Sunday 26 October 2014

Three points at last!

Josh Kilmister's thoughts on yesterday's win over Leicester City




After four games without a win, it was a pleasant change to be looking forward to Match of The Day again!

So, where do I start? Apparently, our goals are too big. Yep, you read that right. The goals that (I assume) have been used game after game in the Premier League had Kasper Schmeichel concerned about the size of our goalposts. Of course after the referee had done measurements of both goalposts, there was nothing wrong. When asked about it after the game, Leicester manager Nigel Pearson simply said that he didn’t want Monk to come under any more controversy than he already has,

“The goalkeepers felt they looked a bit big. I think Garry Monk’s had enough controversy in the last seven days, so I thought it was prudent to check it out.” Nigel Pearson

Moving on from the thrilling story about our goalposts, and I thought Bony was superb; especially after his first goal. He looked back in the form of last season, winning everything both in the air and on the ground. He even managed to pull of a few flicks well worthy of a place in next week’s Soccer AM skill montage! Comfortable as ever on the ball, the big Ivorian put through Gylfi with one of his trademark back-heels before finishing off what for me, was  a certain winner of October's "Goal Of The Month" gong.

It wasn’t long before the ever noisy Swans fans voiced their support for Garry Monk, with chants of ‘He says what he wants, he says what he wants! Garry Monk, he says what he wants!’ echoing around the Liberty Stadium and on a week where referees have taken centre stage, I think that Mike Jones ran the game superbly. Hopefully we can see more refereeing performances like his in the future.

A slow start to the second half for Monk’s men was forgiven when Bony slotted home his second of the night. Sigurdsson played through Montero who outwitted the Leicester defence with a ball in to ‘daddy cool’, who scored his fourth goal in five games with power and precision. He then went off to dance alone, with no other Swans players in sight. Quite a comical sight if you ask me!

Gylfi was replaced with Tom Carroll immediately after the goal (the substitute wasn’t down to the goal, Carroll was ready to come on beforehand) and played really well. After struggling to get hold of the game in midfield, I think it was a stroke of genius from the gaffer to introduce the England Under 21 international into the game. His comparisons to Real Madrid maestro Luka Modric (perhaps more realistically Joe Allen!) were evident throughout as he grabbed the game with two hands and with the help of Ki, gave us a level of control that we’re more used to.

Now, if you follow me on Twitter you’ll know that I’m not the biggest fan of Neil Taylor. I want him to do well, I really do, but today’s game didn’t fill me with confidence. Sure, he made a good tackle every now and again, but overall I feel he was poor, and I know I’m not the only one who feels the same. Too often he was wrong-footed by Leicester players who aren’t necessarily of a superb standard, and his first touch was one of someone who had just returned from injury; not someone who has been fit for well over a year. Should Stephen Kingsley be given a chance at Anfield on Tuesday night? I think it’s definitely an option. Should we look into a possible replacement for Tayls in January? I think it’d be wise.

Apart from that, I don’t think anyone will be worried about a poor performance. Ash bounced back from being a little shaky last week to being as solid as he’s ever been. Fede is getting better every game, with his ability to pick out a pass becoming more evident as well as his defensive abilities, and Fabianski is showing the world what a great piece of business it was to bring him to South-Wales on a free. You’ll hear it over and over again that a good goalkeeper can go eighty-nine minutes without breaking a sweat, and then spring into action when called upon. That’s exactly what Lukasz did, pulling off an incredible double save to prevent Leicester substitute Esteban Cambiasso grabbing a consolation goal for the Tigers.



When Gylfi was taken off, Jonjo Shelvey stepped up to the role that he impressed us all in last season. Playing just behind Bony, Jonjo rattled the bar with one of his trademark thirty-yard efforts before almost setting up Routledge for a third, with Leicester now struggling to keep up with our counter-attacks whilst trying to get back into the game themselves.

The last ten minutes of the game saw Routledge replaced by Nathan Dyer and a seemingly frustrated Wilfried Bony taken off for Bafe Gomis. There’s a few rumours going around that Bony wasn’t best impressed with Monk’s choice to deny him of a possible hat-trick, but after the best eighty minutes of his season so far I assume that Wilf was back to his happy self not long after.

So overall, I sit here watching The X Factor a very happy Swans fan, and finishing off this piece with twenty minutes to spare before Match of The Day (on which we are on second to last, just before Liverpool-Hull, no surprises there). With our next league games being Everton, Arsenal and Man City, maybe we can make our way up Mr. Lineker’s pecking order in the next few weeks.

Thanks to Josh for this piece - as you can tell he got it to me yesterday but I only managed to get around to putting it up now. Give him a follow on Twitter @JoshKilmister

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