Rob Davies
Russell Martin was an angry man after seeing his Swansea team knocked out by League One Oxford United tonight and aimed the blame at his players for failing to see out the game.
He pointed to the substitutions being the key turning point at 2-0 up with the wholesale changes clearly affecting the fluidity of the team and the general flow of the game. What he failed to mention was that the decision to make those changes rests solely with the manager.
Harry Darling, Joel Latibeaudiere, Ryan Manning and Jay Fulton all left the match at the 60 minute mark to be replaced by Azeem Abdulai, Nathan Wood, Olivier Ntcham and Joe Allen. This was the beginning of the Swans’ and ultimately Martin’s downfall tonight.
Shots most certainly fired by Martin – see his comments to Wales Online: “The subs should not change the game as much as it did, for sure.
“We should be here talking about debuts, Azeem [Abdulai], Joel Cotterill, Joe [Allen] coming back, some really great performances, Ollie Cooper, but Ryan Manning, Jay Fulton, Joel Latibeaudiere and Harry Darling coming off, it really hurt us, and it shouldn’t hurt us that much.
“Even then they didn’t create that much. The goal was pathetic. And then, you’re in a wall, just be brave. How it descended into that I just don’t know.
“What they’ve done is left us open to criticism on our mentality and that stuff. What I would point to is the changes. We had such a young team on the pitch at the end, but even then, the experienced lads need to help them get through it, they have to, and they just didn’t. I’m really angry and frustrated because for 65 minutes, you could tell the fans were enjoying it, it was a no-game. The amount of chances we had.
“If you look at the flow of the game, it was all us for 65 minutes, and then it just completely flipped. You can’t do that, you need to manage the game better. That’s maybe down to naivety.
“You want to see if guys can do it. Sink or swim time. A few swam really well and a few sank. I’m angry, the boys should be angry with what they let the game turn into because we should have been out of sight.”
Very strong comments from Martin. But the question marks get bigger over his position with tonight’s result making it nine games without a win. The pressure gets bigger and the focus turns to Blackpool.
A loss there and perhaps he may not be able to recover the support of the fans.
Was it a horror show NO it was not so why such a headline. Also counting the games at the end of last season to ramp up 9 in a row and no win pathetic that’s done and dusted. It’s 3 it’s not good far from it but stop sensationalising
Generally losing a two goal lead to a League One team is pretty horrendous whichever way you look at it. And I’m sure if he had won the last nine there would be many people, maybe yourself for example, who would be keen to trot out the great run.
It’s not good enough.
Sorry to say but Martin must realise that excuses after every game is not on. I sometime struggle to understand his thinking. How long did it take him to realise that Bennett was not a left defender / wing back.
How long did he play Korey Smith before he realised he offered us nothing. Both players now not required but how long did it take him to realise it . He thought Joel not good enough before last season even started
He worries me
Martin, the coach, has proven to be inept at game management, doesn ‘t seem to have the nous to close down games. Remember last season where we had good leads and blew them. This was a game we needed to win to stay in the competition to give fringe players game time apart from the confidence factor. So why did he drastically change a winning side ???⁷