QPRROFLLMAO.............
This PL season may well be remembered for many things, many of them positive, but to see a modern Club adopt the "Portsmouth" model of PL survival causes no less of a shock.
Hey, listen, I 've no need to be smug here, but to compare Saturday's opponents, Queens Park Rangers, with our own Swansea City set up is at least strange in the extreme. However, let's do a little of it anyway, since it's guaranteed to make us feel slightly more comfortable at the very least.
From the depths of despair some 10 yrs ago we've come a long, and most would say, sensible, way. We arrived in our second season PL adventure as co-tenants with our West London opponents , but, demonstrably different in each Club's set up.
I'm deliberately staying away from some sort of mention of superiority, but I must admit I'm finding it hard. We seem to me to be similarly contingent sorts of Clubs nowadays - albeight it QPR have a great deal more top flight history than we - but the path we're treading is almost in the opposite direction of those at Loftus Rd - and that, surely, will at least make you wonder which might be the more rewarding .
Whilst our own set up, with it's 20% Trust Ownership model gives us a degree of stability but a limited freedom financially, is it really the case that with the Air Asia Supremo Tony Fernandez as Chairman, and a Board that includes Lakshmi Mittal (reputedly the world's 3rd richest man) the "R"'s are any more stable ?? Or in advance ??
Hey, the devil is in the detail, and the numbers will give you a clue.
This PL season may well be remembered for many things, many of them positive, but to see a modern Club adopt the "Portsmouth" model of PL survival causes no less of a shock.
Hey, listen, I 've no need to be smug here, but to compare Saturday's opponents, Queens Park Rangers, with our own Swansea City set up is at least strange in the extreme. However, let's do a little of it anyway, since it's guaranteed to make us feel slightly more comfortable at the very least.
From the depths of despair some 10 yrs ago we've come a long, and most would say, sensible, way. We arrived in our second season PL adventure as co-tenants with our West London opponents , but, demonstrably different in each Club's set up.
I'm deliberately staying away from some sort of mention of superiority, but I must admit I'm finding it hard. We seem to me to be similarly contingent sorts of Clubs nowadays - albeight it QPR have a great deal more top flight history than we - but the path we're treading is almost in the opposite direction of those at Loftus Rd - and that, surely, will at least make you wonder which might be the more rewarding .
Whilst our own set up, with it's 20% Trust Ownership model gives us a degree of stability but a limited freedom financially, is it really the case that with the Air Asia Supremo Tony Fernandez as Chairman, and a Board that includes Lakshmi Mittal (reputedly the world's 3rd richest man) the "R"'s are any more stable ?? Or in advance ??
Hey, the devil is in the detail, and the numbers will give you a clue.
Now,
apart from the obvious distance of 18pts and some 11 places, even the
disinterested will have noticed that they were still on the bottom
whilst we enjoyed a more top half predicament/placement. How could this
be so ????????? The game proceeded to explain.
Here were the teams.......
Swansea City
01 Vorm, 04 Chico (Bartley - 33' ), 06 Williams, 22 Rangel, 33 Davies Booked, 09 Michu (Moore - 80' ), 11 Pablo, 12 Dyer, 15 Routledge (Agustien - 62' ), 20 De Guzman, 24 Ki Sung-Yeung
Substitutes
25 Tremmel, 02 Bartley, 21 Tiendalli, 26 Agustien, 14 Lamah, 17 Shechter, 19 Moore
Queens Park Rangers
33 Julio Cesar, 03 Traore Booked, 05 Samba Booked, 06 Hill, 15 Onuoha, 04 Derry (Granero - 46' ), 10 Taarabt Booked, 16 Jenas (Wright-Phillips - 68' ), 29 Townsend, 40 M'bia, 12 Mackie (Zamora - 46' )
Substitutes
01 Green, 21 Ben-Haim, 07 Park Ji-sung, 11 Wright-Phillips, 14 Granero, 25 Zamora, 37 Bothroyd
Ref: Swarbrick
Att: 20,529
The biggest loss for we Swans may have been Leon Britton's injury and absence, but in this engrossing season we've learnt to trust Michael Laudrup's vision and response, and both Ki and de Guzman again didn;t do anything to disturb that equilibrium.
Co-incidentally, it allowed us to play the three out and out wingers with a roving brief - so at any one time either Dyer or Routledge or Pablo were the no 10, playing behind the sublime Miguel Michu, who again proved that if the Swans have ever made a better buy he would have to be in the Ivor Allchurch class of player - woohoo, what a pleasure to watch.
I'd suggest @Arry had set up in a defensive "let's get a point" formation, with the frustrating but talented Adel Taarabt furthest forward, but despite his occasional displays of classy skill, the limit of QPR's wishes were ephemeral.
City took control of the game from the start, and from several probing and concessant ball retension moments started pushing the 'R's further and further back. This culmitated in a "between the lines" moment when Nathan Dyer took control some 30 yds out centrally, and did what most fans love to see - ie - he put his foot through the ball and shot, the
resulting trajectory allowing Cesar in goal only to palm out centrally, and Michu following in managed a flick with the outside of his right foot a touch that took the ball over the keeper and in.1-0.
The Lib burst to further life as we Swans took on board just reward for early pressure. Just 9m gone and now any QPR struggle for equality would be harder and harder.
Jimmy, my compadre in G119 remarked that now they'd have to come out a little and would be more vulnerable to counter attack. Jimmy is 82yrs old going on 50, so tends to get more things right than wrong, and again he was on the money.
The goal had come from Dyer and Routledge both assuming positions "between the lines" (as is the modernspeak) and the pressure and second goal followed much the same pattern.
QPR's defensive shield of Derry and M'Bia were consistently going walkabout, so when Routledge picked it up centrally some 30 yds out going right he was immediatelly offered an option by the rampaging Rangel showing Mackie a clean pair of heels.
He advanced and shot, and Cesar's block bounced back to him to sweep a left footed follow up accurately and in. 2-0, and we Oldies bopped along with the rest of the delirious Home crowd.
Comments on the shape and pattern of this half.
Swansea's three wingers had indeed rotated and switched constantly, just as they'd done in the WBA game and were again ripping through the opposition by consistently finding THAT space between the putative back 4 and their MF protectors, and that was regularly freeing up space wide for Rangel on the right and Ben Davies on the left. Ki and de Guzman sat deeper, with the Korean biting into challenges and the Dutchman often gliding away from a nicked ball - all in all a fine substitution for the absent Britton.
Meanwhile, up front, the sublime Miguel Michu put on his no 9 cloak and this week adopted the target man role- as ML later said, he is good enough to perform several roles equally efficiently.
City got to half time at 2-0 without QPR offering any decent threat so we went into the break comfortably.
I suspect in the Rangers dressing room it might have been different, since they came out as if "H" had given them the Fergie hair-dryer treatment, and Zamora (hip inflicted) and Esteban Granero (we'd have him, please) replaced both Mackie and Derry, and they immediately looked more dangerous, further complicated by Ben Davies needlessly giving the ball away within 2 m of the restart.
Taraabt drove for goal and got off a decent shot which Michel Vorm nine times out of ten would have held. This was the 10th time, and he palmed it forward where a muscling Zamora out-reacted Kyle Bartley to drive home a goal. 2-1, and all of a sudden there was an opposition fanbase which, up to that moment had been mouse-like.
It would be unfair to say anything other than thegame was now, bizzarely, open, but within 5m Pablo Hernandez put that to bed.
Receiving on the left from a clever Michu hold and reverse, he turned Onouha one way , another, and a third (inside out is the usual phrase), and drilled a low shot past Cesar again to put City 2 goals in front once more. 3-1 and a passage of play that deserved it.
The final knife to the heart came after QPR, by now desperate, were denied a penalty from a cross that appeared to strike Ash Williams on the hand, and a goal line clearance from Kyle Bartley from the follow up.
Kemy Agustien, another apposite ML substitution, fed through to Pablo H, who put an exquisite ball past Christopher Samba, the £12m pound man, and Michu, the contrasting bargain, ran beyond him and caressed an delightful first time flick finish beyond Cesar and in. 4-1, game over.
The game played out with City content to boss posession, and QPR only able to offer a Wright-Phillips effort that hit the bar. Another 3 pts gathered.
Both Managers summed the game up rather well, and can be found here............. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21311593
As ML hinted there, the biggest problem was the loss of Chico to an ankle injury that could well keep him out of the COC Final. Let's hope not, but otherwise, this is a season that keeps on giving.
Onwards, Swansea City.
Here were the teams.......
Swansea City
01 Vorm, 04 Chico (Bartley - 33' ), 06 Williams, 22 Rangel, 33 Davies Booked, 09 Michu (Moore - 80' ), 11 Pablo, 12 Dyer, 15 Routledge (Agustien - 62' ), 20 De Guzman, 24 Ki Sung-Yeung
Substitutes
25 Tremmel, 02 Bartley, 21 Tiendalli, 26 Agustien, 14 Lamah, 17 Shechter, 19 Moore
Queens Park Rangers
33 Julio Cesar, 03 Traore Booked, 05 Samba Booked, 06 Hill, 15 Onuoha, 04 Derry (Granero - 46' ), 10 Taarabt Booked, 16 Jenas (Wright-Phillips - 68' ), 29 Townsend, 40 M'bia, 12 Mackie (Zamora - 46' )
Substitutes
01 Green, 21 Ben-Haim, 07 Park Ji-sung, 11 Wright-Phillips, 14 Granero, 25 Zamora, 37 Bothroyd
Ref: Swarbrick
Att: 20,529
The biggest loss for we Swans may have been Leon Britton's injury and absence, but in this engrossing season we've learnt to trust Michael Laudrup's vision and response, and both Ki and de Guzman again didn;t do anything to disturb that equilibrium.
Co-incidentally, it allowed us to play the three out and out wingers with a roving brief - so at any one time either Dyer or Routledge or Pablo were the no 10, playing behind the sublime Miguel Michu, who again proved that if the Swans have ever made a better buy he would have to be in the Ivor Allchurch class of player - woohoo, what a pleasure to watch.
I'd suggest @Arry had set up in a defensive "let's get a point" formation, with the frustrating but talented Adel Taarabt furthest forward, but despite his occasional displays of classy skill, the limit of QPR's wishes were ephemeral.
City took control of the game from the start, and from several probing and concessant ball retension moments started pushing the 'R's further and further back. This culmitated in a "between the lines" moment when Nathan Dyer took control some 30 yds out centrally, and did what most fans love to see - ie - he put his foot through the ball and shot, the
resulting trajectory allowing Cesar in goal only to palm out centrally, and Michu following in managed a flick with the outside of his right foot a touch that took the ball over the keeper and in.1-0.
The Lib burst to further life as we Swans took on board just reward for early pressure. Just 9m gone and now any QPR struggle for equality would be harder and harder.
Jimmy, my compadre in G119 remarked that now they'd have to come out a little and would be more vulnerable to counter attack. Jimmy is 82yrs old going on 50, so tends to get more things right than wrong, and again he was on the money.
The goal had come from Dyer and Routledge both assuming positions "between the lines" (as is the modernspeak) and the pressure and second goal followed much the same pattern.
QPR's defensive shield of Derry and M'Bia were consistently going walkabout, so when Routledge picked it up centrally some 30 yds out going right he was immediatelly offered an option by the rampaging Rangel showing Mackie a clean pair of heels.
He advanced and shot, and Cesar's block bounced back to him to sweep a left footed follow up accurately and in. 2-0, and we Oldies bopped along with the rest of the delirious Home crowd.
Comments on the shape and pattern of this half.
Swansea's three wingers had indeed rotated and switched constantly, just as they'd done in the WBA game and were again ripping through the opposition by consistently finding THAT space between the putative back 4 and their MF protectors, and that was regularly freeing up space wide for Rangel on the right and Ben Davies on the left. Ki and de Guzman sat deeper, with the Korean biting into challenges and the Dutchman often gliding away from a nicked ball - all in all a fine substitution for the absent Britton.
Meanwhile, up front, the sublime Miguel Michu put on his no 9 cloak and this week adopted the target man role- as ML later said, he is good enough to perform several roles equally efficiently.
City got to half time at 2-0 without QPR offering any decent threat so we went into the break comfortably.
I suspect in the Rangers dressing room it might have been different, since they came out as if "H" had given them the Fergie hair-dryer treatment, and Zamora (hip inflicted) and Esteban Granero (we'd have him, please) replaced both Mackie and Derry, and they immediately looked more dangerous, further complicated by Ben Davies needlessly giving the ball away within 2 m of the restart.
Taraabt drove for goal and got off a decent shot which Michel Vorm nine times out of ten would have held. This was the 10th time, and he palmed it forward where a muscling Zamora out-reacted Kyle Bartley to drive home a goal. 2-1, and all of a sudden there was an opposition fanbase which, up to that moment had been mouse-like.
It would be unfair to say anything other than thegame was now, bizzarely, open, but within 5m Pablo Hernandez put that to bed.
Receiving on the left from a clever Michu hold and reverse, he turned Onouha one way , another, and a third (inside out is the usual phrase), and drilled a low shot past Cesar again to put City 2 goals in front once more. 3-1 and a passage of play that deserved it.
The final knife to the heart came after QPR, by now desperate, were denied a penalty from a cross that appeared to strike Ash Williams on the hand, and a goal line clearance from Kyle Bartley from the follow up.
Kemy Agustien, another apposite ML substitution, fed through to Pablo H, who put an exquisite ball past Christopher Samba, the £12m pound man, and Michu, the contrasting bargain, ran beyond him and caressed an delightful first time flick finish beyond Cesar and in. 4-1, game over.
The game played out with City content to boss posession, and QPR only able to offer a Wright-Phillips effort that hit the bar. Another 3 pts gathered.
Both Managers summed the game up rather well, and can be found here............. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21311593
As ML hinted there, the biggest problem was the loss of Chico to an ankle injury that could well keep him out of the COC Final. Let's hope not, but otherwise, this is a season that keeps on giving.
Onwards, Swansea City.
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