Sheffield Wednesday

KVetch

Key Player
Dyer had a through ball around 57' mark that could have been placed a wee bit better and would have been a goal. They played better overall. Still mistakes no one is perfect. But better fight in them.
 

KVetch

Key Player
What's going on with Borja? Are the owners protecting him to sell him? Is it the cold weather? Hate to see him go, that's not the way to get promoted.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Nice video ... sums it all up. Flatters to deceive. Prone to hold and carry too long and spaces close up. Prone to some terrible passing mistakes. We have to find a better option,
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Really do want the 3 points but at the end of the day an away point is usually always welcome, especially if it's against a close rival in the table.



And as you know, CJ, I'll always take your opinion over that of a commentator.
I wasn't wrong was I? :D
 

The Blobster

Prediction Champ
He finds space and has talent but far too casual with his passing and shooting. He will never be combatative in midfield but with more care and sharpness can be a match winner , how much longer do we have to wait for him to sharpen his end product though ?
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Been looking at readers' comments in various newspapers and media etc all of whom are saying the same thing - that he does have talent but he's not showing it right now and, when he does, not consistently enough. I like the idea mooted above that maybe Ayew could play #10 with Borja/Surridge rotating up front with Routs/Dyer/Peterson sharing the wide positions as the game dictates. Byers also not kicking on as I'd hoped after following his progress from the "Unders". He needs to tighten his game a lot.
 

CroJack

Key Player
I like Celina's attacking drive. He runs forward with the ball most of all Swansea players. And when I say most, that's by far most. He attacks space in front of him and that's incredibly important because it causes panic in opposition defence. If you want to unsettle opposition defence and destroy its shape, then running forward with the ball is the best weapon. When I watch Swans play I often scream in vain "Run forward with ball, attack the space!". Some of our players are too static. They would rather pass the ball and not take risks.

Against Wednesday, Celina did a couple of good things, but as you saw in the above posted video he spoiled our (counter-) attacks 14 times. It should be another way around. Every player makes mistakes, and not every pass can be perfect, but attacking midfielders should be creative in the final third, and what we have seen of Celina since he came back from the first international duty has not been good enough. In my opinion Cooper overplayed both Celina and Roberts after their international games. Both should have been rested.

Celina is a good player, but right now there is no end product and focus in his play. He even can't hit the target.

There were two situation yesterday when we could send our forwards one-on-one with Wednesday's keeper. The first one was the first action in the video above when Celina failed to pass the ball to Routs who was totally free, and the second one when Byers passed the ball behind instead of in front of Ayew who was totally free up front. You don't have many opportunities to create one-on-ones during a football game (if any), and we fluffed two of them. One-on-one is an ultimate chance to score.
 

CroJack

Key Player
...with more care and sharpness can be a match winner , how much longer do we have to wait for him to sharpen his end product though ?
I really hope not so much longer. Sometimes he overcomplicate things instead of keepIng it simple. And he doesn't need to score spectacular goals from curlings shots. Low shots hitting bottom corner are good enough.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
So what does Cooper do. Weaknesses and failures are apparent and well documented on video.

Not enough players are being brave and smart with the ball.

We went more direct in the final third once we went behind at the end of the game and it resulted in a series of chances and penalty claims ending with a goal. This is what we need to do for 90 minutes from the very beginning and games would be over at halftime. Juxtapose this with what we see for most of the game - an apathy towards crossing and the propensity to pass backward from the final third that has a feel of laziness.
 

CroJack

Key Player
We went more direct in the final third once we went behind at the end of the game and it resulted in a series of chances and penalty claims ending with a goal. This is what we need to do for 90 minutes from the very beginning and games would be over at halftime. Juxtapose this with an apathy towards crossing and the propensity to pass backward from the final third that has a feel of laziness.
Spot on. We have enough quality to do that. Every time we kept the ball on the ground against Wednesday, we looked good and they looked clueless. Every time we hoofed it, they looked good and we looked clueless.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
We have plenty of speed up top, even with the aging legs of Routs and Dyer. We need to use it to get around defenses and whip balls into the box early on every opportunity. With Ayew at #9 we have a player with superb athleticism and reactions - see his goal yesterday. We need to make the lives of championship defenders a living nightmare. Ordinarily we don’t do this anywhere near enough.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
I’ve been trying to find good video of our 3-0 at Fulham in March 17, 2012. A Prem match, but an example of excellence. Our midfield was Britton, Allen, and Sigurdson. I’m trying to compare León and Joe (the gold standard) versus Grimes and Byers. If memory serves the gap would be glaringly apparent. The tempo and quality of Leon and Joe are missing from Grimes and Byers. And to compare Celina with Sig is laughable. However, from memory, we are currently lacking in the style and traits exhibited in this particular game.

I came across other video from matches as early as 2009 with Fulham, where we had the likes of Gower being embarrassingly superior to Byers and Celina. Cooper needs to up his game and get our key players to up theirs.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
What we seem to lack is movement, fluency and tempo. Probably this is because our passing and possession game is weak compared with our 'glory' days. We no longer seem comfortable on the ball and want far more time than hard pressing teams are prepared to allow us. Put this down to lack of movement and support. Time and again I've said that movement makes the pass, gives the man on the ball options but there are far too many periods in games where we're static as a team and not looking to drive forward when the opportunities arise.

I'm sure that Cooper must realise this but we also have to accept that he is limited because of the limited ability of a number of his players. Perhaps it is too soon for the likes of Byers and, if it were possible, I could see Joe Allen linking well with Grimes and Celina for instance. He would set the tempo and urgency in midfield for us, something that Byers has yet to learn..... but will do in time, I'm sure.

All things considered, and there are many factors to consider, maybe Cooper isn't doing too bad a job and, hopefully, can only get better as he learns about league football on the job. I sense that we could be just one, preferably two good signings, from being a potent force in this division. The real question is, are the owners prepared to back Cooper to provide him with the ammunition he needs in January?

On a lighter note, I remember a terrific post on another forum some years ago where someone suggested three signings that we needed. He posted the names of his team and in defence he'd added, "Tall Ugly German 1" and "Tall Ugly German 2" whilst in midfield the addition was "African Hulk". I thought this was brilliant and perfectly summed up our needs at the time. :ROFLMAO:
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
I still feel Cooper isn't the man to take us forward, in the 90 minutes game time he appears to wonder around aimlessly in his area, hands in pockets,with a unconcerned, if not vacant look on his face. He appears to bask in the glory of a position we're not really entitled to be in, even that position I feel is in sp[te of him rather than because of him.
If any funds are made available in the Jan. window I feel he would be out of his depth in doing any buying,as any monies are likely to be small and would need to be spent wisely. I feel the cracks are starting to show in his inability to manage at this level.
 

Victoria Swan

Key Player
Your video @CroJack is a damning condemnation of Celina as a CAM. I am not as convinced as you and others on here that he has potential. Even if he does we can't afford to keep playing him waiting for that potential to show, not when his errors pull our counter attacks to a grinding halt on so many occasions. Time to bench him and give Ayew or even Dhanda a chance (or, in a radical experiment, Connor Roberts) in the CAM slot with two of our speedy wingers on either side and alternating Surridge and Borja as striker.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
@Victoria Swan ... I think the experiment with Dhanda has been done. I doubt we’ll see him back soon barring injury and suspension if others. I really like the idea of Roberts; that’s radical with dash of common sense. Roberts could be a power house in that role and he has the engine to be fully box to box for 90.
 

Victoria Swan

Key Player
I think the real unknown with Roberts is whether he can see and make the killer pass that puts us behind opposition back lines - like Gylfi could or (dare I say it) Shelvey!
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
I think the real unknown with Roberts is whether he can see and make the killer pass that puts us behind opposition back lines - like Gylfi could or (dare I say it) Shelvey!
Those would be shorter passes. Shelvey would never make a shorter one when longer was "available" ... and usually off target.
 
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