CroJack
Key Player
For more than a month I have been analysing Swans' passing patterns in hope to find out why we are so ineffective going forward and so vulnerable to counter-attacks.
I have found out that there has been a clear trend in Swans' style of play which points out to an absent and ineffective midfield. The way our midfield play is wrong and it has to be fixed. I am baffled that Coopers' analytics team (if he has one) hasn't seen what I have seen.
Here is an example from the Preston game, but the same pattern can be seen in all our games in the past four-five moths.
Let's first look at the individual players' passing maps.
1. Freddy Woodman
Against Preston he didn't try to pass the ball to our midfielders and Brewster. Look at that empty central area. Not a single pass there from Woodman.
2. Mark Guehi
Only one attempted pass to the central midfield area and that pass was unsuccessful. Most of his passes were towards our left side.
3. Joe Rodon
He made 4 successful and 5 unsuccessful forward passes in the central midfield area. At least he tried to penetrate Preston midfield with forward passes.
4. Jake Bidwell
Jake is one-dimensional as a player, and his pass map is same game in game out. He is glued to the side line and all his movements and passing are max. ten yards away from the side line.
5. Kyle Naughton
A couple of his passes were in the central midfield area, but his passing range was better than Bidwell's. He tried to switch side of play and attempted some long diagonal passes.
I have found out that there has been a clear trend in Swans' style of play which points out to an absent and ineffective midfield. The way our midfield play is wrong and it has to be fixed. I am baffled that Coopers' analytics team (if he has one) hasn't seen what I have seen.
Here is an example from the Preston game, but the same pattern can be seen in all our games in the past four-five moths.
Let's first look at the individual players' passing maps.
1. Freddy Woodman
Against Preston he didn't try to pass the ball to our midfielders and Brewster. Look at that empty central area. Not a single pass there from Woodman.
2. Mark Guehi
Only one attempted pass to the central midfield area and that pass was unsuccessful. Most of his passes were towards our left side.
3. Joe Rodon
He made 4 successful and 5 unsuccessful forward passes in the central midfield area. At least he tried to penetrate Preston midfield with forward passes.
4. Jake Bidwell
Jake is one-dimensional as a player, and his pass map is same game in game out. He is glued to the side line and all his movements and passing are max. ten yards away from the side line.
5. Kyle Naughton
A couple of his passes were in the central midfield area, but his passing range was better than Bidwell's. He tried to switch side of play and attempted some long diagonal passes.