The Truth is stranger than fiction.

Swansea City v Stoke City , PL, Liberty Stadium, 10th Nov 2013

Yo, guys, welcome back to the Lib, for the show that must be seen to be believed.

Previous performances against SCFC (North) have seen us struggle up at the Brittania, but have better outcomes and better enjoyment back here in South Wales.

In a match shunted to 4.10pm on an armistice weekend, and coming off the back of that frustrating 1-1 draw at Kuban in the Europa League (about which Stokies of last year and this will speak with some passion), yesterday's bun fight at Copperopolis was surprisingly enjoyable containing as it did many of the slants that make the Premier League the fascinating watch that it is.

From a disappointing start and a trudge off at half time that felt cathartic, City emerged renewed and laid on a second half to be proud of.

We Swans were approaching the game with a background of a bitterly frustrating Derby day loss to the Devil's Spawn, and a demonstration of the concept "Deja Vu" mainlined into our consciousness by Thursday's performance at Kuban in the Europa Competition.

Meanwhile the Potters were coming to terms with Asmir Begovic, their excellent keeper, confirming that as the Club's leading joint top goalscorer subsequent to his long distance strike v Southampton last week, Mark Hughes' revolution in transforming them from bruising punch-first merchants to subtle stick-and-twist artistes had a distance to go.

The game we witnessed went at least some way to confirming all of the above, containing as it did moments of sublime brilliance and jaw -dropping inanity in equal measure. Really, if you were taking bets on how it would turn out, cash your chips in NOW because you sure as hell didn't get it right. The PL is often bizarre – it's just not ALWAYS this crazy. On to the game....................the sides lined up thus..............

Swansea City

25 Tremmel , 22 Rangel , 33 Davies , 07 Britton , 04 Chico , 06 Williams , 15 Routledge , 20 De Guzmán (Shelvey - 71' ) , 10 Bony , 24 Pozuelo (Cañas - 93' ) , 14 Lamah (Dyer - 55')
Substitutes
02 Amat , 03 Taylor , 08 Shelvey , 12 Dyer , 21 Cañas , 26 Alvaro , 45 Zabret

Stoke City

01 Begovic , 20 Cameron , 03 Pieters , 08 Palacios (Adam - 72') , 17 Shawcross , 04 Huth , 19 Walters , 15 N'Zonzi , 25 Crouch , 32 Ireland (Wilson - 72' ) , 10 Arnautovic (Etherington - 54' )
Substitutes
06 Whelan , 09 Jones , 12 Wilson , 16 Adam , 24 Assaidi , 26 Etherington , 29 Sørensen

Ref: Robert Madley
Att: 19,242

The referee was Robert Madley, and some would say that he officiated to reflect his  surname - I couldn't possibly, unless some kind soul were to replace his first patronym with a combination that reads Truly Deeply as replacements for Robert. Even in the PL, it was ever thus – we DO SEEM TO GET THEM.


There are several things to say before we get into the game.

Point 1

Are you, like me, fed up of seeing fit and healthy PL footballers fall over when brushed/contacted by the opposition? (This includes ours as well as theirs), but I accept it seems to happen from ANY opposition.

Point 2

If the opposition GK'er from the first 5m onwards takes 30/40secs whilst taking a GK especially by running from the outward side to another, and each injury takes a player some 1m to 2m to get back on, why don't referees book the first instance and put a stop to this nonsense of regular, blatant time wasting.

Point 3

Having taken the piss consistently throughout the game WHY IS IT THAT the 4/5/6 m awarded of extra time takes no account of WHO HAS WASTED IT?? IN other words, when, in the 6th minute of extra time (ALL OF WHICH HAD BEEN WASTED BY THEM) why should we suffer the indignity of a wrongly awarded penalty in time which would have not been played had it been recognised that they were trying to CHEAT. Yes, CHEAT.

Now I know I'm a pain, but I have a suspicion that you'll feel I've made some valid points.

 Haven't I??

If you doubt the veracity of the above I urge you to come to the Lib some time soon and have your worst fears confirmed.

The game,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ah, the game, bloody hell.

Having suffered the nonsense of seeing a limited Stoke threaten early from our mis-performing CB's attempts to clear some vaguely threatening balls, the ultimate insult came as early as the 8th minute.

From a Swansea FK on the right, we saw Ash Williams stumble out of a challenge and be forced off.

The subsequent Stoke free ball, channeled into Ash's vacant position and poorly defended by JdG and a tumbling Ben Davies left Stoke free to play in Jonathan Walters, whose clip inwards left Gerhard Tremmel embarrassed by the concession of a sloppy goal. 1-0, and we groaned inwardly.

We continued to play our patient passing game,  which demonstrated its lack of tempo when a simple training 1-2-3 man free routine by Stoke on attack left Stephen Ireland loose and at his leisure to clip a second beyond another exposed Tremmel. 2-0 and only 25m gone.

Mumbles and grumbles were heard from the stands, although to be fair to City they tore into Stoke to try to get something back.

It included a series of chances from the oft criticised Wilfried Bony, and whilst he failed the Loic Remy test by taking around Begovic, his glancing header from a sitting cross was perhaps more disappointing. The air was ripe with talk of cow's arses and banjos.

The best that can be said for the side is in this period, despite beating their heads against a brick wall (which Stoke were) they continued to try and create, and even though they went in at HT 2-0 down, their closing efforts left we fans with a vague sense of "what if"??

Laudrup's second half tweaks at least made us start to believe.

The immediacy of Swansea's efforts were instantly recognisable - you've been there - you're sitting on your backside sucking your mints and all of a sudden you realise the team's effort deserves your support, so when you sit down having screamed "Cmon City" for the previous 30secs you don't feel half so bad when those around you begin to murmur/stutter/shout agreement and the team's play reflects it, too.

We were back in the game.

The breakthrough came when after an attack down the left, Britton hit a rebuffed volley out to deGuzman on the right, and his immediate whipped in cross was headed home by Bony from the 6 yd box.

1-2, and the crowd was now more than alive- it was buzzing.

The team confirmed it's optimism by consistently winning the 50/50 challenges and just believing - you know what I mean - it's that determination to try something/anything without considering risk - if we go at it the opposition will try to defend it BUT BE LIMITED.

Thus, with just 15m to go, another threatening attack saw the ball headed out to Dyer some 8yds out, and after a chest control his mis-hit volley did what many shots on target do - it nestled into the L Hand corner with everyone going central.

2-2, and even we limited West Stand semi crocks were rocking and bopping, and I swear I saw Jimmy push the man from the Mail and tell him to "write it again Buster".

The most pleasant piece of this period was realising that the team had indeed cast off it's limitations and were now out and out playing to BLOODY WIN.

What an absolute joy and pleasure, so when Shelvey turned their right side and cut back a superb ball, Bony's slotting of same led to delirium all around, 3-2, wooHoo.

For those of you not able to attend games (for any reason) get this. The team (I'd suggest) know the same. Passionate support brings a passionate response.

Having got in front with a limited time to go , we probably did deserve what we've got and may sometimes ground out a win but we will definitely not lose.

You all know my feelings re the extra time awarded, so when, in the 96th MR Truly Deeply Madly awarded an absurd penalty against a presumably straight up Wayne Routledge challenge for a hooked ball it not only enraged our players but made a confirmed sceptic (for life) of me on whether Refs of insufficient experience/ability should ever be allowed in the PL.

Check it out FA - they ALWAYS, ALWAYS get it wrong.

I've told the tale previously of a friend of mine's theory that Llanelli's roads are a patchwork quilt of potholes and repairs because EVERY Single apprentice hole-digger in Britain is sent to Llanelli to practice mucking up their first ever digs. Similarly, ALL PL apprentice match officials are sent to the Liberty to practice screwing up football matches at Swansea City's expense in our stadium before being released into the wider world.

I'm all talked out - after that absurd decision I've even sat here this evening and tried to transpose my thoughts to what have it must have been like for him - and each time, unsurprisingly, I find myself ignoring the challenge and awarding a corner kick, which can't be taken because we're OUT OF TIME.

Am I wrong or is Truly, Deeply, Mr Madley??

You decide, (hey Stokies, that includes you).

# Goes away to lie down in a darkened room, mumbling........

ONWARD SWANSEA CITY

The Psychology of being a fan.

We ( Swansea City FC) have  been resplendent in our PL occupation of the past couple of years, and at the end of each subsequent period of time we've seen our progress year on year demonstrably evidenced by our final position and the results that mirrored it.

Still, whilst I'd accept that we've made (and continue to make) progress, the very gist of the here-and-now nature of modern football existence demands that our perception is on the immediate (witness the fevered response to our 1-1 draw away at Kuban midweek) , and limits our longer term ideas on where we may, or may not, end up at the Season's close.

Hey, this is all part of our being modern football fans!

The days of sober and considered appreciation/reflection are long gone. In an age where the immediacy of social communication is defined by whomsoever gets the first significant Tweet live onto the Web or Website, the downside of that is that the doom-mongers and nay-sayers have an easily exploitative chance to "get their retaliation  in first".

As the Lions and McBride learned early and to their cost, a tad of negative will usually swamp the more measured response of the positive. The corollary, of course, is that they didn't have the option of a convenient "ignore" button, either physically or metaphorically . We do. And I'd urge those seeking a reasoned evaluation to excercise their choice with a degree of fastidiousness.

Use it or lose it as we say - otherwise, please excercise the normal fans prerogative of analysis by rationality.

Most of us will have realised that when, on a discussion board, the critics come out to play they are usually vehemently vocal on what's gone wrong, but what limits their arguments is that you'll find it very hard to spot what they might suggest as an alternative.

Let me give you an example of which we're all significantly aware.

My own team, Swansea City, were this week involved in a 1-1 draw away at the Russian PL team Kuban Krasnodar in the Europa Cup, and conceded a last minute equaliser to mirror the performance at home against the same team when the same thing happened.

Had you only seen the same information reported in your daily newspaper/ radio station etc you might well have thought - bloody hell, how did we let that happen ??

My suggestion is that there were a great deal of differing circumstances - and before going on to make predictable and braying long term value judgements, it might be worth investigating the multifarious differing circumstances.

Having lived through our first couple of seasons in this most unforgiving of Divisions with a degree of equanimity and enjoyment, and seen us, no less, win our first major trophy (the Capital One Cup) and thus qualify to play this (amongst others) European ties, you'd be right in assuming that I'm a pretty happy pixie in my appreciation of SCFC's performance.

I've been a fan since 1963, and I'm aware of our history, and I can honestly say that this club has never, ever, seen better times.

That's NOT to say that I don't ever offer an opinion that's critical of the Club/Team in some way. I regularly do and I'll be happy to offer those opinions further down so that they can be considered and either rejected/shot down by you, my fellow fans, or agreed with and maybe developed.

In considering this season in comparison to the last 2 I feel it's fair to say that this year has brought it's share of frustrations.

Given our Europa League commitment, I'm delighted by our negotiating our way through 2 testing ties to get into the Group Stage and our performances in same thus far.

Beating Valencia 3-0 away was a classy, elegant performance against a long established La Liga "big club". To grind out a win against St Gallen at home, and to achieve at least parity against Kuban both home and away shows resilience (even if we could / should have won both ties) so to sit on 8pts and in second in the group with 2 to play is no mean feat.

Yes, we could have done better.

YES, also, it could have gone worse.

Doubters, please get real, we're playing in European competition - not Barnet FC and Kidderminster as we've done in the recent past.

In the PL it's fair to say we've veered from the sublime to the ridiculous.

From an unsurprising (predictably) no show against last year's champions MU, we stumbled through a loss to the high flying Gunners at home and what can be said is what most of us felt and was evident from both performances - we really COULD have got at both (as has been evidenced in previous home games against the same opposition ) and made it BLOODY HARDER for them to win.

Against Liverpool at Home we spent half the game in shadow and half the game tearing them apart to get a 2-2 draw.

West Ham did what West Ham do under "Big Sam" - grind out a point, and Sunderland capitulated when we turned up the heat properly.

Away from home we've had the desperately disappointing display at WH Lane where we let ourselves down - the deserved victories at West Brom and Palace where we put teams in similar positions as us to the sword, and the suicidal foolishness of outplaying the PL's buzzing team, Southampton, to lose a game 2-0 that we should have won.

Mixed in there of course, were two of our most disappointing performances of all - the loss to Birmingham in the Carling One Cup (we were sorry defenders) and the stuttering, stumbling loss to a limited Cardiff City where we seemed to me to settle after about 25m for a 0-0 draw. From that moment on I thought we were doomed, and Steven Caulker on 60 odd minutes confirmed the same.

So, you'll be asking yourself, where do we go from here?

Looking at our our fixtures from here to Xmas, it seems to me that we have a far better run possible than we've had thus far. 

This is how it goes up until the new year........

  
Swansea V Stoke : Sun 10 Nov     16:10    
Fulham V Swansea : Sat 23 Nov     15:00         
Swansea V Valencia CF : Thu 28 Nov 20.00    
Man City V Swansea : Sun 1 Dec 16:10    
Swansea V Newcastle : Wed 4 Dec 19:45        
Swansea V Hull : Mon 9 Dec 20:00    
FC St Gallen V Swansea : Thu 12 Dec 18:00        
Norwich V Swansea : Sun 15 Dec 13:30        
Swansea V Everton : Sun 22 Dec 16:00        
Chelsea V Swansea : Thu 26 Dec 15:00        
Aston Villa V Swansea : Sat 28 Dec 15:00 

When I compare these fixtures against those we've had thus far it seems to me unfair that I say anything other than this - this is what it's like in this League and in this situation.

No game is easy anymore , and Michael Laudrup is more aware than all of we "Armchair Managers" on the Psychology involved in approaching such fixtures.

After all's said and done, Huw Jenkins and the Board have done us proud in employing a succession of Managers who've done us justice in taking us to this, our best ever position.

That doesn't mean that we can't comment, constructively criticise, moan, groan and just occasionally throw our toys out of the pram.

Overall, though, what we MUST DO is support.

That's what real fans do.

Onward
Swansea City. 

 

Swansea City - a Tactical Appreciation

 Given that we've just come off a painful 1-0 reverse to our arch enemies, Cardiff City, in the first ever all-Welsh Premier League derby, this might be a strange time to be considering the highlight question that's the title of this piece - namely : Swansea City, a Tactical appreciation.

After all, over the past couple of seasons where we've finished 11th and 10th in the Premier League and won the Capital One Cup thus qualifying us to play in the Europa League this season, you might be thinking that as a Swans fan this is as good as it gets. Think again, bro.

We have always been good at self-deprecation. It's something bled/bred into us as youngsters. You grow up knowing this is how it is. For all these good times there will surely be some bad.


So when I traveled, bubbled, to the Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday I knew damn well that despite the schadenfreude of US being able to sing to THEM "We'll always be white" , there might well be something that slapped us back in the chops and said " Don't get ahead of yourself, sunshine".

And so it turned out to be. Despite Steven Caulker's admirable restraint in refusing to celebrate his winning goal against us (he had a successful loan year with us last season), it still felt like a stab to the heart for me, sitting, as I was, in the front row near the corner flag, and witness to the demented delirium of the CCFC fans nearest us.

Many of these same, at 40 plus years of age, must have been praying their families didn't see them on MOTD2 later that evening. Ugly. It was ever thus, and I'm suspecting a few of our "fans" might feel the same.

The build up to this game had been fevered - you can't blame the Broadcasters for that since it's their job to maximise the audience. No. For me, the fillip to writing this piece came from the fan reaction . I was there, LIVE, as Sky like to say, and to me it seemed the hysteria might have been a bit disproportionate. Bear with me here and I'll explain what I mean.

We've become used, over the last few seasons, to playing what would generally be construed within football as a 4-2-3-1 formation , but, as has been seen in endless comment within the Swansea/Fraternity bubble , the formation is dependent on many other things.

As putative examples, take these. As a Div2/Div1 team under Jackett or Martinez, this wasn't important - possession was all, and our superior players allowed us to progress.

In the Championship, under Sousa and Rodgers, it reared it's ugly head on occasion - whilst most fans would give Sousa his due for making us more defensively resilient, we were pleased to see Rodgers loosening of the defensive strings to enable us to get forward faster - still keep-the-ball but with wide, pacy wingers.

Evolution saw Laudrup as next up require his wingers to play "narrower" as previously, but with developed FB's too.

Simplistic ? Maybe.

Vaguely accurate?  Maybe.

So what's next on the Swansea City tableau ?  Read on.


When I read the Swansea City messageboards subsequent to our defeat at the CCFC Stadium it struck me that, as ever, there are 2 generally observable strains of fans.

There are those, like me, who are generally tagged as "glass half full", "rose tinted specs" types who will still support the club tomorrow. There are a further set who's principal enthusiasm seems to be "we are doomed, the management and players are crap" and who are happy to criticise but NOT offer any sort of alternative.

And this what gets my goat.

So this piece is an attempt to analyse where we are, and where we go from here. As I said previously, there's a great fission and frisson between players and tactics in many supporters eyes, as the Guardian's Jonathan Wilson elucidates in this perceptive piece.

I'd suggest that Wilson's argument is persuasive to the Nth degree but as a disciple of "inverting the Triangle" I would be, wouldn't I?

To that end, I've chosen to concentrate my discussion on 4 (to me) pertinent points. And they are.............

1) Formation
2) Tactics
3) Tempo/Pace
4) Originality

1) Formation

Over the last six seasons, we Swans have seen 4-2-3-1 and it's variations sewn into our DNA. It got us up through the divisions ( where non-converts were swamped of possession, particularly in MF) and then established us into the PL by a freak confluence of a stellar performer (Miguel Michu) with a developing team. Bloody hell, it even enabled us to win the Capital One Cup last year on the back of a series of performances where the perceived input exceeded the sum of it's parts. We had a lot of excellent players, but the performances were even better.

The bummer, of course, is that THIS IS the PL. Opponents don't just go away to lick their wounds - they analyse to the infinitessimal degree what went wrong for them and right for us with a view to making it different this year. Oh, and btw, teams who haven't played us previously do exactly the same, making this most 'ornery of Divisions a bundle of problems next time around (this year).

I've been a fan of the formation, and I can see it's relevance as a long term staple, but, just recently, I got into a conversation with one who suggested some alternatives, and I put them up here just to stimulate debate.

The first point is this - we, and all other PL teams, now know that ML has our wingers playing narrower, and compensate accordingly. Similarly, Everton under Moyes and Norwich/Villa under Lambert ALWAYS push up to press and thus stop us playing out from the back. Bet on Stoke City to do it this weekend.

Given our sad weekend last against CCFC it may allow us to experiment a little - but the major question is SHOULD WE?

Imagine these - a 4-1-3-1-1 that goes, Tremmel, Rangel, Williams,Chico, Taylor/Ben, Canas, Dyer, de G, Pablo/Lamah, Pozuelo, Bony

That's just the first, and I'm aware that injuries screw, but I'd ask you to slot somebody in if a player is obviously inconvenienced. C'mon, GET WITH THE FLOW.

I've seen this offered as an alternative and forgive me, but it seems to make a bit of sense too.

Even more radical would be to pick a team with one change from that line up - ie, play only Canas as the holding MF'er with a 3 in front of him of JDG, Pozuelo and Pablo (if fit, Lamah otherwise) and have both Vasquez and Bony ahead (the youngster as support STR). Radical I know, but since both Nathan and WR have stunk the house out lately, and we are stuttering, "radical" might work.

Then again, since we're talking radical, a 3-5-2 (a la Brendan at the 'Pool) might read ....................Tremmel, Chico, Ash, Amat, Rangel, Dyer, Canas/Leon, Pablo/Lamah, Ben, Vasquez, Bony

I haven't considered Michu since he's injured.

What about this - and screw you Sam Allardyce - it's effectively a 3-6-1 that reads...........

Tremmel, Chico, Ash, Amat, Rangel, Dyer/JdG, Canas/Leon,Pozuelo, Pablo/Lamah, Ben, Bony

It may be the case that I, and my correspondent are being a tad fanciful but if we played with either of these formations I'd suggest we could get the attacking 4 players, 6 when Rangel and Ben push on, playing a lot closer together with quite a sold unit behind.

Whether ML is sufficiently brave/foolish to adopt such a break I doubt, unfortunately, but it's surely a very valid point that we MIGHT use these upcoming Europa Cup games to at the very least try some things we'd be loth to adopt in the PL.

2) Tactics

To approach a PL (or any) game without a tactical analysis of how we, and hopefully, they, intend to play would be foolish in the extreme, and we're not the sort of side that does that. Unfortunately, we seem to have fallen into a routine where our tactics don't surprise, thus allowing teams of all levels to set up to counter us.

The most generally noticed difference from the Laudrup team to the previous regime under BR seems to be the wingers playing "narrower" and a general direct thrust and more incisive final third passing. I confess I see the former, and whilst it's had it's good days ( West Brom last year 3-0 at HT and we tore them apart) I've also seen it stagnate and stink the house out . Tottenham away and Cardiff last Sunday spring to mind.

So, the question I'm asking is this - is it possible with our current playing squad to vary the ante as we've done previously under Martinez (although he too could be a stubborn bastard) or does it depend on our being able to augment the squad come January to allow us a little more flexibility.

If I had a choice and free reign to sign players in January I'd target these 3 (all creators and scorers) a) Matt Jarvis at WHU, b) David Hoilett at QPR, c)Emanuel Adeybayor at Tottenham. I know, I know, we can't afford the wages let alone any bloody fee, but if we can negotiate something of that ilk (would Spurs pay a chunk of his wages to get him off the books on a loan?) then we might be tactically a little more flexible.

3)Tempo/Pace

You know as well as I do that when we play "quickly" we play well. That doesn't mean that all of our players have to outsprint theirs ( it helps) but that we pass and move with a degree of tempo that makes the opponent uncomfortable.

The ball is ALWAYS faster than a player, so moving it at pace makes sense for all teams, and the best do it without thinking.

Think Barcelona, Dortmund, Bayern Munchen, Citeh even, we've all seen the high tempo press allied with rapid pass and move bring success. At the moment, the team doing it best in the PL is Southampton, and having bested them in our recent 2-0 defeat at St Mary's we ought to have learned a valuable lesson. We didn't then, but we're certainly capable of doing it ongoing. Let's start against Stoke.

4) Originality

We Swans have been lucky these past 10yrs to see our Club progress as it has. Very recently, our estimable Chairman Huw Jenkins did an interview with the Guardian (get it here) that makes for more than interesting reading.

Allow me to paraphrase just a short piece, where he suggested that to concede defeat to the so-called Super Clubs meant that we were effectively conceding defeat in almost a third of the PL Program. Bloody hell Huw, spot on.

It's my belief (and I suspect HJ's too), that part of the reason we've been so successful over that period has been precisely because we're original. We're the only PL Club with a model of fan ownership, we're one of the few that lives within it's means. And, let it not be forgot, we're one of the few who's played consistently innovative football over that period.

We should never forget this - what got us here was daring to be different - on and off the field.

Over the next six months we must dare to be different again.

If that means we go at teams at Home via the throat from the off I'd love that.

If it means performing as we did against Fulham 3-0 and West Brom 2-0 too I can live with that, because this is a Club that gives me more than I possibly dreamed about.

We are really fortunate in the PL to see Sergio Aguerro, David Silva, Mesut Ozil and players of that ilk. Just give me Ferrie Bodde (who helped get us here), Leon Britton, Miguel Perez Cuesta and I am a happy pixie.

STID.

Onwards and upwards,
SWANSEA CITY