There was little doubt it was one of the most unfancied results of the day but the Swans five star showing at Loftus Road will make many sit up and take notice even if it is just the 1st of a 38 game season
There was little doubt it was one of the most unfancied results of the day but the Swans five star showing at Loftus Road will make many sit up and take notice even if it is just the 1st of a 38 game season
It was very much tongue in cheek when I posted on the Planet Swans Facebook page at around midday yesterday that I had been approached by a woman at Hayes & Harlington station to give me a card advertising the Samaritans. "Clearly she has heard of our record at Loftus Road" I posted in reference to a record that showed 0 wins in 19 previous visits to QPR.
As ever though this was the first game of the season so - as you do every August - you enter it with hope and aspirations that you will open with a victory. The previous records had not been good - Oldham, Charlton, Hull, Leicester and Man City were our previous five trips on opening days and 0 points had been won during those games.
But this was a different Swansea City. A Swansea side that had maintained some of the style and flair that had been created by previous managers - the managers that had seen us through the five trips mentioned above. But you only have to look at the balls played by Wayne Routledge and Kemy Agustien for the two Nathan Dyer goals and you know that it was a Swansea side that hd a killer instinct. One that it had been said had been missing in recent years despite our cuccess on the pitch.
To those that were worried when Brendan Rodgers decided that the lure of Liverpool was too much for him you need not have worried. To those who looked for the Samaritans card when Gylfi Sigurddson joined Spurs, the arrival of Michu looks a more than capable replacement (better?) and at a fraction of the price. To those that saw Joe Allen leave for Liverpool as a negative watch the way that De Guzman controlled the midfield for large parts of the game.
But the one thing that stuck out for me yesterday in amongst a host of quality debuts from Chico. Michu and De Guzman was the performance of Wayne Routledge and Nathan Dyer in the wide positions. I say wide because they spent large parts of the game not wide as had been promised by Michael Laudrup. Both players were only to keen to move inside and add more numbers to a midfield that relies so much on possession. Note Dyer's position for his two goals - through the middle - note the Routledge run for the first goal as through the middle and even Scott Sinclair found himself in the middle when he scored. Four of our five goals can be attributed to this and you could even argue that the 5th could be as well given the assist was that of Routledge.
This was something missing last season and whilst our wide men have never been one to take people on on the outside roaming so freely into the middle is a big change in our style and one that I think will be well rewarded over the course of the season.
It is just one game in a thirty-eight game season but there were enough signs yesterday to suggest that the Swansea side we will watch this season will score more than the side did last time around. Hell, it was game number five before we found the net last season, it was October before we scored our 5th league goal of the campaign. It was December before we scored our 5th goal of the season on the road.
Nobody is getting carried away but as we came off the pitch against QPR there were links strengthening with the prospect of two £5m+ transfers before West Ham arrive in Wales next week and we did it all without Danny Graham finding the net.
And of course let's not forget that both Michu and Chico hit the bar during the first half which prevented us scoring 7.
Yesterday was a hugely proud day to be a Swans fan and I think there will be a fair few more results this season that will again make people sit up and notice just what we are doing here in South Wales and that is what we have done for ten years Gradually improving and becoming stronger year on year.
Proud days to be a Jack and roll on next Saturday. Boring Boring Swansea indeed.
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