CroJack
Key Player
A couple of days ago there was another disappointing result and poor performance from the Swans against Preston at the Liberty. Here are some thoughts on what has gone wrong.
For the Preston game Steve Cooper has opted for a change of formation from the well-known 3-5-2 and 3-5-1-2 to 4-3-3. Not a bad move, but, in my opinion, the line-up was totally wrong. And not only one line, but all three lines.
The front three
1. First of all, our only dedicated striker Whittaker was pushed wide, and forced to play as a winger. I really don't understand what Cooper was thinking. We needed goals, and he moved a young, promising striker away from the opposition goal? No surprise Whittaker struggled to make an impact. He managed to put a couple of crosses in the Preston box, but there was no one to attack them, and other than that he was completely lost on the right wing. He lost possession 17 times, either by being dispossessed, losing aerial and ground duels, or by making poor passes. Here is his (miserable) contribution to our attacking play in both halves.
Left picture = First half
Right picture = Second half
Yellow arrows = Successful forward passes, crosses, passes in the opposition box, key-passes, and saved shots
Red arrows = Unsuccessful forward passes, crosses, passes in the opposition box, key-passes, and shots off target
Blue arrows = Blocked shots
Whittaker's overall performance was not completely hopeless. He won 4 out of 9 ground duels, 1 out of 1 aerial duels, he had 2 (blocked shots), 2 successful dribles out of 5 attempted, he put in one perfect cross but nobody was there to attcak it, and he had a reasonable passing accuracy of 79 %. It's Cooper's fault Whittaker played on the wing, and not there where he could contribute much more.
2. Apart from making (too) many sloppy passes, Jamal Lowe had an ok game. 2 shots (one off target and one blocked), 5 successful dribbles out of 5 attempted, 2 key passes, he won 9 out of 12 ground and 6 out of 11 aerial duels, he had 4 clearances and 2 successful tackles. I was surprised to see him do some defensive work, but disappointed with his passing and shots. To be fair to Lowe, it has to be said that Manning was awful in the first half, so Lowe didn't have much support on the left wing for the first 45 minutes. Here are Lowe's forward passing maps for both halves:
3. Andre Ayew didn't do much wrong, apart from getting dispossessed a couple of times, but he didn't do much good either. His involvment was minimal, and that's because he played most on the left wing, then on the right wing, and not as a striker. Here is his heat map:
Ayew won 3 out of 8 ground and 2 out of 6 aerial duels, he made 3 clearances, and had an excellent passing accuracy of 86 %. And that's it. No shots, no tackles, no successful dribbles, no key passes. A disappointing performance.
Line-up
For the Preston game Steve Cooper has opted for a change of formation from the well-known 3-5-2 and 3-5-1-2 to 4-3-3. Not a bad move, but, in my opinion, the line-up was totally wrong. And not only one line, but all three lines.
The front three
1. First of all, our only dedicated striker Whittaker was pushed wide, and forced to play as a winger. I really don't understand what Cooper was thinking. We needed goals, and he moved a young, promising striker away from the opposition goal? No surprise Whittaker struggled to make an impact. He managed to put a couple of crosses in the Preston box, but there was no one to attack them, and other than that he was completely lost on the right wing. He lost possession 17 times, either by being dispossessed, losing aerial and ground duels, or by making poor passes. Here is his (miserable) contribution to our attacking play in both halves.
Left picture = First half
Right picture = Second half
Yellow arrows = Successful forward passes, crosses, passes in the opposition box, key-passes, and saved shots
Red arrows = Unsuccessful forward passes, crosses, passes in the opposition box, key-passes, and shots off target
Blue arrows = Blocked shots
Whittaker's overall performance was not completely hopeless. He won 4 out of 9 ground duels, 1 out of 1 aerial duels, he had 2 (blocked shots), 2 successful dribles out of 5 attempted, he put in one perfect cross but nobody was there to attcak it, and he had a reasonable passing accuracy of 79 %. It's Cooper's fault Whittaker played on the wing, and not there where he could contribute much more.
2. Apart from making (too) many sloppy passes, Jamal Lowe had an ok game. 2 shots (one off target and one blocked), 5 successful dribbles out of 5 attempted, 2 key passes, he won 9 out of 12 ground and 6 out of 11 aerial duels, he had 4 clearances and 2 successful tackles. I was surprised to see him do some defensive work, but disappointed with his passing and shots. To be fair to Lowe, it has to be said that Manning was awful in the first half, so Lowe didn't have much support on the left wing for the first 45 minutes. Here are Lowe's forward passing maps for both halves:
3. Andre Ayew didn't do much wrong, apart from getting dispossessed a couple of times, but he didn't do much good either. His involvment was minimal, and that's because he played most on the left wing, then on the right wing, and not as a striker. Here is his heat map:
Ayew won 3 out of 8 ground and 2 out of 6 aerial duels, he made 3 clearances, and had an excellent passing accuracy of 86 %. And that's it. No shots, no tackles, no successful dribbles, no key passes. A disappointing performance.
Last edited: