I really don't care about losing games due to some stupid individual mistakes when we play good football. The trouble is we don't play good football and we make stupid mistakes.
There are basically three causes of individual mistakes: a) a fear to make a mistake because you don't trust the players around you to correct that mistake, b) lack of high tempo passing drills at the training ground, and c) lack of positional structure during a game of football.
In his last interview Steve Cooper repeated that he had watched all our games from last season. If he had really watched and analysed them, then he would have noticed how Graham Potter developed an unique style of football through three phases:
1. During the first three months of his reign Potter worked on the defensive structure. We were hard to beat and we played on counter-attacks. Our possession and passing accuracy was not a priority and the stats from this period prove it.
2. In the second stage (next three months) we increased possession and passing accuracy, we started to pass the ball from the back and we had more possession than our opponents.
3. During the third stage we had everything. We dominated games, we had possession, our passing accuracy was the best in the league, we both attacked and counter-attacked with pace. Yes, we lost many games, only because we were leaking goals from set-pieces, but we, together with Leeds, played the best football in the Championship. And that's not only because we had James and McBurnie in the squad. As far as I remember McBurnie was injured in January and February and we still played great football. I remember how we totally outplayed league leaders Norwich, I remember how we trashed Brentford both in the FA Cup and in the league, not to talk about that famous FA Cup game against Manchester City. We had a style of play and we had a structure. The only way other teams could beat us was set-pieces and referee bias.
I've mentioned something in one of my previous posts and that's a lack of style of play. If I asked any Swans fan or pundit what style of football do Swans play I'm sure they wouldn't be able to answer. We are a mess. And the result of a mess can only be further mess. It's a caos.
I'm not a dogmatic when it comes to style of play. I don't have anything against a good defensive football with quick transitions and deadly counter-attacks. I don't have anything against headless attacking style where you attack for 90 minutes and try to outscore your opponents and win or lose games 5:4. But I'm against something I can't recognise as a style of football and that's exactly what we are playing right now - a cowardly no-style. The trouble is you can't be any good if you don't have a clearly defined style of play whatever it is, and that's because you don't have a proper structure, which then leads to confusion on the pitch. The players don't know their roles and they are inevitably stifled. Furthermore, confusion leads to fear, and fear leads to mistakes.
I don't expect Cooper to play some sophisticated style of football. We, after all, don't have so much quality in the squad, but what I expect is some kind of recognisable structure.