given him credit for, and showed some
really nice touches whilst holding the ball up. Wilf-esque, even.
Fabianski made some good saves too, though how culpable he was for the
frankly embarrasing third goal I can't say before I see replays. He made
one absolutely audacious save to tip a second-half shot around the
post, and I've said before I think he's an upgrade on Vorm. He did
nothing today to alter that opinion.
Also, if we can
get this formation working it'd be very dangerous, and we could see
ourselves scoring lots of goals. Today though we were cut apart at the
back on way too many an occasion, and serious thought needs to go into
how we'll line up next weekend. If Villareal did that to us I dread to
think what Van Gaal's United could do.
That being said, it was only a friendly eh? Friendlies don't matter, right?