Don't get me wrong guys. I respect our Swanselona legacy and you all know that I have always been a huge fan of techically gifted players and pace. I have always believed that in the long run passing opposition to death (to quote Rodgers), talent, technical ability (Trundle is still my favourite Swansea player), direct passing, triangle and pass & and move are superior to primitive set-pieces football and thugs on the pitch. Brain before physicality.
How come that I suddenly want to send our most gifted players on the bench and implement physicality and set-pieces? Well, there are two reasons why.
1. Our manager is obviously not able to fulfill the promises given during his job interview and press-conferences when he was appointed as Swansea manager, to follow in the footsteps of Martinez, Rodgers, Laudrup and Potter. MaRoLaPo have not been perfect, but their football has been miles ahead of the unorganised dross we are witnessing under our current manager. Under Cooper we have a little bit of everything, but the result of a little bit everything is inevitably more nothing than anything. We don't progress.
2. "Our identity is intensity" - Jürgen Klopp.
The crazy German has understood the very essence of football, and life for that matter. If you are an underdog in terms of technical ability you have to run more and fight more then those who have more talent than you. He has done it with Mainz, Dortmund and Liverpool. All of them had been huge underdogs when he took over, but every of his teams have had four common things: a) intensity, b) pace, c) work rate, and d) team work. A winning formula. Everything else has been the icing on the cake. How else can we explain Liverpool's 4:0 win against Barcelona (3:0 down in the first leg) in the last season's CL semi-final? Without Salah and Firmino? Liverpool's intensity stunned Barcelona at Anfield.
Why I'm saying all of this? Well, if things don't work on the pitch, every clever manager should go back to basics. And that's exactly Klopp's winning formula cut to the bone: intensity and work rate. We have beaten Cardiff and Charlton by playing high intensity football, and against Charlton we have played our best pressing football since that famous FA Cup game against Manchester City under Potter.
At the moment we are not able to play Swanselona style of play either because our manager doesn't know how to implement it or because our players lack passing ability and concentration. We are still in a good position to get promoted, but we have to change things radically. We can't afford being bullied at the Liberty. Other teams have to fear us and lose the game before the ball has been kicked. That's why I am suggesting that we should start playing our big & ugly lads instead of the pussies who don't even have enough strength to kick the ball properly when they shoot from outside the box (Celina). If brain doesn't work then let's unleash some muscle. Let's bully others, at least when they come to play at the Liberty. I'd rather watch a good fight and high intensity football than that slow and uninspiring dross we are being served at the Liberty in almost every game we play.
Rant over.