"The Swansea Way" - Swansea & Wales' Premier Sports Blog

Monday, 11 November 2013

Now that we've calmed down a bit...

...what can we take from yesterday's performance?

Ok, so I think we can justifiably feel robbed of the two points taken from us by referee Robert Madley, however I've stated on numerous occasions I don't particularly like talking about refereeing decisions. Instead, let's have a look at the performances of the Swansea players. I haven't done it in this format before, but it seems quite natural so let's give it a go.

GK - Gerhard Tremmel - Had little to do. Stoke had three shots on target - including the penalty - but he was given little chance. If you were feeling harsh you could say he might have got something on the first goal, but that would be very, very picky. Otherwise, solid as expected.

RB - Angel Rangel - Quiet and isolated in the first half, buoyed by the arrival of Dyer in the second. You could see he was visibly frustrated at the lack of width in front of him, and he remonstrated with teammates on numerous occasions. After the break though, he linked well with Dyer and the extra width created benefited the team massively.

LB - Ben Davies - One of Ben's quieter games, but he was generally solid. Perhaps (along with Chico) soft for the first Stoke goal, but after the break he showed more adventure and played a couple of nice dinked through balls, as well as committing his man more often.

CB - Chico Flores - Guilty of attempting a cute flick away from Jon Walters which saw him go on to score, and later booked for theatrics. Not impressed, if I'm honest. The East Stand applauding his yellow card says it all really - man up.

CB - Ashley Williams - Off the field when Stoke opened the scoring due to injury, he came back on and led from the back as usual. Strode out of defence well, and generally looked tidy and competent.

MF - Leon Britton - What can you say about Leon that isn't said week in week out? Industrious, neat, willing and so much more. If all our central midfielders played like Leon, we'd never lose the ball.

MF - Jonathan De Guzman - It says something that the biggest contribution I thought he made was leaving the field to make way for Shelvey. He did provide a tasty cross for Bony's opener, in fairness, but I thought in open play he was poor, and displayed a lack of fight and commitment I've been noticing for a while.

MF - Alex Pozuelo - Supposedly playing "in the hole" for the first time in his first league start, he found himself pushed out to the right wing for large swathes of the first 45 minutes, due to Routledge and Lamah adopting free roles. Still though, he managed to produce our best effort of the first half, and Stoke looked unable to control him until he tired late on.

LW - Roland Lamah - Unlucky to be substituted at half time in as much as I thought he was only as bad as various others based on the 1st half performance, but hard to argue with the difference the sub mate. Looked lively and showed he has a good first touch, but ineffective.

RW - Wayne Routledge - Suitably industrious, but wandered into the space Bony should have been occupying far too often in the 1st half. Far better once Dyer joined in the second half - both started playing like real wingers and gave the side width, which afforded the central midfielders more room to operate in.

CF - Wilfried Bony - Feed the bull, and he will score. Fluffed a glorious first half opportunity but made up for it with two proper centre forward's goals in the second half - a header and a neat left footed finish made more impressive by the way he bought himself a yard of space directly before Shelvey squared it to him. He's now got three in his last two games, and fans will hope he can continue this form after the international break. Hopefully some fans who were audibly getting on his back will now shut up.

SUBS

Dyer - Very influential in terms of changing the game. As mentioned, stretched the game and seemed to want to take his man on at every opportunity, something he's not been doing of late. More of this please, Nath. Got the equaliser and boy did he enjoy it.

Jonjo Shelvey - Another good sub from Laudrup. Shelvey looked great when he came on, and grabbed the assist for what we assumed had to have been the winner. Looked focused - he seems to be getting a touch more composed and hopefully by the end of the season we'll be witnessing much calmer displays from the one-cap England midfielder.

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Swansea 3 - 3 Stoke - The clichéd "game of two halves"...

Swansea come from two goals down to lead, before controversial refereeing decision robs them of two points

If ever there was a game which demonstrated why there is a saying in football which goes "it was a game of two halves...", then today was that game.

We lined up with a couple of changes to the team we'd become used to. Roland Lamah and Alex Pozuelo came in with a view to playing a more intricate passing game in the final third than we've become used to in previous games, but in truth I thought we were absolutely awful in the 1st half. Stoke had two shots on target in the first half, and around 34% of the possession, but they went in 2-0 ahead. How is that possible? Well, I've got some observations.

For almost the entire of the first half, the Swans played with more or less no width at all. We lined up with Bony up top, Lamah & Routledge out wide and Pozuelo in the hole, but I'm at a loss to describe the tactics we operated with in the first half. Time and again Lamah and Routledge were both to be found on the left wing within five metres of each other, and we were playing with such lack of width that Stoke easily fended off our attacks for the first fourty-five minutes.

This in turn affected Bony. He ended up drifting to the back post because, frankly, everyone else was where he was supposed to be. If he gets crowded out it's not his fault if he has to move to find space, and the wingers operating so narrowly meant any time he had the ball he had more or less the entire Stoke time in attendance - not an easy situation within which to operate and very, very easy for it to look like you've got a naff touch. Never mind you've got Robert Huth and Ryan Shawcross breathing down your neck - if you miscontrol it it's got to be your fault, right?

I haven't watched highlights yet, but the opener came with Ashley Williams off the field after receiving treatment on an injury he picked up after landing heavily following a corner. That being said, the manner with which Stoke unpicked our defence was just painful to watch. A couple of quick passes and BANG, they were in, and their two shots on target in the first half resulted in two goals which saw them lead 2-0 at the break. Ok, the first came when we were a man down but the second we can have no complaints over, other than it was simply a case of schoolboy defending. Players got sucked in and left gaps behind, which Stoke waltzed into ruthlessly before converting on both occasions.

Wilfriend Bony was gifted our best chance of the first half - stealing in on a poor back-pass, however he failed to convert. When it seemed he was certain to score, he tried to dance around the keeper and Begovic did enough, before Routledge drew a follow-up save from the man famous for scoring last time out. Fans' frustrations were audible, but thankfully Bony would go on to silence any critics with his second half exploits. As for Begovic, his time-wasting from the off was shameful, and I'm pretty sure I saw him shove a couple of our players when they'd grown frustrated of his slow-playing exploits and got in his face - why the referee didn't deem this more punishable than he did I don't know.

So, the second half. Dyer replaced Lamah and while I thought that was harsh on Lamah, it made an immediate difference. We actually had width, and this created more space for our midfield to operate in. This in turn saw our performance improve, and it we didn't have to wait too long before Wilfried Bony clawed one back for us. De Guzman whipped a cross in and Bony headed home past Begovic. A fine finish, and a sign of things to come.

Bony had another chance, this time supplied by Dyer, but saw his backheeled effort was blocked, before the diminutive winger himself equalled things. A cross was only half-cleared, and Dyer managed to aim his finish into the ground and away from Begovic. Two all, and all of a sudden things were very interesting.

Step up Wilfried Bony. I've stated on countless occasions that if we give him the ball in the right situations, he will score. Well, today we gave him the ball in the right positions (for one half at least) and he scored twice - and arguably should have scored at least once more. It was another substitute (Jonjo Shelvey this time) who fed the Ivorian, who was on hand in the centre to divert the ball home. 3-2, and surely all she wrote? Not a chance - this is Swansea we're talking about! Where would we be without some diabolical officiating?

So it was, that the referee made sure that, once again, we're talking about a refereeing decision as opposed to tactics. There was a corner (which I think I'm right in saying was re-taken) - it went out for a goal-kick, Stoke didn't appeal and all of a sudden it was a penalty. Well done ref, everyone now knows your name. Charlie Adam converted, and Stoke rescued a point. Painful.

Overall, a much better second half and some excellent substitutions, but we shouldn't have been 2-0 down in the first place. Another frustrating day, but one positive at least is the fans seemed to take Bony to heart after he put us 3-2 in front. Hopefully we'll see less of the sniping and "run around like Adrian Forbes!" than we've been seeing in the last few weeks.

So, we're now into the international break. Hopefully that'll give Ash a chance to rest up, Bony a chance to gain some extra fitness, and fans a chance to take stock on things. We're not a bad side, and we're not going to be relegated, but we need to play with the desire and fluency we showed in the second half for the entirety of matches.

As Alan Shearer once said: "Scoring goals hurts".

Swansea v Stoke - Match preview, team news, statistics & analysis

The Match

Swansea showed enough in their performance against Kuban Krasnodar to fuel fans belief that a return to form is just around the corner. Despite not capitalising on a dominant first half performance, they did seem to play with a cohesion that we haven't really been seeing of late. They'll have to improve again if they're to claim all three points against a Stoke side for who have slipped down the table as the league starts to take shape. After yet again being mugged late on and seeing three points slip from their grasp in the Europa League, they'll no doubt be keen to put on a positive display of football which will hopefully initiate an upturn in form once we return from the international break.

Stoke started the season in a way which led people to believe we were about to witness the sparkling transformation of a team whose previous tactics were more bludgeoning than beautiful. Early season plaudits which were being lavished upon a new-look Stoke side have quickly disappeared though, and they find themselves sitting only one place above the relegation zone with nine points from ten games. Keep that kind of form up all season and it'll be touch and go whether they're still in the Premier League next year. That being said, their only two points behind the Swans, and a win would see them leapfrog their hosts much like Cardiff did last weekend. Urgh.

Prior Form (Most recent at top)

Team News - provided by Physioroom.com's Ben Dinnery

Swansea take on Stoke this weekend in a switch back to a more familiar Sunday kick-off after their midweek Europa League exertions. Laudrup is expected to welcome back Jonjo Shelvey who missed the game through personal reasons but the Welsh side will be without influential Spanish forward Michu (knee / ankle problems) and the unfortunate Pablo Hernandez who is seeking specialist guidance following another recurrence of a problematic thigh injury. Tremmel will deputise for the suspended Michel Vorm while captain Ashley Williams will have a late test following a slight ankle reaction after the Krasnodar game, although the issue is not thought to be serious. Ben Davies will be available to make his first Premier League start since his ankle injury at Sunderland, but Garry Monk (knee) is expected to remain out.

Stoke travel to Swansea with a number of concerns and Mark Hughes is hoping the extra days rest will be enough to welcome back at least one / two of his players for this key game. Republic of Ireland international Jon Walters has been struggling with a thigh problem all week but did manage to join the session on Friday, providing he has no reaction the forward should be available for selection. Defensively there are question marks over full-back Erik Pieters (back) and centre-half Robert Huth who is struggling with an on-going ankle problem, however the latter is expected to be fine. Andy Wilkinson (knee) is almost certainly ruled out and there will be a late assessment on midfielder Glenn Whelan after he was substituted at half-time against Southampton due to a hamstring complaint.

Completely guessed lineups

Statistics & Trivia

Excluding the 4-0 win over Sunderland, Swansea have only scored eight goals in nine matches.
Three of the last four league games between Swansea and Stoke have ended as 2-0 home wins.
Stoke's away wins in 2013 have coincided with their clean sheets on the road (two games).
Swansea have gone 208 minutes without conceding a Barclays Premier League goal at home.
No Stoke player has more Premier League goals than goalkeeper Asmir Begovic this season (1).
This game pits together two of the four Premier League teams yet to score a headed goal this season, while, the Liberty Stadium is the only Premier League ground yet to see a headed goal this season.
Swansea's Álex Pozuelo is the most used substitute in the Premier League this season (eight times).
Stoke have not won any of their last seven Premier League games; the joint-longest winless run in the Premier League with Crystal Palace.
Stoke have lost 10 of their last 14 Premier League away games.
Marko Arnautovic has made 19 league appearances in 2013 but is yet to be on the winning side. It's the longest such record in the top five European leagues.
Jon Walters is expected to make his 100th consecutive Premier League start. It is the longest current streak in the division.

Straight from the horse's mouth

Gerhard Tremmel admits he'd like to mimic Begovic by scoring a goal, and thinks the Swans are well equipped to deal with Stoke's threat at set-pieces:

"That's one of my aims [scoring a goal] but there is not a lot of time left for me to do it! It was quite windy last weekend - I have never conceded a goal like that, but of course I will be on my guard after that. Begovic can kick the ball a very long way, but I don't think you could call him a dangerman!"

"In the last few years they [Stoke] have been the strongest team in the Premier League when you talk about high balls. They have a lot of big players, but we are aware of that. We have to keep the ball on the ground, pass it quickly and try to create chances."

"We mentioned this [set-pieces] before the match at Cardiff. Our record before that was one set-piece goal conceded in 18 games, and that's a very good record, but teams like Stoke will always create chances from set-pieces because they have so many big lads. I am not too concerned about that — as long as they do not score."

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/story-20056651-detail/story.html

Michael Laudrup has called for one big push before the players go into the international break:

"Some of the players may be a little bit tired, but after tomorrow we have two weeks until the next game so I want them to give everything against Stoke, and I think with the spirit we showed in Krasnodar, especially in the first half, we can get the result we want against Stoke.

"It's not a decisive game — we are not even a third of the way into the league yet, but it is an important game for us. It's a home game and it's the first game in the league since we lost the derby, so there are a lot of ingredients that make it one that we really, really want to win."

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/story-20056646-detail/story.html?

Analysis

A home win here would really, really help. The 4-0 home win over Sunderland is fast starting to look like a freak result, and the Swans need to show they're capable of playing as a cohesive unit from one to eleven.

Stoke showed early in the season that they were intent on breaking away from Tony Pulis' physical shackles, and seemed set to embark on a remarkable season playing attractive football. The danger with such a marked transformation, however, is that when it fails you're left without a plan "A" - and that's exactly what's happened in recent times. Stoke are on a very poor run of form (only Crystal Palace can boast of a worse record) and Swansea can perhaps look at Stoke and wonder whether any comparisons can be drawn. After all, we've gone away from our plan A and frankly, on evidence of recent performances we need to get back to it.

Wilfried Bony will surely start, and he'll have Robert Huth and Ryan Shawcross to deal with. For me, this could be the perfect match for him - he'll have the muscle to mix it with the centre-halves but hopefully the guile to get the better of them. We can but hope, but this could well be a match where Bony's confidence gets a massive boost. Fingers crossed.

Given Stoke's change in styles, we have to be confident as Swansea fans. A home win before heading into the international break? Yes please. Hopefully we can pick up a clean sheet too - Gerhard Tremmel is a real fan favourite and personally I rate him above Vorm. That's a debate for another day though...

My prediction? Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke. Goes with the statistics, that, too...

Friday, 8 November 2013

Ash Williams deletes Twitter account after taking abuse from fans

Why oh why do some fans feel the need to abuse our own players?

Not too long ago Nathan Dyer removed himself from the Twittersphere, and now Ash has gone too. Well done to anyone who felt it appropriate to hurl abuse at our captain, it clearly worked and now he's gone.

Don't think I attach too much importance to Swansea players maintaining a presence on social networks - personally I couldn't give a flying...two hoots whether any player, coach, manager or board member wants to communicate with fans directly, but I do think it serves as an excellent interface which allows fans the opportunity to interact with their heroes and idols much more directly than was previously possible.

When compared with times gone by, footballers earn proportionally so much more than the fans who pay to see them play that I feel anything which bridges the gap between the two worlds is more than welcome. That's why it's been so disappointing to witness Ashley Williams in particular come in for all kinds of abuse on Twitter, especially in the aftermath of the Cardiff game. Alright, I didn't manage to get a ticket, but from watching on TV it looked like he was one of our best performers. Why people would abuse him after that I don't know - and that's before you factor in a) how good he's been for us since signing and b) that he's been one of a few players who've come out and openly stated our level of performance hasn't been good enough.

To me however, the big concern is the negative effect this kind of thing has on the players who ply their trade for our club. I've stated before on a number of occasions that I'm firmly of the belief that non-constructive criticism achieves absolutely nothing positive, and only serves to demoralise those targeted. What's more, the club have spent so long building continuity and a family atmosphere at the club that it beggars belief some would jeopardise that (or, potentially, a player's happiness) purely so they can have a childish - and probably badly spelled - rant.

The players aren't alone in bearing the brunt of fans' frustrations. Leigh Dineen took some abuse recently (and has done so on a number of occasions) and I find that kind of thing possibly even more baffling than ranting at the players themselves. Leigh and the rest of the board have worked tirelessly since taking charge, and deserve all the credit they get/have been given in recent times. It's very much a case of "careful what you wish for" - I'd imagine critics would rather we were run like Newcastle, Sunderland, Fulham or any other bastion of good financial planning and stability. No? Thought not.

While social media allows fans to interact with people who would previously have been beyond contact, it doesn't mean those same people are beyond taking abuse personally - and why shouldn't they? Anyone who accuses Ash of giving less than 100% during his time at Swansea City is dreaming, as the guy is a warrior who has only just returned to action after playing through the pain barrier at Crystal Palace, exacerbating the injury he was carrying. Whether he should have done that (or been allowed to) is another story. For him to then receive endless abuse regarding his performance and god knows what else is, to me, unacceptable.

I'm sure most level-headed fans feel the same way about this, and if you're reading this it's probably a case of preaching to the choir. I'd also wager that the fans berating players on Twitter were of the same ilk as those berating Bony within minutes of him making his debut. You can't please some people, but we can try to make them see that abuse will bring nothing but division in the ranks and a loss of morale.

With the psychological aspect of sports performance increasingly coming to the fore, we should recognise that the role of the supporter is just that - to support. There's a time and a place for criticism, and generally it doesn't involve getting in a player's face on Twitter.

Thursday, 7 November 2013