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Swansea Now The Focus As Koeman Has A Lot To Ponder
Thursday, 24th Sep 2015 11:17

Having despatched MK Dons in fine style, the focus now turns to the Swans and Ronald Koeman has a lot of thinking to do.

So far this season Ronald Koeman has tended to keep faith with the tried and trusted, but after the 6-0 win at MK Dons and the performance of the likes of Shane Long and Jay Rodriguez the Saints boss has a lot to think about before selecting his team to face Swansea City.

Of course some will say that this was only against MK Dons and they are right, but you can only beat what is put in front of you and if you consider that this equaled the club's best ever post war away victory that actually puts things in perspective, we have played far worse than MK Dons over the past 70 years and not only have we rarely managed to beat them 6-0 but we have lost to some of them.

So although yes MK Dons has to be in perspective, that perspective works both ways.

Now Ronald Koeman has to disect the Saints performance, take into account the opposition on Saturday will be tougher and pick a side.

He needs to consider the best bits from Wednesday evening and consider whether some who played then but not Saturday, deserve a place in the starting line up.

Perhaps the worst thing about this season has not been that it has not yet really ignited, but that we have been prone to so many individual errors, perhaps some have got too complacent, but a fair amount of the goals conceded this season would not have been last, that is nothing to do with the players who have departed, just that certain individuals have not done the basics this season when they did them last.

Cut out the individual errors and lapses and this season would look a lot better as we would have at least 3 more points.

We have only lost two games so far in the fist six, the same number as we had lost in the same period two years ago when we finished 8th and only one more than last term when we finished 7th, this should tell us something.

So Ronald koeman knows he has to freshen up the side, cut out the complacency and the way to do that is perhaps consider that what we have been lacking going forward is the hustle bustle of the likes of Shane Long and in defence the return of Ryan Bertrand on Sunday should offer us not only pace at the back but going forward as well.

There can be no doubt that an increased squad size has brought problems, sometimes having less options can keep a side focused whereas conversely if you have a big squad you have to make sure that you dont allow complacency to creep in.

Perhaps that has happened a little, perhaps Ronald Koeman has made the wrong decision in selection a couple of times, certainly he did so on Sunday, but that does not make him a bad manager, it just makes him a normal one, all the great coach's have made horrendous tactical and selection errors along the way.

So the focus is now Swansea and a win will make the season look a lot lot better.

Photo: Action Images



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Sanguin added 11:43 - Sep 24
"we have played far worse than MK Dons over the past 70 years" this took a couple of reads before I realised when you were trying to say! Maybe edit it to 'we have played farm worse TEAMS than MK Dons...'
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bstokesaint added 12:31 - Sep 24
Sanguin I read the same sentence a couple of times too!! :)

I think the best things about last night's result is that it goes to show we haven't gone crp overnight, that the squad does give us more options, that players do want to fight for their places (even those like Ramirez who are out in the cold) and that we do still have a good team spirit. Much might be made of MK being weaker opposition, but I don't think we should dwell on that any more than we should dwell on individual mistakes of the past few weeks. As I keep saying it'll happen for us and now we know we have options to change things up if need be.
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