Entirely Predictable - Utterly Embarrasing

[Isaw Joeshaw]

As soon as I saw the lineup , my heart sank . I knew we were going to struggle , and struggle we did .

To play at home against a club in complete turmoil with a midfield five consisting of two fullbacks masquerading as wingers and two others whose propensity is to pass the ball sideways or backwards is , for me almost beyond belief , and the resulting performance only confirmed that opinion .

Others have complained about poor performances from the strikers but today , had we had Shearer and Lineker in their prime , neither would have had a sniff at goal as a result of the pitiful service they received.

Embarrassing because , in front of a large TV audience , we looked a pale shadow of the Sheffield United that started last season and received plaudits from all over the country .

Unless there is a serious rethink about our team selection and formation this is going to be one hard season and CW , despite my admiration for what he has done for us , can't abdicate responsibility for performances like this by blaming it on individual mistakes .

 

[Shirty Blade]

Yup! Thought Baldock did okay in the attacking sense, but in the second half they really troubled us down his side. Central midfield was gash and Stevens cross into the stand at the end said it all!

 

[Carlton Blade]

Yup! Thought Baldock did okay in the attacking sense, but in the second half they really troubled us down his side. Central midfield was gash and Stevens cross into the stand at the end said it all!

Harsh on Baldock. He was all over the place trying to get some attacks going and the whole point of the 5 is there should be defensive cover.

 

[northsomersetblade]

We were looking on our last legs at the end of last season and none of the elderly gents we had then have got any younger.
But it would always be a mistake to think that a newly relegated prem team was going to roll over and lay down for us.
Interesting test of Tufty's plan B and C coming up over the next few months.

 

[AWetFlannel]

A twisted way to view things...
Swansea are not 'in turmoil'.
They aren't 'full backs masquerading as wingers', they are wing backs.
If you are utterly embarrassed by getting narrowly beaten by a team just relegated from the prem with probably double our wage bill, god knows how you survived league 1.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Harsh on Baldock. He was all over the place trying to get some attacks going and the whole point of the 5 is there should be defensive cover.

And therein lies the crux of the matter .

When wing backs push forward and then lose the ball , which is almost always the case with ours , they then have to retreat around 70 yards in order to do their defensive duties and , when they get there , don't know where to go since other players have tried to cover their positions .

This results in the sort of chaos we saw in our box today , with plenty of bodies but no shape whatsoever .

I've said it before and I'll say it again , to play this system both the wing backs themselves and the back three have to be exceptionally talented and versatile and ours simply aren't .

We got away with it in the pub league but now , against much better opposition , the frailties of the system are being exposed time and time again .

 

[INTAKE BLADE]

When I saw the line up I also thought fuck,
But, it's only the first game and hopefully Chris will have seen our short comings and start with his strongest, most attacking team at Boro.

 

[Oldun]

You just have to look at Wolves last season to see how important their wing backs were to them. No point playing with wing backs if they don’t get forward, play high up the field and keep possetion. Both their regular wing backs chipped in with more than their fair share of goals and assists. If we are serious about this formation we should have been in for Barry Douglas who they have just sold to Leeds for a couple of million. Our ‘wing backs’ are simply not good enough to play this formation.

 

[shrubbery]

I’m afraid the Chris dropped a bollock today. Plain and simple. And then when he had the opportunity to change things during the game he dropped a few more.

That central midfield setup was literally asking for trouble and it does surprise me that he didn’t think the same before picking the bloody thing.

Why on earth would you leave Duffy on the bench and start with Lungstram AND Evans? Maybe he was trying to keep things tight until the last 20 and then go for the win with a personnel change? If that was the case then he needs to stop overestimating patently average opponents and start pressing teams as we did for the first half of last season.

Egan’s performance was also a worry for me. The Brentford fans were quick to comment on his lack of composure on the ball and on today’s evidence they were justified. I lost count of the number of times he gave the ball away with both long and short passes. He was also badly skinned for their winner. Worrying.

Somebody in the coaching staff, please spend some serious time teaching Stevens how to cross a football and showing Baldock how to actually beat a man and move the ball forwards down the wing and not to always take the safe and easy option.

Very disappointed tonight as I was for a good chunk at the end of last season.

Sort it out please Chris.

 

[Lane Ender]

Yup! Thought Baldock did okay in the attacking sense, but in the second half they really troubled us down his side. Central midfield was gash and Stevens cross into the stand at the end said it all!

Swansea’s wingers will trouble most sides this season

 

[DaleHillBlade]

Bit disappointed, truth be told, I thought the OP was about the reaction of fans to a narrow defeat against a decent Swansea side.

 

[Geordie Blade]

Considering that we had a very defensive midfield, all three were completely absent for the equaliser. If we’re going to set up defensively, we have to do it right. Otherwise, I’d much rather see us playing Duffy or Woodburn a bit further forward.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Considering that we had a very defensive midfield, all three were completely absent for the equaliser. If we’re going to set up defensively, we have to do it right. Otherwise, I’d much rather see us playing Duffy or Woodburn a bit further forward.

Spot on - CW said we played the midfield to match them up - then in that case, we failed miserably. They complexly bossed 2nd half and we were living on scraps.

Last season we didn't set up to match the opposition - seems first game of the season we tried to not lose the game instead of a team to try and win a game of football at HOME.

UTB

 

[SwissBlade]

And therein lies the crux of the matter .

When wing backs push forward and then lose the ball , which is almost always the case with ours , they then have to retreat around 70 yards in order to do their defensive duties and , when they get there , don't know where to go since other players have tried to cover their positions .

This results in the sort of chaos we saw in our box today , with plenty of bodies but no shape whatsoever .

I've said it before and I'll say it again , to play this system both the wing backs themselves and the back three have to be exceptionally talented and versatile and ours simply aren't .

We got away with it in the pub league but now , against much better opposition , the frailties of the system are being exposed time and time again .

The wing backs weren’t the problem. Central midfield and up front were

 

[Pinchy]

Dem knees are a-jerking after one fucking game.

That’s what I find predictable and embarrassing.

Great or gash. There’s no grey for the S2 cognoscenti.

 

[alcoblade]

“Entirely predictable - utterly embarrassing”

I was expecting a thread about snowflakes and over reactions.

 

[Blade56]

As soon as I saw the lineup , my heart sank . I knew we were going to struggle , and struggle we did .

To play at home against a club in complete turmoil with a midfield five consisting of two fullbacks masquerading as wingers and two others whose propensity is to pass the ball sideways or backwards is , for me almost beyond belief , and the resulting performance only confirmed that opinion .

Others have complained about poor performances from the strikers but today , had we had Shearer and Lineker in their prime , neither would have had a sniff at goal as a result of the pitiful service they received.

Embarrassing because , in front of a large TV audience , we looked a pale shadow of the Sheffield United that started last season and received plaudits from all over the country .

Unless there is a serious rethink about our team selection and formation this is going to be one hard season and CW , despite my admiration for what he has done for us , can't abdicate responsibility for performances like this by blaming it on individual mistakes .

A man who knows his pork pies

 

[Blade56]

Dem knees are a-jerking after one fucking game.

Check the last 30 games

 

[wavy-blade]

It could be worse we could be Rotherham , there going to get tonked every Saturday , with the exception when they play us , that's a 0-0 draw banker !!

 

[1066blade]

Bit disappointed, truth be told, I thought the OP was about the reaction of fans to a narrow defeat against a decent Swansea side.

I think the points being made are not about losing narrowly (we will lose a lot more this season) It's the very poor performance by the team as a whole that is worryingly evident, we need to buy to replace the players who clearly are not up to the task, failure to do this will ultimately lead to questions regarding the manager himself.

 

[AWetFlannel]

I think the points being made are not about losing narrowly (we will lose a lot more this season) It's the very poor performance by the team as a whole that is worryingly evident, we need to buy to replace the players who clearly are not up to the task, failure to do this will ultimately lead to questions regarding the manager himself.

We've had a great transfer window so far, how much money do you think we're going to spend after we've brought another striker in?
If you want to see a 'very poor' performance, look to Rotherham who got tonked by 5. Swansea have been in the prem for about 7 years, nearly the same amount of time as we spent in league 1.

 

[west_yorks_blade]

I'm thinking about having a massive over-reaction to something soon (haven't decided what yet), and I need some pointers as to the best way to approach it.

From what I have seen in the last 12 hours, this forum seems really good at this sort of thing - so any advice gratefully received.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

A midfield of Evans, Lundstram and Fleck is always more likely to sit and try and be solid, with only Fleck like to drive the game to the opposition.

Which begs the question, why were we setting up so defensively? It was a chance to really take the game to them, at home.

P.s. we're going to really miss Brooks this season, we've got no movement or pace up front, at all.

 

[super_pig]

don’t mind us losing if we play well
so Pinchy mate.. what did you reckon to all if the hoof balls launched up in the air especially by Egan and then even JoC started doing it??
not seen that many aimless balls under CW before

 

[Eric Cartman]

We’ve become the championship side we used to take the piss out of.

Passing the ball, possession for possessions sake rather than trying to make cut throat attacking moves like we used to. It’s bad to watch.

We should never line up with 3 in midfield like that. The strikers need that link.

 

[Eric Cartman]

Bit disappointed, truth be told, I thought the OP was about the reaction of fans to a narrow defeat against a decent Swansea side.

They weren’t decent, they were shit. They only turned up once Montero came on, if we’d attacked them from the start we would’ve been out of sight by that point but we instead decided to stick a flat 3 in midfield. Joke decision.

 

[DaleHillBlade]

They weren’t decent, they were shit.

Really? That ranks up there with the very craziest overreaction comments on here.

 

[Eric Cartman]

Really? That ranks up there with the very craziest overreaction comments on here.

Read the rest of the post then brainiac.

 

[DaleHillBlade]

Read the rest of the post then brainiac.

I did, but thought I would quote the over reaction. If you think Swansea were shit, then we will just have to agree to disagree.

 

[Eric Cartman]

I did, but thought I would quote the over reaction. If you think Swansea were shit, then we will just have to agree to disagree.

They did nothing for 60 minutes. They looked 100 times better when Montero came on.

That’s not to say they haven’t got some good players, some very good ones. But that doesn’t mean they were good and if we’d taken the game to them like we would’ve at the beginning of last year we’d have been out of sight by the hour mark. Montero changed the game.