Article: Everton vs Swansea Preview & Matchday Thread|Football, Swansea City, Everton

[doctor love]

The fundamental decline in the last few weeks is down to three things: drop in passing quality, drop in tempo / work off the ball when we are in possession, drop in aggression when we don't have the ball to close down and regain it.

There are players that are hiding, players that should be hunting for the ball if they are not getting it.

Our possession game has become directionless just like a drill in practice where the only objective is to retain possession, where there is no goal, there is no sense of forward or backward, of offense and defense, of penetration towards a physical goal, of time being limited. Such drills are old school but still used. I ran them on kids 30+ years ago getting my coaching badge. I've seen Mourinho run them with Inter Milan when they were on tour over here a few years ago.

A real game has a physical goal, there is a clear concept of forward, there is a need to penetrate a defensive posture, there is a time constraint, there are more dimensions than just retaining possession. We look like we are playing a practice drill instead of a football match - we are directionless on the field because our majority direction is backwards when we can't win without going forward with purpose and penetration - we lack both.

We fix this and soon or we're ****ed. Something has changed in the last month. The Opposition hasn't suddenly become smarter or much better - not Everton anyway, if they had more than half a clue they woud have beaten us badly tonight. Something has changed and it's us that as changed; it's us that has get it back on track. Being out thought, out worked, out muscled and out hussled (too slow a tempo) is no way to play a football game.

On Gower, if a player needs to be sub'd out two games in a row at half time because something isn't working, why start him. Whatever is wrong, the player, or the combination of players, repeating the same mistake is just dumb.

it's interesting, your talk on passing drills, cause that's exactly how we play, brendan needs to get our midfielder's and striker's playing 3 and in or cups. cause not 1 of them can beat a man(well maybe dyer), because they've never had to, just run of the mill footballer's.

[Yankee_Jack]

I've just listened to BR's post-game interview (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/16173159.stm). I'm not sure what I am hearing. I am not sure what game I watched versus what he watched. I realize when talking to the media there is PR-speak, there's what is said in public versus behind closed doors, then there is blarney and then there's delusion. I'm not sure where on that spectrum we are. We could still be playing and I doubt we would have put in a cross. A statement along the lines of we deserved a point rings hollow. If I hear the words terrific or exceptional again I'm going to struggle not to laugh. I hope I'm listening to a good motivator, a person that knows how to cajole professional athletes into self-belief when they are running on empty or at the ceiling of their talent; who is trying to speak positively to the media to bolster the squad. I hope that he's not just speaking what he absolutely believes - or otherwise there clearly is nothing to fix, and nothing will get fixed, and it's going to be a long and tedious trek to May.

[Scottswan]

Thought I'd reiterate how disappointed I am with the result, or, by all accounts, the manner of the result. We're not good enough to play for the draw away, we'll lose every time, and it was painfully obvious that both the teams, if they play as they normally do, would cancel each other out while the advantage would always be with Everton. The Swans needed to try something a little different last night, and they didn't. Something I've said a few times is if the Swans make a mistake, they don't make the same mistake again, but the football is getting a little monotonous away from home, and we need to experiment a bit and commit men forward to give teams something to think about.

This is Fellaini:

He won more tackles than anyone else on the pitch (five), won more ground duels (11) and was unbeaten in aerial clashes. He also passed 71 times, more than anyone else on the pitch and with the highest completion rate of 86 percent.

First time in a while a Swans player hasn't had the highest pass completion?

[Yankee_Jack]

Thought I'd reiterate how disappointed I am with the result, or, by all accounts, the manner of the result ...

Exactly what gets me irritated - the manner of the defeat. I don't mind winning ugly, a win is a win. But losing without passion, with whimpering threat, with clinging to some possession principle in the final moments, while the Titanic sinks beneath you, instead of driving the ball into the box where Lita and Taylor can do soe damage, is doomed to drowning.

So Everton had the top passing and tackling statistics last night ... Backs up what I thought I saw. We were beaten at our own game, out played by Everton.

[Knackeredjack]

....who could hardly buy a goal or a win at home.

[bigkidderz]

What we have to learn to do is adapt to the opposition. If the opposition are proving that their pressing and passing is at a level better than ours (not surprising against the very established sides given our lack of experience at this level), we need to adapt. We can't continue to give ball away to the opposition in our own half because at away grounds, that usually brings an almighty roar from the home crowd and can really spur the home side on. I'm not saying that we need to play hoof ball, but when we're under severe pressure, sometimes smashing it out for a throw-in in their half (ideally as close to the corner flag as possible) will relieve pressure and give us a chance to set up our shape. Additionally, the opposition have to drop back into their own half. If you find that you can't out-pass a side, and you're struggling to press a team into giving up the ball, you need to do something different. It's not hoof ball, because we won't ever clip balls up to our strikers/wingers for the majority of the match. You have to find a way to make the team doing all the attacking, defend. And you have to find a way to make a team with all the territory move back into their half.

I was frustrated last night because I was looking forward to the game, and apart from Routledge, we never even remotely looked like causing Everton problems. We were way too content with a point, and to be honest, we got what we deserved. We always ridicule teams that come to the Liberty for a draw (e.g. Fulham), but we were no different last night. I don't mind defensive tactics, but like Scott, I like to see the counter attack option being utilised. That didn't happen last night and it wasn't fun to watch at all. Back at the Fortress next though, and I think we'll get back into our stride with a win against QPR. I don't know how we can be so different when we're at home, but we are, and I'm confident in a good result.