@Yankee_Jack
For a one trick pony Lowe should be scoring more goals and creating for others around the box.
Me thinks the others should be creating more for Lowe. Lowe has scored 1 goal more than expected. When you look at the expected assists then neither Ayew nor Lowe are creating much. And that's not a big surprise to me.
Let me explain.
We don't attack through the middle and our midfielders don't provide through balls to our two forwards. This is not how Swansea attack under Steve Cooper. We defend and attack in triangles.
The whole idea behind Cooper's defensive tactics is very simple. The two formations we have played this season form a pyramid which forces opposition to attack us down the wings. Then we trap opposition wingers into a defensive triangle, on one side with Guehi-Bidwell-Grimes, and on the other with Roberts-Smith-Cabango. We simply force opposition to cross the ball, which we either block or let it to our other two centre-backs and Fulton who then clear it.
So far so good.
When we attack we do exactly the same: we attack in triangles. Our attacking triangles depend on formation we play. If we play with Dhanda as ATM then Dhanda forms triangles on both wings, he simply runs from side to side. If we play flat three in the midfield, then it's Grimes-Bidwell-Lowe on one side, and Smith-Roberts-Ayew on the other. It looks like this:
The idea behind these attacking triangles is to put in a cross for the trio on the opposite side or earn a corner-kick. We have seen many times this season our wing-backs attacking the far post. From time to time Fulton runs into the opposition box to create overload. Sometimes Ayew and Lowe cut inside with the ball and try to shoot. But our main attacking weapon is crossing.
The main problem with this approach is: a) while we are creating attacking triangles the opposition have time to regroup, b) one of our two forwards is always missing in the opposition box, and c) Lowe and Ayew are far away from each other.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because there is a reason why Lowe and Ayew don't feed each other and don't have many assists. Our wing-backs have more assists than all our other players together. That's how we play. That's Steve Cooper's style of play. A rigid defence and crossing.
So, please, don't blame Lowe for something that's not his fault. It's Cooper's fault.
When Hourihane arrived we changed our formation to a more adventurous 3-1-4-2. And more less we have played it since. This formation gives us much more flexibility in the attack, but it requires a) a defensive discipline from our two attacking midfielders, and b) a close contact between our back three with the rest of the team. It means that when we attack our back line must be high up the pitch. No gaps are allowed. We saw during the Bristol game how dominant we can be and how many chances we can create. This is how it looks like:
We have never had as high passing accuracy under Steve Cooper as we had against Bristol City. I quite like this formation, but the personel must be right and we have to perfect it. There have been too many ups and downs recently for different reasons. Mostly sloppy passes into dangerous aerias and defensive errors. Since we started playing this formation our midfielders scored 6 goals. Hourihane 4, Grimes 1 and Fulton 1. Suddenly, we are not a team who only puts in crosses, but a team who can score from outside the box, from free-kicks, and create many chances (of course, when play like we did against Bristol, and keep the ball on the ground).
Lowe doesn't create anything for anybody else.
Yes, he does. He passes the ball to Bidwell who then puts in crosses. It's same with Ayew who passes the ball to Roberts who puts in crosses. Once again, that's Steve Cooper's style of play.
What's the matter .... don't they (Lowe and Ayew) ever talk ... don't they like each other?
Yes, they do
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And one last thing. Now I understand why Lowe isn't in our box when we defend corner-kicks. He has orders to stay out of the box in case we counter-attack.
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