Ipswich

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
According to Suffolk Sports Radio commentators Swans should have won comfortably. The second half was much better.

Why are you so pessimistic @Yankee_Jack ? We are 10th with a game in hand and only five points off play-off places.
Note what the commentator said .... SHOULD HAVE WON COMFORTABLY. But we didn't. 1-0 and having to defend a corner in the dying minutes with a keeper who has no stomach for a cross is not comfortable. I am pessimistic because our tempo was low. We were at times sloppy. Into the final minutes McB failed to carry the ball into the corner flag and Ipswich took the ball down the field and forced a corner ... not smart on our part, nor professional, nor comfortable. We should have spent the last two minutes of the match camped near the corner flag at their end of the field.

We should have buried this game in the first half. We should have played at a much higher tempo. We shouldn't have fucked around with Oli playing the lamppost on the left wing and James playing #9 and Routs not really having a role. We had nobody up top to receive and hold the ball. It was as if Potter walked into the locker room before the game and asked the players to sort it out among themselves.

This is why we are 10th when we should be in the playoff positions already and gunning for home advantage. This is why QPR gave us a lesson the other week and Rotherham gave us a much tougher game than it should have been ... we didn't seem to learn much from either match.

In other words, against better opposition we could easily have ended the match with nothing.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
There's much truth in what you say @Yankee_Jack and, like you, I'm a call it as I see it man. No point polishing shit if it's been that BUT, given the season as a whole, what Potts has done with this squad has been excellent and I remain very positive for next season, providing....... (we can all supply the rest). It seems as though we are going to narrowly miss out this season though and it was probably that nightmare performance at QPR which was the final nail. Had we won that, we'd have been in with a decent shout at the play-offs and the way we're playing now, I would fancy us to beat any of the teams above us had we got there.

But it was not to be. We lost valuable points along the way whilst Potts was getting to grips with his squad. Whom was he to pick? In what position? And of course the players have had to learn and get better along the way but mistakes early doors have come back to haunt us - Ipswich at home being just one case in point. But under the circumstances, I think we've done damned well especially as the Premier League line up had been gutted and several youngsters drafted in to play in what is generally regarded as one of the toughest leagues to play in.

With all those circumstances factored into the equation, I think we've done remarkably well. Sure, we've slipped up along the way but that should be expected and our young lads, guided by some older heads such as Routs, have come of age and, overall, have done us proud. Very proud!

IF we can keep this team together, my closing message would be simple. Next season? WATCH US GO!! My message to the owners and Trevor Birch - PLEASE GIVE US THAT CHANCE. COYS!!
 

CroJack

Key Player
Note what the commentator said .... SHOULD HAVE WON COMFORTABLY. But we didn't. 1-0 and having to defend a corner in the dying minutes with a keeper who has no stomach for a cross is not comfortable. I am pessimistic because our tempo was low. We were at times sloppy. Into the final minutes McB failed to carry the ball into the corner flag and Ipswich took the ball down the field and forced a corner ... not smart on our part, nor professional, nor comfortable. We should have spent the last two minutes of the match camped near the corner flag at their end of the field.

We should have buried this game in the first half. We should have played at a much higher tempo. We shouldn't have fucked around with Oli playing the lamppost on the left wing and James playing #9 and Routs not really having a role. We had nobody up top to receive and hold the ball. It was as if Potter walked into the locker room before the game and asked the players to sort it out among themselves.

This is why we are 10th when we should be in the playoff positions already and gunning for home advantage. This is why QPR gave us a lesson the other week and Rotherham gave us a much tougher game than it should have been ... we didn't seem to learn much from either match.

In other words, against better opposition we could easily have ended the match with nothing.
I know all of that, but there is no reason not to be optimistic for the next season if we keep this squad and Potter. Now we have an established style of play and everything else can be dealt with in the pre-season. Passing at faster tempo, defending set-pieces, game management.

Honestly, when the season started nobody expected us to be so close to play-off places at this stage, and I will be a happy camper if we finish 9th.

And remember, we should have been in FA Cup semi-final and maybe we would have won it. Brighton in the semi and Watford in the final. Why not?

I've seen some great football Swans played this season, we have defeated Sheffield United both away and at home turf, and totally outplayed Norwich, both future Premier League teams.
 
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ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Some stats from Ipswich:

POSSESSION: 42-58 SHOTS: 13-17 OT: 2-5 CORNERS: 4-4 FOULS: 15-7 GOALS: 0-1

I can't comment on the game as I didn't see it. But my commentator said that we were well worth the win and it could have been more.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
@CroJack ... when the season started we had a premier league squad that would have murdered most of the teams in this league and beaten the rest. Management decided to divest themselves of that value ... some players bailed etc.

What Potter has done is considerable and worthy of admiration ... but he really didn't have much of a choice. Except ... did he. Did he choose not to play Dyer and Routs until a almost a half of the season had gone ... or was he under orders. For a large part of the season, Potter chose to play McKay ahead of James when it was clear to the tea lady that McKay was a powder puff player who refused to put his pace and skills on the line and risk the lumps meted out by FBs. James is not just kicked, he is often clothes-lined by defenders trying to stop him .... McKay could / would have never take that abuse and kept playing.

Going into next season all the talent in the world and playing pretty at home is not going to count for shit unless we can also to be merciless home and away. Clubs don't play like charities in this league and we can't be the ones to buck that trend. We should have gone into today's game with the desire to run and play them off the park in the first 20 to 30 minutes, score first and then put them to the sword, especially with their proven track record of total capitulation when they concede the first goal of the game.

And we need to spend to get a keeper that can backup his defenders and command is six yard box ... at the very least.

Playing the way we did today against Ipswich, who were nothing special, does not auger well for next season. As postings above have stated we are still in with a chance of making the playoffs. A slim chance, but still worth the blood and sweat to keep it alive and make other clubs earn their place. I didn't see that sense of urgency and aspiration for large parts of today nor against Rotherham and it didn't even get on the bus against QPR. Whose responsibility is that.
 
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CroJack

Key Player
When the season started we had a premier league squad that would have murdered most of the teams in this league and beaten the rest. Management decided to divest themselves of that value ... some players bailed etc.
It was before the season started.

When the season started we:
  • didn't have any premier league quality goalkeepers (and god knows we still don't have one)
  • had one good centre-back (Mike van der Hoorn) who was mostly sitting on the bench whilst we were in the Premier League
  • had two ok full-backs (Naughton and Olsson) who are more Championship then Premier League quality
  • had a couple of midfielders (Carroll and Fulton) who are more Championship than Premier League quality
  • had four wingers of which two of them haven't played much in recent years (Dyer and Narsingh), one of them has not played well in recent years in the Premier League (Routledge, not his fault) and one of them who has always been injured (Montero)
  • had a couple of injured players (Fer and Bony)
  • had a couple of new signings who definitely were not of Premier League quality (Celina, McKay, Asoro, John, Carter-Vickers, Dhanda, Govea)
  • had a bunch of youngsters from our own academy (McBurnie, Rodon, James, Roberts, Grimes, Byers, Harries...) who either had a little or no experience at this level
Not only that we didn't have a Premier League squad when the season started, we had a total mess of a squad.

I would go so far and argue that we didn't have a Premier League squad in our last season in the Premier League. That's why we got relegated.



What Potter has done is considerable and worthy of admiration ... but he really didn't have much of a choice. Except ... did he. Did he choose not to play Dyer and Routs until a almost a half of the season had gone ... or was he under orders. For a large part of the season, Potter chose to play McKay ahead of James
Potter has been brought here for a long term project, not to get us promoted in his first season. It takes time to build something for the future, and he can't do that by using players who will be gone in the next transfer window. I'm sure he was told when season started that Dyer, Routs, Narsingh and other high earners would be gone in January transfer window.

McKay and Asoro are Potter's signings and it is normal that he wanted to play them, both of them had more experience at this level then James. When the season started nobody knew James would later on burst on the big scene like he did. And Potter used Montero on the left wing as much as he could.

We would probably be in play-off places now had Potter played Dyer, Routs and James from the start of the season, but we have to understand why he didn't do that. He didn't know Asoro would totally fail to make any impact, he didn't know McKay was such a softie and he didn't know James woould be so good.


Playing the way we did today against Ipswich, who were nothing special, does not auger well for next season.
But playing the way we played against Manchester City (who are very much special), Norwich (already promoted), Sheffield United (almost promoted), Stoke, Brentford, WBA etc. does.

What we need is consistency, we need to score more goals from many chances we create and we need to be better at defending set-pieces. A piece of cake ;).
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
It was before the season started.

When the season started we:
  • didn't have any premier league quality goalkeepers (and god knows we still don't have one)
  • had one good centre-back (Mike van der Hoorn) who was mostly sitting on the bench whilst we were in the Premier League
  • had two ok full-backs (Naughton and Olsson) who are more Championship then Premier League quality
  • had a couple of midfielders (Carroll and Fulton) who are more Championship than Premier League quality
  • had four wingers of which two of them haven't played much in recent years (Dyer and Narsingh), one of them has not played well in recent years in the Premier League (Routledge, not his fault) and one of them who has always been injured (Montero)
  • had a couple of injured players (Fer and Bony)
  • had a couple of new signings who definitely were not of Premier League quality (Celina, McKay, Asoro, John, Carter-Vickers, Dhanda, Govea)
  • had a bunch of youngsters from our own academy (McBurnie, Rodon, James, Roberts, Grimes, Byers, Harries...) who either had a little or no experience at this level
Not only that we didn't have a Premier League squad when the season started, we had a total mess of a squad.

I would go so far and argue that we didn't have a Premier League squad in our last season in the Premier League. That's why we got relegated.





Potter has been brought here for a long term project, not to get us promoted in his first season. It takes time to build something for the future, and he can't do that by using players who will be gone in the next transfer window. I'm sure he was told when season started that Dyer, Routs, Narsingh and other high earners would be gone in January transfer window.

McKay and Asoro are Potter's signings and it is normal that he wanted to play them, both of them had more experience at this level then James. When the season started nobody knew James would later on burst on the big scene like he did. And Potter used Montero on the left wing as much as he could.

We would probably be in play-off places now had Potter played Dyer, Routs and James from the start of the season, but we have to understand why he didn't do that. He didn't know Asoro would totally fail to make any impact, he didn't know McKay was such a softie and he didn't know James woould be so good.




But playing the way we played against Manchester City (who are very much special), Norwich (already promoted), Sheffield United (almost promoted), Stoke, Brentford, WBA etc. does.

What we need is consistency, we need to score more goals from many chances we create and we need to be better at defending set-pieces. A piece of cake ;).
Last season we also didn't have a Premier League manager.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
If we had played with the same dispatch we showed against City, yesterday would have been comfortable by half time.

I am not contesting where we started and what has been accomplished, but against City we established a new standard. Progress means we raise, adjust to, and hold that New standard.

I commented after the City match that we could either take that performance as a statement of presence and ability and push onward, or we could let it dissipate. QPR, Rotherham and Ipswich were not”City” performances. They were struggles with intensity ... i.e. the lack thereof.

Yesterday we played against a rock bottom team with a shit record, with nothing to play for, and we were left praying that they couldn’t put in a decent cross from a corner in the last moments of the match. This is not comfortable. It is lamentable. Against better teams .... e.g, Forest ... we would have been punished and taken nothing from the game.

Every one of the 24 clubs in this league wants, at the start of the season, to get promoted ... for some it is a delusion, for others it is a mission. The top several teams in this league don’t have anything better than us from a pure football perspective, it can be argued that they are inferior, but they have mission inside them. In the 50’s the Swans had all the talent in the world, but had no mission and never really challenged for promotion. We need to get a sense of mission and right now that is winning every game to reach a goal that while improbable is not impossible. This sense of mission needs to become part of our DNA or we will not be promoted next season. We will look pretty, but finish in the middle of the pack, while teams with inferior football rise above us. Teams get promoted by making the improbable a reality ... e.g. as did Forest. Teams without a mission play pretty, get a 2 goal lead, then piss it away against teams with a mission.

If we want to rate ourselves against our early season standard then we have achieved nothing. We need to be rated against the standard we have shown we can achieve .. the City standard . Against that standard Ipswich was a win, but to use the word comfortable is a stretch. It was a weak performance against a woefully inferior team. The first half was a tactical failure. It was only in the second half when we reverted to norm that we showed any real likehood of scoring. We did once and then had to nurse it to the final whistle. We can pat ourselves on the back at pretty, or we can be pragmatic, introspective, and find our mission ... like passing, pretty without purpose doesn’t deliver much.
 

CroJack

Key Player
If we had played with the same dispatch we showed against City, yesterday would have been comfortable by half time.

I am not contesting where we started and what has been accomplished, but against City we established a new standard. Progress means we raise, adjust to, and hold that New standard.

I commented after the City match that we could either take that performance as a statement of presence and ability and push onward, or we could let it dissipate. QPR, Rotherham and Ipswich were not”City” performances. They were struggles with intensity ... i.e. the lack thereof.

Yesterday we played against a rock bottom team with a shit record, with nothing to play for, and we were left praying that they couldn’t put in a decent cross from a corner in the last moments of the match. This is not comfortable. It is lamentable. Against better teams .... e.g, Forest ... we would have been punished and taken nothing from the game.

Every one of the 24 clubs in this league wants, at the start of the season, to get promoted ... for some it is a delusion, for others it is a mission. The top several teams in this league don’t have anything better than us from a pure football perspective, it can be argued that they are inferior, but they have mission inside them. In the 50’s the Swans had all the talent in the world, but had no mission and never really challenged for promotion. We need to get a sense of mission and right now that is winning every game to reach a goal that while improbable is not impossible. This sense of mission needs to become part of our DNA or we will not be promoted next season. We will look pretty, but finish in the middle of the pack, while teams with inferior football rise above us. Teams get promoted by making the improbable a reality ... e.g. as did Forest. Teams without a mission play pretty, get a 2 goal lead, then piss it away against teams with a mission.

If we want to rate ourselves against our early season standard then we have achieved nothing. We need to be rated against the standard we have shown we can achieve .. the City standard . Against that standard Ipswich was a win, but to use the word comfortable is a stretch. It was a weak performance against a woefully inferior team. The first half was a tactical failure. It was only in the second half when we reverted to norm that we showed any real likehood of scoring. We did once and then had to nurse it to the final whistle. We can pat ourselves on the back at pretty, or we can be pragmatic, introspective, and find our mission ... like passing, pretty without purpose doesn’t deliver much.
With other words, we need more consistency, high energy, tempo and physicality. And we need to destroy inferior teams. Agreed.
 
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