Season 23/24 | The Official Match Thread | Swansea City vs Leeds United | The EFL Championship

[LeonWasTheDogs]

There's a way to lose matches, and we have lost far too many in an unacceptable manner, Southampton twice and now Leeds . To have to sit there for the best part of an hour in this weather just watching Leeds basically running down the clock is an absolute disgrace. No guts , no pride , no clue. Just watch Leeds steamroller over us inside 30 minutes.

I think we were set up very naively by Williams. Humphreys out of position and effectively a wing back behind two wingers who don’t really track back, leaving 2 CBs playing a high line….against the most rapid attack in the league.. A recipe for disaster imo. Compare to them second have - just kept it tight as they knew we’d have a go.

The gulf in class individually is huge, so it was fairly inevitable. I’d have expected a bit more fight though. We didn’t make it uncomfortable for them with a few strong challenges (not that we would have been able to with the ref giving them every free kick they asked for).

 

[Niigata Jack]

We looked far better under Sheehan and got more points per game.

Only saving grace right now is the opposition we've played

We certainly looked much more solid, Southampton aside.

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

Fulton is basically getting worse. He actually defended an attack in the second half running away from the ball with his back to it.

Grimes is clearly at the moment trying to play more attacking (and it makes a refreshing change) but with Fulton in midfield (and the dreadful duo at the back) we will always be slow and cumbersome and hamstrung

You certainly can’t build from the back with Wood and Cabango. It’s scary watching them try. And yep, Fulton’s definitely struggling. I’m not sure Patino’s the answer. He seems to be getting worse every time we see him - maybe he just needs a run of games though, as he looked promising early in the season.

 

[A4Jack]

We certainly looked much more solid, Southampton aside.

We actually had a few chances vs Southampton too. There's a hell of a lot of work to do and I can only imagine what Luke's record is defensively as a manager this season.

Over 2 goals a game conceded surely?

 

[PSumbler]

You certainly can’t build from the back with Wood and Cabango. It’s scary watching them try. And yep, Fulton’s definitely struggling. I’m not sure Patino’s the answer. He seems to be getting worse every time we see him - maybe he just needs a run of games though, as he looked promising early in the season.

The only thing I would say with Patino is he cannot be worse than Fulton and certainly not with the run of games that the hapless one has had

 

[Chief]

I am being absolutely fair and I like to think I'm rational.

Do you think we would have conceded as many goals in these games under Sheehan that we have under Williams?

This isn't a doubting Williams post but it's a fair question to ask.

Does it really matter? We wouldn't have won these games under Sheehan either. But I'd argue we probably wouldn't have won at Hull under Sheehan.

I don't think it is fair to ask at all. I'm by no means convinced by Williams but his fixtures are completely incomparable to what Sheehan had.

 

[A4Jack]

Does it really matter? We wouldn't have won these games under Sheehan either. But I'd argue we probably wouldn't have won at Hull under Sheehan.

I don't think it is fair to ask at all. I'm by no means convinced by Williams but his fixtures are completely incomparable to what Sheehan had.

I think you've got your head in the sand Chief.

How you can say we wouldn't have won against Hull when we won against WBA (a team higher than Hull) and a play off chasing Preston along with a draw against in form Coventry City.

I have hope for Williams but we have not even given ourselves a chance. Yet a lot of teams in this division do.

 

[monmouth]

The 5-0 under Sheehan at Russbotshire was just as big a shambles. Players just give up as soon as a ball is kicked.

You can sense Williams' anger, but stop picking the same old shit that will play the same old way then. Also playing a high line against these would have been as stupid as playing a high line against Leicester and that's down to you Luke. Was that really what you wanted? A high press? We needed to be compact and keep it tight against these teams not go gung ho 'toe to toe'. That's Martin talk otherwise and you lose 5-1 at home to Fulham...oh yes, how easy it is to forget...

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

You certainly can’t build from the back with Wood and Cabango. It’s scary watching them try.

It reminds of that episode of Father Ted where they mistakenly let Dougal do a funeral.

Out. Of. Their. Depth.

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

He's not the worst player I agree but he's not very good either. And he's the worst captain in the division. It doesn't matter if the game was already over, you clatter that Leeds player in the build up to the 4th goal, you pull his shirt or whatever it doesn't matter, you stop him progressing up that pitch to make that 4th goal. It speaks to a player who doesn't have leadership skills, who doesn't have a football brain, who doesn't have a winner's instinct, even if "winning" in this context means losing 3-0 not 4-0.

And it's not the first time either, he's done it for years. You can keep your showing for the ball. How about show some balls, some brains? Set an example, you're the captain.

Yeah, he’s not a gnarly bastard who’s going to kick players up in the air. He’s quiet too. We could do with a Monk-type experienced CB. That’d kill 2 birds with one stone - get a natural leader on the pitch and stop some of the Chuckle Brothers defending we have these days.

 

[Swansea93]

Piroe classy as ever, celebrating nicely in the corner by our fans.

 

[Chief]

I think you've got your head in the sand Chief.

How you can say we wouldn't have won against Hull when we won against WBA (a team higher than Hull) and a play off chasing Preston along with a draw against in form Coventry City.

I have hope for Williams but we have not even given ourselves a chance. Yet a lot of teams in this division do.

Definitely not got my head in the sand - probably the opposite, don't really know what you were expecting.

Sheehan (and I'm not criticising this) played some games with 5 at the back, 2 defensive Midfielders, no wingers and no strikers. But he was a caretaker manager and had a decent run of fixtures.

Williams was brought in to get back to more exciting football (his defensive record at Notts County was rubbish). This is what people called for though, so conceding goals against the better teams should not be a surprise to anyone.

plus he's has had difficult fixtures and we've gone through a transfer window without dealing with our completely hollow core.

Comparisons between the two are unfair and pretty pointless considering the completely different circumstances.

I think you've got your head in the sand Chief.

How you can say we wouldn't have won against Hull when we won against WBA (a team higher than Hull) and a play off chasing Preston along with a draw against in form Coventry City.

I have hope for Williams but we have not even given ourselves a chance. Yet a lot of teams in this division do.

 

[Dillwyn the Dog]

Are Leeds, Leicester and, to a lesser extent, Southampton just freakishly good teams this year? I think there’s an element of that, but we’re still in control of how we approach those games and we’re failing miserably at that. It’s like we’re completely unprepared to face those teams.

Not sure how much of that is LW’s ‘tactics’ or the players mentality, but we shouldn’t be getting utterly rinsed in the first 15-20 minutes of games like that. Again and again. It’s not normal; even if you’re not blessed with super players.

Ipswich are not in that league, so I’m not expecting the players to totally shit the bed on Saturday, and we’ll hopefully see a response, but fuck my eyes that was ridiculous this evening.

As a championship side (with young players to boot) we gave Man City a game they’d have lost with VAR. This lot haven’t got the desire on this and other showings. You can excuse lack of ability but not lack of effort or desire.

 

[Chief]

Definitely not got my head in the sand - probably the opposite, don't really know what you were expecting.

Sheehan (and I'm not criticising this) played some games with 5 at the back, 2 defensive Midfielders, no wingers and no strikers. But he was a caretaker manager and had a decent run of fixtures.

Williams was brought in to get back to more exciting football (his defensive record at Notts County was rubbish). This is what people called for though, so conceding goals against the better teams should not be a surprise to anyone.

plus he's has had difficult fixtures and we've gone through a transfer window without dealing with our completely hollow core.

Comparisons between the two are unfair and pretty pointless considering the completely different circumstances.

And let's not forget that when Sheehans team came up against a top side they were absolutely battered as well.

 

[JackFish]

Well thank fuck we’ve looked okay against the other shite to middling teams recently, because we look completely out of our depth any time we play someone actually good. Leeds were very good but it’s hard to know where to start when talking about our performance. Humphreys is clearly not a right back but he was left completely on his own for most of the game, and how on earth Fulton still starts is a complete mystery.

The good news is I suppose that after the next two games we’ll have played the top 10 twice each except for Norwich. And after that we’ve only got Bristol City and Watford from the top half to play. Fixtures after the international break are much kinder.