Swans once again left to rue officials' decision, but the performance wasn't good enough

It would be all too easy to blame the officials for dropped points, but the Swans' problems were once again evident against Valencia

Flat. That is a word that could accurately be used to describe the first seventy minutes of Swansea's performance last night, and if we're being honest the problems in evidence last night have been apparent for a while, and I'm starting to think there are aspects to our game which simply aren't working. 

Im firmly in the "don't forget where we've come from" camp, and I know that a 1-0 home loss to Valencia really is lightyears away from anything approaching a crisis point, however what is frustrating is we're clearly capable of performing to a higher standard than we have been for a while now. Yesterday's result only serves to emphasise that point.

Under Laudrup, we've definitely gone away from the tika-taka approach we've seen in SA1 over the last few years. Gone are the days when our central midfield trio are charged with dictating the pace of the game, and we now operate with only one "holding" midfielder alongside two more attacking minded players - the problem is we're not making the most of what this system should offer.

Previously, control of the centre of the park was key. With Joey Allen alongside Leon, for example, we knew that under serious pressure from any opposition we'd still be able to play our way up the field - but crucially we'd be able to do it by involving the attacking midfielder in neat triangles through the centre of the park. This hasn't been happening for a while now, as all too often the only option for Leon is a sideways or backwards pass. There's simply no forward option on too many an occasion, and this needs to be addressed before our form returns.

There are numerous reasons why this is happening, in my opinion. For a start, as mentioned, I think it's partly due to selection. Without a steady partner for Leon it's hard to build any kind of continuity, however I've said until I'm blue in the face that we could go a long way to addressing this by pairing Jose Canas with the Swansea stalwart. That would give a dependable, footballing base off which to build attacks, and anyone deployed ahead of that duo would receive plenty of ball into feet, which would then give our wingers more space by removing some of the creative pressure from the flanks. 

As for the wingers (and whether this is due to the aforementioned issue I can't say), I feel that while we have enjoyed success from the "inside forward" system, all too often it simply ends up crowding Bony, or whoever else is playing up top. If the wingers stuck on the touchline more often, it would stretch opposition defences and give more time and space to the central midfielders. In the second half against Valencia you could see that when Dyer, Lamah and Pablo (when he came on) stuck out on the touchline and received a pass to feet, it gave them a lot of options because the defence will always be scampering to cover in those positions.

Our two best chances (disallowed goal and clearance off the line) also came from crosses, which shows that when utilised correctly we can get joy out of the wings. It's just about finding the balance which works for the Swans. I feel bad criticising, but I'm not singling out anyone in particular and I don't think we're playing inherently badly, but as one tweet succinctly put it last night "we've improved technically under Laudrup but regressed tactically". There's definitely more to come from this squad, and when it comes it could lead to some really great things, because as I say we're not playing badly, we're just not playing as well as we could or perhaps should be.

As for last night, the problems mentioned above were out in full force. Leon struggled against a midfield which played with more cohesion than the home side's, and as such Valencia enjoyed large periods of the game without being seriously tested. Aside from the disallowed goal (I'll save that rant for another time) and the clearance off the line we rarely threatened, and Valencia spurned their own glorious chance to make it 2-0 late on when we were chasing a leveller. We can gesticulate and claim we deserved a point on the balance of play, which can definitely be argued, but we can also have no complaints about the loss as at the end of the day, Valencia took one of their chances. We had one harshly and incorrectly ruled out, but that counts for nothing come 90 minutes and we had enough time to get something out of the match.

Next up we've got Man City who are an even tougher opponent than the recently departed Spaniards. We're playing away at the Etihad, where City have been, frankly, imperious. The Liberty Stadium has seen the second most goals scored of any ground, with eleven for and eleven against the Swans. The Etihad is the only stadium which has seen more, with twenty-eight in total - of which twenty-six (TWENTY-SIX!) have been in favour of the hosts. They're "six and O" as an American would put it, which gives them an average of 4.3 goals per home game thus far.

It should be pretty easy, then...

Swansea 0 - 0 Man City - Signs of progress...

Originally I didn't think I was going to be able to see this game live, but with a couple of hours left until kickoff I put out an SOS on Twitter which seemed like it would ultimately bear fruit. As it happened, a few minutes later I received a text from a friend about a ticket which had become available, so there I was, off to the game.

The last time we'd played Man City at the Liberty we'd already given a respectable account of ourselves before Luke Moore rose majestically to head home the only goal of the game, but with his name listed among the substitutes he'd have to wait for his chance to make an impact. Laudrup picked the three wingers in front of De Guzman and Britton, with Michu up top, and retained Ben Davies at left back despite the mounting pressure no doubt being applied by the presence of a fully Neil Taylor in the squad. Other than Dyer coming in for Ki it's as you were for the Swans, and I felt it was harsh on the South Korean as he was excellent against Chelsea.

The game started and instantly settled into a very..."continental" pace. As time wore on though, Swansea were definitely in the ascendancy. Pablo looked livelier than he has done for a while, and Dyer looked comfortable combining with Rangel down the right. This ultimately produced the first real chance of the game, with Dyer breaking past Clichy and producing a cutback for Pablo, who scooped his shot over the bar.

Some Swans pressure then saw a succession of corners, one of which was cleared high up in the air in the direction of the East Stand, and had Chico Flores chasing it under pressure from a City defender. What happened next would sum up the hirsute Spaniard's day; he produced an immaculate first touch with the ball dropping from high over his shoulder, and shielded the ball until he could play a simple pass back to a team-mate. Chico was outstanding throughout today (one or two stray passes aside, but let's not talk about them) and along with Ash they bullied Aguero throughout until he was replaced by Tevez late on.

The Swans continued to look the more likely to score and Routledge broke through after a neat interchange of passes but Samir Nasri had tracked back well and made a crucial intervention, before Dyer produced an excellent cross for Michu, whose side-footed volley drifted agonisingly past Joe Hart's right upright. Next came a great chance for Man City - Gareth Barry floated a diagonal ball over Ashley Williams which found Nasri with no-one but Vorm to beat, but thankfully he volleyed weakly straight at the Dutch stopper who held his effort easily.

Leon beats Sergio Aguero to the ball

Then came the biggest talking point. Another few neat passes saw Michu bursting in to the box and taking a quick touch away from Nastasic and onto his favoured left foot, but he was clattered by the Serbian who, from where I was sitting, appeared to kick Michu square in the chops. One for MOTD to sort out I feel, but it looked a clear penalty to me. There was still time for the more illustrious opponents to threaten, and Silva went close with only an awesome tackle by Williams, then a smart save by Vorm keeping the score at 0-0 as the half time whistle blew.

Yaya Toure was replaced by Edin Dzeko at the interval, who looked lively but in truth the first twenty minutes of the second half were very similar to the first twenty minutes of the first half, in that both teams huffed and puffed but neither threatened to do any damage to each other's houses. Another controversial refereeing decision saw Dzeko looking to go past Chico, who stuck out his left leg (imagine him doing his best one-legged lunge and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it looked like) and Dzeko ran straight over it. Mike Jones waved that away too, possibly in an effort to placate home fans who had grown to dislike the match officials as the game wore on.

Next came probably Swansea's best opportunity of the second half. Pablo had found some space on the edge of the area and unleashed a drive across Joe Hart's goal, but sadly it was too high and drifted over the bar. A few minutes later De Guzman had a go from a free-kick about 25 yards from goal after Nathan Dyer was fouled by Vincent Kompany, but it drifted even further over the bar, and to be honest I can't remember any significant chances for the Swans after that. Worryingly, Michu had to leave the field after seemingly tweaking his hamstring, so hopefully that's nothing too serious. Luke Moore came on for Michu, but with time running out it was always going to be a big ask for him to repeat last year's heroics.

Man City then spurned possibly the two best chances of the game. Some good work from Pablo Zabaleta saw him produce a cutback right from the byline, and it deflected off a Swans limb in a way which saw it sit up for Edin Dzeko perfectly, no more than five or six yards from goal and with the Swansea defence flat footed. He somehow contrived to hook a weak effort across goal and away for a goal kick, but the Swansea faithful barely had time to breathe after another City attack saw the ball deflect into the path of David Silva, but his smashed low finish again drifted to Vorm's right and away for another goal kick.

Pablo Hernandez battles with Pablo Zabaleta

That was the last chance of note in a game where, after twenty minutes, I thought it was quite clear Man City must have been told to sit off the Swans and let us have possession, and for a team which cost hundreds of millions of pounds I think that's pretty disgraceful. Man City should be looking to turn over a team like Swansea every week, and negative tactics like those displayed today are probably the reason that Manchester United have romped home this season, with City trailing in their wake. They did seem to pick up the pressing as the game wore on, but that was more the result of having to match the level of intensity displayed by the Swans as they looked for an opening goal.


I thought the Swans played better than they had for a while, and were unlucky not to score in the first half. The final ball seemed to always be slightly behind the man, but that's closer than it has been for a while so we'll take that. A 0-0 draw against last year's champions isn't a result to be sniffed at, and the Swans worked hard for their point. Leon was outstanding today, his performance summed up in the 86th minute when, with City breaking forward, he tore back at full sprint and nicked in to play the ball back to Michel Vorm. I thought the entire Swansea backline deserve mention too. Rangel got forward well and made a number of interceptions, and the more I see of Ben Davies the more I like him; at one point he ran straight into Edin Dzeko and the Bosnian striker, all 6'4" of him, ended up on his backside. Don't mess with Ben.

All in all, it was a solid defensive performance and a decent point. Up next is Wigan away this Tuesday evening, and if we play like we did today I'd say we're a pretty safe bet for at least a point. Massive respect to anybody making that journey...

Swansea City v Manchester City - Preview, statistics, team news, analysis & more

Swansea City v Manchester City

      Barclays Premier League

Saturday 04/05/13

15:00pm K.O.

The Liberty Stadium

  Referee: Mike Jones

The Match

Swansea are still on the hunt for their first win since turning Newcastle over in the wake of the Carling Cup win, although the recent run of games has included Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal, so to criticise too heavily would possibly be a tad harsh. That being said, the performances over the last few games haven't been to the same standard as those displayed earlier in the season, and Laudrup will be keen to finish the season with a bang. Last time out these two sides played out the longest game in PL history (a 1-0 City win) - a game which saw 12 minutes of injury time due to injuries to Michel Vorm and Micah Richards. Both managers will be hoping for a shorter affair this time around as no doubt there are tired legs throughout both squads.

Man City have Champions League football more or less guaranteed, but in the short term they'll be looking forward to the FA Cup final, a week to the day after the Swans game. You have to hope some of the Man City players will have one eye on the upcoming final, but with a squad bursting with talent it's unlikely there'll be any perceivable letup from the Citizens. Whether Mancini will rotate his squad is up for debate, as any regular first-team players will be looking to nail down their place in the side for the FA Cup final, and with no real injury problems any City XI which takes the field will be clear favourites over a Swansea side who've been assembled at a fraction of the cost.

Prior Form (most recent at top)

Premier League                 Chelsea         2 - 0  Swansea
Premier League                Swansea       0 - 0   Southampton
Premier League                 Norwich         2 - 2  Swansea
Premier League                Swansea       1 - 2  Tottenham
Premier League                Swansea       0 - 2   Arsenal        

 

Premier League                Man City         2 - 1  West Ham
Premier League                Tottenham       3 - 1  Man City
Premier League                Man City        1 - 0  Wigan
FA Cup Semi-Final            Chelsea          1 - 2  Man City        

Premier League                Man Utd          1 - 2  Man City

Team News

Swansea are sweating on the fitness of Chico Flores, who bruised his arm in training (I know, it doesn't sound that bad to me either), while Roland Lamah is out with a hamstring injury. Neil Taylor is pushing for a start after making his first appearance since returning from injury against Chelsea last week.

Manchester City are only sweating on the fitness of Joe Hart, who tweaked his back last time out against West Ham, but other than that don't have any injury worries.

Trivia - "Courtesy" of Opta, the BBC and various other sites;

• Excluding penalties, Swansea have scored the lowest percentage of goals from set pieces (11.6%) and conceded the highest (40%).
• All three Barclays Premier League meetings between Swansea and Man City have seen the home side win whilst keeping a clean sheet.
• Swansea have won four and lost just one of their last six home league meetings with the Citizens.
• Samir Nasri has made four assists in his last five league games while he has either scored or assisted four goals in his last four games (in all competitions).
• Michu has scored a higher percentage of his team's goals than any other player in the top-flight this term (39%).
• Ashley Williams has made the most clearances (362) and the most blocks (47) in the Premier League this term.
• Man City have played the highest percentage of short passes in the top-flight this season (92%).
• The Swans have conceded at least two goals in five of their last six games.
• Both teams average 85% pass accuracy, but City just edge the average possession with 58% to Swansea's 55%.
• Over a third (15/44) of the goals Swansea have conceded this year have come in the 15 minutes before half time.
• Given that Man City score most of their away goals in the fifteen minutes before both half time and full time, that may spell disaster. 
• The Swans haven't won in six, but remarkably Man City haven't drawn in nine - a run which has seen them pick up seven wins.

Completely guessed lineups

Straight from the "horse's mouth";

Michael Laudrup acknowledges that recent performances deserve attention:

"It is always disappointing when you go into a bad run. Did I think there would be some reaction after the cup? Definitely. Reaching 40 points in that game with Newcastle was very important, but we're trying. We want to finish as well as we can in the league.

"We can analyse every game and look for reasons, but the fact is we have only won one game since. It is probably a combination of the club winning it's first major cup and the players feeling a bit tired. We have players that did not play so many games last season. It has been disappointing, but it is not up to me to make excuses, it is up to me to find explanations.

"We know we have got some very difficult games left against the champions of last season and the champions of this season at Old Trafford."

Aalysis

I fancy Man City to go at the Swans all guns blazing from the off. After last year's opening day defeat, where we held out valiantly for 60 minutes before City's added quality in attack saw them disappear into the distance 4-0 winners, the Swans have given Mancini's men a run for their money in both the subsequent games, and they won't fancy another cagey 90 minutes.

Whether Laudrup will change things up too much is doubtful, but I do see him going with Michu in midfield in what will undoubtedly be a bid to add a bit of "beef" to our midfield. I'm doubtful of the effect Michu has on the Swansea midfield, but I'm happy to be proved wrong. If he does go with that I'd expect him to go with Ki, who was excellent against Chelsea, and then obviously one of Leon or De Guzman alongside him. It's highly doubtful he'll go for the three wingers formation, put it that way.

Whoever he does select will likely be up against Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry. This is the kind of midfield that a Swansea side bereft of confidence will not enjoy playing against, so it's vital we control the game from the off. A nod to the Swansea of last year (or even of Paolo Sousa) could see us retain the ball without necessarily looking to bomb on straight away, as has become somewhat of a hallmark this year. Hopefully Leon will be back to his best after an off day in London last time out (in fairness you can consider his "off days" as collector's items), and Ash Williams too will be looking to prove a point after receiving some criticism for his own performance against Chelsea. I didn't think he was too bad to be fair...

It'll be really interesting to see who Laudrup picks at left back. My gut instinct is that Davies will start - it still seems a little soon to be pushing Davies out of the team but ultimately it may well be that Davies will retain his position for the rest of the year. He's shown no signs of fatigue and is no doubt itching to play every minute of every game as he looks to cement his place in the starting eleven. Whoever plays, they could be up against any one of David Silva, James Milner, Samir Nasri or even Scott Sinclair, so there's plenty to worry about in terms of opposition attacking threat - and we haven't even mentioned any centre-forwards yet.

I think Mancini may well give Dzeko a game - the guy is class and can feel unlucky to not have played more, and as part of an old fashioned centre-forward partnership he's something akin to the ultimate "big half" of a big strong guy/little fast guy partnership. Tevez has been enjoying a lot of game time and his combative nature may well see him get the nod too as Mancini looks to avenge the 1-0 defeat inflicted on City in the counterpart fixture last year, where the Swans had Luke Moore to thank for an excellent header late on which was enough for all three points.

A great photo of Luke Moore heading past Joe Hart last year

It's going to be a very tricky game. If we can get to half time at 0-0, then I fancy us to get a point. Whether we do that is another thing though. The level of performance across the team will have to improve - of the players who started at Chelsea I can honestly say I was only really impressed with Ki, Chico and Vorm - there seemed a lethargy across the team which needs to be addressed before this poor run of form starts to affect the atmosphere of the dressing room. It's got to be harder to motivate a group of players if you haven't won in two calendar months, and we need to get back to winning ways even if it's only for morale.

The main question is though - can Luke Moore do it again? Answers on a postcard.

Iechyd Da.