Swansea City (Away)

[Guest rusty747]

Poor management from Roberto but Mirallas, and Mirallas alone, is responsible for the red card. I think it was a straight red and should not be appealed.

 

Roberto, once Kev has served his ban please either kiss and make up with him or get rid in January.

[Keith B]

Poor management from Roberto but Mirallas, and Mirallas alone, is responsible for the red card. I think it was a straight red and should not be appealed.

 

Roberto, once Kev has served his ban please either kiss and make up with him or get rid in January.

 

This. The Mirallas situation is not good at this point and it needs to get sorted out.

 

No one has mentioned it but our outside backs were our 4th and 5th choices at the position and they played well enough to preserve a clean sheet. And both are teenagers. Browning had some shaky moments early but mostly he seemed fine. Galloway continues to impress me--his move to get the shot that just missed was very nice.

[Hafnia]

I'm actually quite happy with how things are shaping in general. Barkley is like a new signing, Stones has been energized by the Chelsea pursuit and shows the balls the lad has.

 

Up front I'm not happy with our main man, because believe it or not I want him to be the main man.

 

I would like to see and end to this Martinez beef with mirallas, the story I heard makes me understand why RM is being like this but enough is enough. I'm sure the players know he isn't a soft touch now.

 

There is something positive happening and I am very intrigued as to how this will pan out.

[markjazzbassist]

I'm actually quite happy with how things are shaping in general. Barkley is like a new signing, Stones has been energized by the Chelsea pursuit and shows the balls the lad has.

 

Up front I'm not happy with our main man, because believe it or not I want him to be the main man.

 

I would like to see and end to this Martinez beef with mirallas, the story I heard makes me understand why RM is being like this but enough is enough. I'm sure the players know he isn't a soft touch now.

 

There is something positive happening and I am very intrigued as to how this will pan out.

Honestly I think his aim is to win either cup. A full go at reading and we'll be farther than we have been in years in the league cup. A lot of teams sleep on this one is included and I think it's there for the taking.

[Hafnia]

I would love a trophy. But in all honesty I actually see 3rd and 4th up for grabs until late on between a fair few teams.

[Shukes]

Regardless of whether the sub was pointless your stating that it's ok to come on annoyed and show your petulance? Remember last season penalty debacle? he's got previous. He needs to grow up or get out.

Exactly.

Also he has had opportunities..

And to he fair he's been shit. Why is itbok for him to have a tantrum of he only gets ten minutes but Kone was slated for not making the most of his time.

 

If he was coming on and showing something then he would deserve more next time. But he hasn't been and so deserves to be on the bench.

Now he doesn't even deserve that....if it was against us we would be going mad.

[pete0]

It's a red, but shouldn't be more than one game. He's not had any malice behind it.

Noble done similar if not worst the other week, and his got rescinded.

[Matt]

How many matches does Mirallas miss? Is he eligible for Reading match?

3 but apparently were confiding appealing.

Rusty challenge, make that sub earlier and he'd not snap for the loose ball.

Ridiculous comment. You can only blame Mirralas for that!

see Petes comment. Mirallas recently said that he is waiting for his opportunity to prove his worth. I saw it as him being so desperate to make a good impression he got carried away, had he had 20 mins to make an impact, there's no way he would've lunged in like that. Very poor management, but don't think I'm excusing Kev completely, he should've shown more maturity.

 

Anyway, on to the bright sides....

 

Barry was my MOTM. Made one mistake all game as a result of Kone messing up and cleaned up everything else, took s booking too after Barkleys mistake. Brilliant example for McCarthy to follow. It really is like he's just come back from a season off and it's was his evil twin playing for us last season.

 

Special mention to Barkley and Stones who were fantastic too, and could well be on their way to that world class status so many of us have said they will achieve.

 

McCarthy and Galloway also improving game on game, Browning did well considering his "support" in front of him, Jags a rock and Howard alert when needed, which is impressive because he had sod all to do for the most part and could easily have switched off.

 

The less said about the front three the better....

 

But just to reiterate. We have a central 5 (2 CBs, 2CDMs and Ross) at the moment who are all on their game. How long has it been since we could say that?

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/i-fired-mirallas-sending-Martinez

 

Seems fair comment to me

[Shukes]

Just watched the challenge a few times, it's not actually that bad, he goes in with hos foot too high but doesn't stamp down..he plants his foot trying to block the ball and foot of his opposing player.

He mistimed it and goes down the ankle.

 

Deserved a red as others reckless, but seeing it again makes me think it was more, too much effort, rather than malicious.

[Romey 1878]

There isn't a hell of a lot to say about the first half to be honest; not a lot actually happened. For some reason the first half had the feel to it of an early kick off. I thought we were ever so slightly off the pace and a bit lethargic in our play. We were just too slow when we had the ball, and also sloppy with it, our old friend of a lack of movement off the ball reared its head, and due to how narrow we were it was all too congested for us meaning we struggled to get much of a foothold in the game. Scrappy about sums it up. There were three players that were particularly bad for us - Naismith, Kone and Lukaku. Naismith and Lukaku were completely anonymous; you wouldn't have even known they were on the pitch, and Kone was just appalling. I would have been quite happy for Naismith or Kone, or both, being substituted at half time. You leave Lukaku on because there isn't really anyone else you could bring on. That being said Swansea weren't great themselves and I still thought we managed to be the better side just about.

 

Martinez must have got into them at half time because we were a transformed side. We had people moving the ball quickly, players showing terrific movement to get themselves into position to receive the ball in space, and there was finally some intent to our play. All this meant that we created chance after chance in the second half, our creativity was top notch and a big reason for that was Ross Barkley. He was on another planet to the rest of our midfield and forward players. It looked effortless for the lad too - like he could go up another few levels. We were the dominant side by some margin. Our only problem was that we just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. Lukaku, and to a lesser extent Kone, let us down in that regard. Between poor finishing (from Lukaku), good defending (by Williams) and day dreaming (by Kone) we just could not get the goal(s) our smart play deserved. We didn't quite have it all our own way though and our defence still had some work to do, and didn't they do a fine job? Jags was his usual battling self, Galloway and Browning were given a tough time but stood up manfully to the challenge and Stones... it was hard to believe he's still at the beginning of his career with the performance he put in. Howard also needs a mention because he wasn't really needed for large periods of the game but when he was called upon he was there and did his job.

 

Before the game a point here would have been a very acceptable result and we are still up on our points tally from the same games as last season, it's just a bit hard to take when we were much the better side and created more than enough to take the three points.

 

 

Howard - Like I said above; wasn't needed often during the game but still kept his head on the few occasions he was needed.

 

 

Browning - Had very little help against Montero from Kone (he probably got more help from Deulofeu!) and I thought he'd crumble under the pressure and a goal would come from that avenue, but he got better and better as the game went on. He actually ended up having Montero's number, which shows that he's a quick learner. Not much in the way of going forward but his defending was good. A very promising showing from him.

 

Stones - Absolutely majestic. His reading of the game yesterday was as good as you'll see. I lost count of the amount of times he was exactly where a Swansea player played the ball. Then he'd just stride out of defence with nonchalance and get us moving up the pitch again. And he was invaluable to Browning too because he often came across to deal with problems over on that side. It's said that he's a Rolls Royce of a player and that was certainly a Rolls Royce of a performance from him.

 

Jagielka - He is the perfect partner for Stones and yesterday was that in action. You've had the prettiness of Stones' play (not that he can't do the dirty work too like) and Jags with the blood and thunder defending, throwing tackles in and battling for everything. They compliment each other so well. And what Stones did on the right helping Browning, Jags did on the left with Galloway. They're always talking to each other throughout games and their partnership looks rock solid this season.

 

Galloway - A similar performance to Browning really. I thought he looked a weak link at the beginning of the game but as the game went on he improved and I stopped worrying altogether. Another aspect that he improved on yesterday was his attacking play. In the second half he was involved quite a lot in us getting at Swansea and the likes of Barkley seemed to trust him more in an attacking position; rather than turning back inside he'd be given the ball instead. He had a good chance towards the end of the game to get his first senior goal but fluffed it quite badly. At that point I was wishing Baines was out there, but I won't hold it against him!

 

 

Kone - It was like this was first game back after his bad injury and all the promising signs he'd shown this season were nowhere to be found. He looked leggy right from the off, he did absolutely nothing in the way of defending (if that's Mirallas not tracking back he's getting called a lazy cunt), his passing was substandard and I was getting seriously pissed off with him yesterday and I would've hauled him off at half time. He was one that didn't improve a jot in the second half as well, which made it worse. And that cock up He looks like he could do with a rest for a game or two to get his wind back.

 

McCarthy - I was pleased with his performance yesterday. He hasn't had the best start to the season for us but I thought he looked much more like the McCarthy that is one of my favourite players. He had a couple of dodgy moments in the game but he recovered the situations well, showed good positional discipline, was another that helped Browning when he was under pressure and, on the whole, did a great shielding of the defence. I hope he keeps it up.

 

Barry - I thought he had a rough start to the game to honest, he looked one of the most sluggish and I feared the worst. I shouldn't have though because, other than one mess up from him, he didn't really put a foot wrong, and only ended up with a yellow because he was protecting the team after a Barkley brainfart. He actually ended up being one of our most impressive players. Whenever Galloway was caught up the pitch he slotted in seamlessly at left-back and covered for him. When Swansea came through the middle he was there to intercept and quickly get the ball going in the other direction. It's so good to have the Gareth Barry back that you can rely on.

 

Naismith - His first half was the complete opposite to last week; he was utterly invisible. He was another that I wouldn't have cared if they'd gone off at half time he was that bad. However, I'm actually glad he wasn't subbed because I thought he improved massively in the second half, and was actually heavily involved in the most of our attacking play. He had a bad first 45 but he certainly didn't have a bad game.

 

 

Barkley - I'm so happy with his performance yesterday, and so happy he's proving doubters wrong. He was one of few players to come out of the first half with anything approaching positivity - he at least was looking to make things happen, but the rest of our players just didn't have their heads in the game. Second half when the rest of the side had woken up his level went up another gear as well. He was on another planet at times (in a good way). People have said he can't dominate and control games, but I thought that's exactly what he did yesterday. He took the game by the scruff of the neck and controlled our entire attacking play, he led us around the pitch. He dropped deep to receive the ball and just piled forward with it. He perhaps could have taken on a couple of shots at times but we want him to create and that's what he tried to do, and if not for poor finishing by Lukaku and a day dreaming Kone he'd have added to his assists tally after a beautiful through ball (for Rom) and a brilliant cut back (for Kone). Guilty of maybe dallying on the ball a few times, in attacking and defensive positions, but I'm excited about him this season. Very excited. My MOTM.

 

 

Lukaku - Like Naismith he was an absolute passenger in the first half. I wasn't even annoyed by him because I just didn't notice him! He was lucky Kone was even worse and we don't really have another striking option. I did think he improved in the second half though and got himself into some good scoring positions but his finishing was shite. And when it wasn't Williams was getting a block in. When chances come his way he's got to take them or dominating games like that mean fuck all.

[Sibdane]

Great summary, Romey! Stones and Barkley have me excited for the future. When was the last time we had prospects like that in our club?

 

I can see us becoming like Dortmund from a couple of seasons ago, with our young core.

[Hafnia]

Barkley will be the most technically talented player England have produced since scholes.

[Sibdane]

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/34305355

 

I liked this article. Clubs like Swansea look at a draw with us at their home as a positive result. Glad to see some respect shown for our history too.

[Romey 1878]

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/34305355

I liked this article. Clubs like Swansea look at a draw with us at their home as a positive result. Glad to see some respect shown for our history too.

He's dead wrong when he says they matched us though.

[Sibdane]

He's dead wrong when he says they matched us though.

He is way off there, but that's what they would like others to think.

[chalkpie]

Count me in as another big fan of Stones and especially Barkley today. He is night and day from last season - his ball handling/dribbling is fantastic and I even sense an air of arrogance in his dribbling, which I like!

 

Aside from the fact that this match could well have been 4 or 5-0, I am really liking what I am seeing with this team. If they can REALLY get their shit together with some aspects, especially with some quality finishing, and the defence stays as strong as it has been, top 4 is not some fairy tale wish, but a real possibility. The talent level is pretty damn high at the moment IMO. The next few games including and after the West Brom match will reveal just how much further this team has come from last season. I sense some good shite happening over the next month or so.

Edited September 21, 2015 by chalkpie

[Elston Gunnn]

He's dead wrong when he says they matched us though.

Weren't Monk and Martinez teammates for a few years and sort of friends these days? Sounds like Monk has adopted Roberto's fuzzy positivity when his team is outplayed. Not only didn't the Swans "more than match" Everton, they were lucky not to lose 2-0. But our inability to finish still means a lost 2 points.

 

We - at least I - probably won't dwell on those matches when we were lucky to pick up points. But I suspect that at the end of this season, this will turn out to be one of several lost opportunities to finish a spot or two higher than wherever we end up in the table. This draw promises to irritate all the way to May. I'll temporarily forget it if we're in second on October 26.

[Matt]

Weren't Monk and Martinez teammates for a few years and sort of friends these days? Sounds like Monk has adopted Roberto's fuzzy positivity when his team is outplayed. Not only didn't the Swans "more than match" Everton, they were lucky not to lose 2-0. But our inability to finish still means a lost 2 points.

We - at least I - probably won't dwell on those matches when we were lucky to pick up points. But I suspect that at the end of this season, this will turn out to be one of several lost opportunities to finish a spot or two higher than wherever we end up in the table. This draw promises to irritate all the way to May. I'll temporarily forget it if we're in second on October 26.

 

Just counting it as another point. 9 from 18 isn't great but it's a hell of a lot better than most of us were expecting when we saw the fixture list. Especially considering that includes demolishing the champions and only losing against this years probable champions.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Matt