Swans v Reading

[ivoralljack]

Only a once in a lifetime performance by their keeper stopped us winning this comfortably. No complaints from me about our performance against a handy team. I thought Ayew was superb with Lowe not far behind. He's beginning to convince me with his all round play whilst Fulton put in a great shift as well. In fact I have no criticism about any of our players who all contributed well in a dominant display. BUT I do have a number of reservations about our Swedish striker who's nowhere near what we need right now. Hopefully he'll improve. He has to.

Reading manager: we were brave and we were also lucky, but together with a great performance by Raphael (keeper) it is a good result.

Some stats: Possession: 52-48 Shots: 11-8 OT: 6-3 Corners: 7-2 Fouls: 12-14 Goals: 0-0

Just one of those nights. On other occasions we have played far worse and won but the overall display augurs well for the rest of the season.

 

[Victoria Swan]

Yes, "on other occasions" .... like beating QPR 2-0. I kinda count this undeserved draw that should have been a win as the counterweight to our undeserved win at QPR that should have been a draw!

 

[CroJack]

Yes, "on other occasions" .... like beating QPR 2-0. I kinda count this undeserved draw that should have been a win as the counterweight to our undeserved win at QPR that should have been a draw!

In my opinion, QPR didn't deserve anything from that game.

2.10 to 0.80 expected goals in our favour. The deserved result was QPR 1:2 Swans.

Dominating possession and putting a lot of crosses in opposition box doesn't mean you "deserve" anything from the game. On the other hand, creating double as many good chances than opposition is what counts. And it doesn't matter how you create your chances. Defensive and counter-attacking football is not forbidden. Mastering set-pieces is not forbidden. There are many ways you can win a football game and all of them are perfectly acceptable.

Of course, the best teams in the world master all aspects of the game: possession, passing accuracy, pressing, finishing, counter-attacking, quick transitions, set-pieces, crosses, defending..., but you need top players in all positions to be(come) such a team.

On the day QPR were better than us at keeping possession, passing accuracy, winning second balls, and putting crosses in the box, but that's all.

 

[Jackflash]

Yes

Another clean sheet, good possession but we have got to find a way to score. The lack of scoring worries me if we make it to the playoffs again.

The possession doesn't count for a lot if we can't capitalise on it in the final third, agreed Lowe is now warming to the role, but we should bring in a ex Prem striker in his last season, he doesn't need to be an athlete, and the midfield should be trained to feed him .We are creating enough chances for a good finisher, some one who can keep us in contention for auto promotion, even if its quite a high wage it would only be for half a season, or even a end of season loan. Pretty sure in these times there are top clubs who would like to reduce their wages bill. Are these yanks too thick to see the financial rewards of promotion. It's a gamble I agree but you get nowhere if you don't take chances in situations like this when the obvious is missing.

 

[ivoralljack]

Read somewhere online where a number of posters commented that Ayew showed a marked reluctance to pass the ball to Jamal Lowe even when his team mate was in a good/better position to score - and Lowe sometimes ignored Ayew as a result. Some bad blood/jealousy between the two has been suggested but I really hope this isn't true. Strong rivalry is good but at the end of the day, we need everyone on the field performing in the best interests of the team. Thoughts anyone?

 

[Yankee_Jack]

I didn't get to watch the match yesterday. Look forward to seeing the highlights. From the postings a strong performance consistent with onwards and upwards. Games against top peers are always fraught with disaster but it seems we demonstrated that we're a top class side, molding into a force, and with consistent top performances coming from key players. I take it that Lati did himself proud replacing Bennet.

 

[Victoria Swan]

No one's commented on the pitch. Watching our possession and passing being so good I thought the newly laid pitch was our twelfth man allowing us to play the Swanselona we love.

 

[Jackflash]

No one's commented on the pitch. Watching our possession and passing being so good I thought the newly laid pitch was our twelfth man allowing us to play the Swanselona we love.

I recall a muddy pitch costing us one of our moments of glory, Villa Park 1964 FA cup semi final against PNE. at 1-1 when a long ball came over the top Noel Dwyer came out to meet it after the bounce, but it never bounced, it stopped where it landed in the mud, their centre half ran onto it and scored from about 30 yards with Dwyer right out of his area. They then parked the bus for the remaining 15 minutes. We had previously beaten them 5-0 earlier in the season at the Vetch..

 

[Victoria Swan]

Good God, I remember that too now you raise it. I was 12 years old and this FA Cup semi-final was the highlight of years of supporting Swansea. In fact, if it hadn't been for winning the League Cup with Laudrup, that game was the highlight of all our cup competitions for damn near 100 years.

 

[Jackflash]

Read somewhere online where a number of posters commented that Ayew showed a marked reluctance to pass the ball to Jamal Lowe even when his team mate was in a good/better position to score - and Lowe sometimes ignored Ayew as a result. Some bad blood/jealousy between the two has been suggested but I really hope this isn't true. Strong rivalry is good but at the end of the day, we need everyone on the field performing in the best interests of the team. Thoughts anyone?

{ don't think there's anything deliberate in Ayews play in that regard, it seems when he collects the ball shakes off defenders ,he's constantly looking looking for a opening to shoot, he seems quite oblivious to any teammates around him, his eyes are constantly on the target. The nature of his game.??

 

[Behindthegoal]

Good point, JF. For most of the season anyway who could blame Andre Ayew for making a shot on target rather than pass to a certain team mate who has a history of missing?
I expect things to be different from now on. Did you see that it was Andre who consoled Guehi after his miss?

 

[Jackflash]

Yes! I did note that BTG.