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Post by davejohnno1 on Sept 19, 2018 7:55:06 GMT
Home games are going to be tough at times with most visiting teams likely to see a point as a good result. We found a way to win the game after a tricky opening half hour. That is a huge step in the right direction. As a result it was great - as an indicator that we will hit and maintain the required standards soon I’m not so sure but here’s hoping. 3 home wins on trot with no goals conceded has to be a positive surely?
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Post by Stretfordpotterer on Sept 19, 2018 8:00:37 GMT
Awful lot of positives to take from last night.
Sure, the performance was patchy, but the bits which get you results were there.
1 - chances, we made 5 or 6 clear cut chances for the second game running 2 - we got better as the game went on, not worse for a change 3 - when we lost possession around their box we finally had a player in the right place to pick up the pieces and snuff out the danger, as opposed to the inevitable 3 v 2 breakaway culminating in a shot on goal, which has been a feature of the last two years. Ryan Woods is a massive piece of the jigsaw 4 - we adapted to changes in the game and took advantage, when they came at us after twenty minutes, the second their press on woods had stopped be got control of midfield and played through them. 5 - no glaring individual errors for the first time in a while. 6 - sub at pretty much the right time, berahino came on and stretched them. 7 - controlled the final 20 minutes, were still positive, didn't resort to defending our own 18 yard box.
First 20 minutes i thought Swansea's game plan worked to perfection, crowd out woods, deprive us of an out ball, turn the crowd. They must have been rubbing their hands together when the fans started booing on twenty minutes. But as soon as they sensed a chance to get at us they overcommitted, lost the press on woods and we took advantage and controlled the last 15 mins of the half, creating easily the best two chances.
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Post by miggoscfc on Sept 19, 2018 8:02:38 GMT
To be honest we have shown the team we can be in bits here and there, the first 10 mins against wigan, 60 mins at Wessnesday and the last 15 of last night and we are getting better. In all of those games we had chances to put the game to bed.
At this point though its more about putting points on the board to build the confidence after a shaky start. if we beat blackburn and take the 7 from 9 that will have been on offer its a decent building block that should give us the boost to confidence and allow us more 90 minute performances.
Clucas + McClean to come into the side aswell and lets be honest we still have players with question marks over them aswell although better last night Shawcross, Allen, Diouf and Pieters are all under performing. Imagine what we can do with a fully fit squad playing with confidence and to add we have played the current top 3 and have an easier few games coming up in Blackburn, Rotheram, Bolton.
This is the time to start showing the team we can be.
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Post by Onneravineet on Sept 19, 2018 8:08:16 GMT
Yes was very poor,but was one of the few games in the last 2 years where we got better as the match went on. Did take a while for us to get going but when we did we actually looked half decent. At half time Leon Britton said that his expectations for th second half was for Swansea to tire. Due to the inexperienced squad not having much game time. They did tire which is why we improved. That was a team with 7 changes and kids all over the park and a winger playing up front. They moved the ball better than we did and looked far more organised AS A TEAM. Very good individuals, for this league, are getting us by. It’s going to take more than winning a game by a goal that should have been disallowed to convince me GR is the man for the job!
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Post by wakefieldstokie on Sept 19, 2018 8:13:06 GMT
Awful lot of positives to take from last night. Sure, the performance was patchy, but the bits which get you results were there. 1 - chances, we made 5 or 6 clear cut chances for the second game running 2 - we got better as the game went on, not worse for a change 3 - when we lost possession around their box we finally had a player in the right place to pick up the pieces and snuff out the danger, as opposed to the inevitable 3 v 2 breakaway culminating in a shot on goal, which has been a feature of the last two years. Ryan Woods is a massive piece of the jigsaw 4 - we adapted to changes in the game and took advantage, when they came at us after twenty minutes, the second their press on woods had stopped be got control of midfield and played through them. 5 - no glaring individual errors for the first time in a while. 6 - sub at pretty much the right time, berahino came on and stretched them. 7 - controlled the final 20 minutes, were still positive, didn't resort to defending our own 18 yard box. First 20 minutes i thought Swansea's game plan worked to perfection, crowd out woods, deprive us of an out ball, turn the crowd. They must have been rubbing their hands together when the fans started booing on twenty minutes. But as soon as they sensed a chance to get at us they overcommitted, lost the press on woods and we took advantage and controlled the last 15 mins of the half, creating easily the best two chances. ^this^ spot on
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Post by crouchpotato1 on Sept 19, 2018 8:13:27 GMT
Very harsh summary imo because fair enough we were poor for 30 minutes but after that we played ok and finished very strongly. How many games in the championship did we win like that under Pulis in the championship?Quite a few I’d suggest so get used to it folks
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Post by fca47 on Sept 19, 2018 8:15:14 GMT
Against a decimated side, their goal keeper hardly had a save to make, we were good at wasting time at the end though. One encouraging thing was he seemed to have an effect during the Shawcross injury, when he spoke to them, we vastly improved, admittedly from being absolute garbage, with no desire to attack them. I don't think I can remember a crowd booing the team even though we weren't losing.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2018 8:16:16 GMT
Yes was very poor,but was one of the few games in the last 2 years where we got better as the match went on. Did take a while for us to get going but when we did we actually looked half decent. At half time Leon Britton said that his expectations for th second half was for Swansea to tire. Due to the inexperienced squad not having much game time. They did tire which is why we improved. That was a team with 7 changes and kids all over the park and a winger playing up front. They moved the ball better than we did and looked far more organised AS A TEAM. Very good individuals, for this league, are getting us by. It’s going to take more than winning a game by a goal that should have been disallowed to convince me GR is the man for the job! A lot of their team from Saturday were on the bench last night so it isn't like they were out injured? Be fitter. Our midfield 3 from Saturday played a full 90 last night.
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Post by metalhead on Sept 19, 2018 8:20:36 GMT
To get a win after playing so poorly is actually nice. Another win at the weekend and we'll almost be in the top half of the table.
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Post by sheikhmomo on Sept 19, 2018 8:22:15 GMT
I was disappointed after Saturday’s showing to be honest. They looked edgy and nervous, the crowd were edgy and nervous. Players were tetchy, the crowd were tetchy.
At home at least this is not a crowd in love with the players and not a bunch of players in love with the crowd. Not surprising really after the horrendous run we’ve been on at home in 2018 but we still have miles to go to be considered anything approaching a promotion side.
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Post by Frogger Theft Auto on Sept 19, 2018 8:29:06 GMT
I thought we mainly looked shit because of how Swansea set up, 4-6-0. Packed the midfield giving nobody but our back 4 any space and playing keepball in their own half when they had possession.
They had a little bit of success with it in the first half but we always looked like we could carve them open when we’d got the ball past their wall of 6 to Allen or Etebo. And we were far better 2nd half when they’d tired, we had Berahino closing them down and the crowd had a lift, visibly shaking some Swansea players.
That’s 2 matches in a row now where we look like we can carve teams open with Ince, Allen and Etebo slipping Afobe through. I’d forgotten what it felt like to watch a team that had a bigger goal threat than Shaqiri occasionally scoring a long-ranger, it’s great!
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Post by chiswickpotter on Sept 19, 2018 8:29:56 GMT
It was a pretty feeble performance again. Swansea have come away from it with far more to be positive about than we have. Disagree. We won at a canter in the end. Swansea started well and are a decent young side but we got to grips with the game and won comfortably. We also missed 3 absolute sitters which should have made it even more comfortable. Is that 3 home wins on the bounce with 3 clean sheets? I agree. Swansea set up to stop us playing, diamond in midfield with 4 players ready to hound Woods and Etebo and we struggled but gradually got on top and they never really looked like scoring once we went in front - 2 routine saves by Jack. Their main threat was ended by Erik's great tackle. Pleased we went offensive rather than set back at the end when Berahino came on. Feel Bauer is an option at home as Swansea left the wide areas and while Erik pushed on, Martina doesn't get to the byline an dhis crossing was poor. We also don't need 3 in midfield for games like these
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Post by Bera’s Beano on Sept 19, 2018 8:33:03 GMT
I thought the fans were shocking, booing us for trying to be patient and find openings in a parked bus defence but then also booing and complaining when we went long and it didn’t come off either. You can’t have it both ways.
It wasn’t fantastic last night but we won the game comfortably, Swansea had maybe 1 decent chance that Butland had to work for, we had 5 or 6 golden chances that have to be taken better.
If you have to moan and create threads without positives after a result like that when we’ve been struggling then you have issues.
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Post by lstokie on Sept 19, 2018 8:33:15 GMT
Looked like the plan was to sit back and knock it about first half & then come out and attack during the second.
1st half was pretty abysmal to watch but the plan worked. Great win
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Post by werrington on Sept 19, 2018 8:39:32 GMT
It was a pretty feeble performance again. Swansea have come away from it with far more to be positive about than we have. You’ve changed wuzza We used to have those type of performances 5 years ago when we would play poorly but grind something out but you praised it back then....why is it do important now ? For what it’s worth I don’t think we were that poor as we totally dominated the second half and dominated both halves in in terms of chances created
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Post by sheikhmomo on Sept 19, 2018 8:47:37 GMT
I thought the fans were shocking, booing us for trying to be patient and find openings in a parked bus defence but then also booing and complaining when we went long and it didn’t come off either. You can’t have it both ways. It wasn’t fantastic last night but we won the game comfortably, Swansea had maybe 1 decent chance that Butland had to work for, we had 5 or 6 golden chances that have to be taken better. If you have to moan and create threads without positives after a result like that when we’ve been struggling then you have issues. I'm not sure what you expect. That was our third home league win in 2018. In 259 days and we were playing very badly against a depleted side. Not sure what you expect from fans. Sometimes it has to come from the pitch.
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Post by Roger Everyone on Sept 19, 2018 9:04:24 GMT
I thought we did ok, a move in the right direction. Top 6 here we come...gradually..
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Post by sheriffofrockridge on Sept 19, 2018 9:12:44 GMT
We missed some sitters which would have seen us cruising. That kind of win, and a rare clean sheet, will do us the world of good. Finally something to be slightly optimistic about. Another clean sheet and a scrappy win on Saturday will be just fine for me. It's all about building confidence following a poor start to the season. If we can manage to beat Blackburn, then I fully expect us to win at Rotherham and then just watch us go. Just hope we don't have a confidence blow at Forest in between.
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Post by rawli on Sept 19, 2018 9:16:23 GMT
The win was more important than the performance. When isn't it?
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Post by thevoid on Sept 19, 2018 9:22:39 GMT
More perspiration than inspiration. I'm not sure we'd have won had Swansea been at full strength, definitely a 'paper over the cracks' win.
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Post by jimmygscfc on Sept 19, 2018 9:23:46 GMT
I'm not sure what people are seeing when Berahino comes on that couldn't be done better by Bojan, but there you go...
The lack of a left winger at the moment hampers us severely though so unless Ince swaps sides and Diouf goes over to the right, it's going to continue to look unbalanced.
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Post by rawli on Sept 19, 2018 9:24:34 GMT
The shocking thing is how slow we are - not talking about pace of the players, though obviously there's not much of that. The speed of thought is terrible. Forever dawdling on the ball when attacking passes are on and taking the easy option of passing it inside. It lets the opposition regroup and makes us easy to play against. It starts with the keeper and defence who are completely to susceptible to any kind of press as they fanny about with it until the usual smash under pressure from Ryan or Jack. Needs to be more zip. Jack is poor on the ground but actually did throw it out to good effect yesterday - perhaps focus a bit more on that rather than trying to impress Southgate with his ball skills.
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Post by Gods on Sept 19, 2018 9:28:26 GMT
With this very unpleasin' Sneezin' and wheezin The calliope crashed to the ground
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Post by wuzza on Sept 19, 2018 9:45:30 GMT
It was a pretty feeble performance again. Swansea have come away from it with far more to be positive about than we have. You’ve changed wuzza We used to have those type of performances 5 years ago when we would play poorly but grind something out but you praised it back then....why is it do important now ? For what it’s worth I don’t think we were that poor as we totally dominated the second half and dominated both halves in in terms of chances created Oh no I’m still as pragmatic as ever and the result is everything. My point is that if we carry on playing like that we won’t get many good results. We just aren’t quick enough in thought or deed and we still have the horrible habit developed in Hughes’ days of playing all our football in front of the oppositions defence and trying to pick our way through the smallest of gaps. (All of which I will live with if we win a lot of games)
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Post by onefatcopper on Sept 19, 2018 9:45:48 GMT
When it’s spring 2019 and hopefully we have gained entry to the promised land are we going to look back and analyse the performance and style of last nights victory ? NO are we fuck. What matters most is the 3 points and to keep that points gained board ticking over, how many games can you hand on heart remember from the 2008 season ? Sometimes everything will click and we will be rewarded with a great performance and a great score to match but unfortunately most games will be cagey battles of will against teams who are fighting for positions at both ends of the table. That’s why this is the toughest league in the world to get out and we’ve got to be able to mix it with everyone, and so if you’re going to come and expect Stokealona football well that train has left the station ! What we do need is the fans to get fully behind the players because at last you will see them fighting for each other and showing that this club and it’s fans mean something to them .
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Post by wuzza on Sept 19, 2018 9:48:24 GMT
As a result it was great - as an indicator that we will hit and maintain the required standards soon I’m not so sure but here’s hoping. 3 home wins on trot with no goals conceded has to be a positive surely? Absolutely - especially the clean sheets (but having watched all 3 games I’m still not convinced by the defence).
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Post by Bera’s Beano on Sept 19, 2018 9:51:11 GMT
I thought the fans were shocking, booing us for trying to be patient and find openings in a parked bus defence but then also booing and complaining when we went long and it didn’t come off either. You can’t have it both ways. It wasn’t fantastic last night but we won the game comfortably, Swansea had maybe 1 decent chance that Butland had to work for, we had 5 or 6 golden chances that have to be taken better. If you have to moan and create threads without positives after a result like that when we’ve been struggling then you have issues. I'm not sure what you expect. That was our third home league win in 2018. In 259 days and we were playing very badly against a depleted side. Not sure what you expect from fans. Sometimes it has to come from the pitch. I’ve said many times in the past that the football should come before the fans, instead of when others have expected the fans to drag the team along when they were playing awful. However last night wasn’t that bad, we played reasonably well, we made several golden chances that we should have finished. Swansea were missing a couple of midfielders, they were playing a first choice defence and wingers, injuries happen and you can only beat what is in front of you, you can’t then use that as a stick to beat a team with. Everyone on here seems to have accepted that we aren’t even close to the best team in this league but then boo and complain when we don’t absolutely hammer everyone? It’s the hypocrisy that’s frustrating, as I said in the previous post about complaining no matter how we play.
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Post by 3putts on Sept 19, 2018 9:53:03 GMT
Thank fuk for the win but as the op said it wasn't pretty. Imo the problem is the pissing around at the back then Ryan launches it long. This is a terrible tactic and all it does is allow the opposition to get organised. When the defenders have the ball the midfielders should make them selves available and if they are crowded out then the two wide men must come deeper to receive the ball then we can build a constructive attack.
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Post by Gods on Sept 19, 2018 9:56:54 GMT
The negatives were that it was a turgid slog, too often bereft of inspiration, and we needed a blatantly offisde goal to beat Swansea's reserves. The flip side is that in spite of all that we created a further three excellent chances to win the game and with better finishing would have been out of sight. I don't think this set up is the way forward though, we have to get some pace in there and we have to get a number 10 in there. How do we get some pace in there? I thought Diouf is supposed to be quick for all his ball control limitations. Tom Ince is our £12m winger on the other side. We didn't start the super slow Peter Crouch. We didn't start the ageing Adam or Fletch. I don't think we had anyone pacey kicking their heels on the bench did we ? That was pretty much our paciest team wasn't it? It may not be Matty Etherington/Ricardo Fuller quick and devastating but it's what we have for the moment at least. NB I really enjoyed your 'Engine trouble' piece on our midfield options in the fanzine.
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Post by Absolution on Sept 19, 2018 10:07:41 GMT
It didn’t help that a large majority of fans were on the players back with every misplaced pass or pass back to Jack. Clearly the game plan was to create space by drawing Swansea forward. The boos did not help with confidence which made that first half in particular very edgy. It’s still a confidence shot team although we’re getting there. As soon as the fans started picking up the performance did. The confidence thing is massive. I think the performances will follow the results. We need to be strong enough to grind out a few wins then the confidence will come, and with it an increased level of performance. We’ll also then see more patience from supporters who’re understandably angry, disappointed etc with everything that’s happened over the past couple of years or more. I’m of the opinion that Rowett is getting there, maybe too slowly for some, and obviously it’s easier to make positive comments after a win. Woods has made a massive difference already. Watched him for the first time last night and thought he looked like he’d been our main man for years, he’s settled in so well. Hope we’re watching the real Woods and he doesn’t turn to complete Imbula after a handful of games.
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