In a game that should never have started as it did with the visitors Norwich City stealing a goal after one minute it ended with the same old frustrations. Swansea City looked good value for a point or even all three but once again they huffed and puffed to another disappointing result at the swansea.com.
After the calamitous start which saw Teemu Pukki ghost in at the far post from a corner that should never have been - the swans controlled the game. They had chances to score and opportunities to win this game, but they couldn’t, and that’s the answer, not that they didn’t, they just can’t grab a game by the throat and deliver the killer blow. And that’s now a real issue.
There has to be some real thinking in January to mend this issue.
There is little pace in this side and bringing Olivier Ntcham on to the pitch in the second half to play out on the left was ridiculous. Starting Jamie Paterson wasn’t the best of ideas either, when we did see Ollie Cooper we saw a more free flowing Swansea side. Yes, it was free flowing but with absolute panic to get a goal. And that is just going to create frustration on and off the pitch.
It has to be said, and it won’t be said that often on here about a player - but Joel Latibeaudiere, no matter what his role in this side is, he isn’t up to the mark. A square peg in any round hole you choose to put him in. The pedestrian build ups are far too calculated to threaten a team like Norwich City, they have more guile and strength at the back to match a Swansea attack which is weak and looked very tired yesterday.
The root cause of this issue is the pretence that Swansea City can get anywhere with a part funded squad and little effort by the majority owners who sit comfortably in the USA to invest or speculate. That isn’t Russell Martin’s fault, that’s the fault of his paymasters who obviously believe he can magic pure gold from the free transfers, small fee’s and loan players he has at his disposal. The cheap flicks by Piroe are not working and the instinct to cross the ball time and time again failed yesterday. Even when the ball did cross the area there was no strikers instinct to be seen, because there is no striker in this team. Piroe can head a ball, weakly, and the chances he did have yesterday were either given away, overpassed or snatched at.
He didn’t look like he could score if he had all weekend.
Again we saw opportunities when crossing through the first line of the opposition not taken care of. When those lines were broken it looked like the swans couldn’t work out what to do next. That requires a certain type of player, amd Swansea don’t have them in abundance. Nathan Wood and Latibeaudiere choosing easy sideways and backward passes instead of displaying some form of positivity. The style of football is superb but only at times, if there is a finish to all the possession and chances created, even twice in a game then fixtures like this would be won. But it’s been a season and a half now of the same message. Yes, there are extreme improvements in the way the swans go about their business, but there isn’t a player brave enough to take a shot or do something extraordinary to score goals. Is it now a case of a slight improvement this season whilst we await what 2023/24 brings ?
Support this man or let him go because this is really pointless
The squad does need some investment, this is about selling players and not investing correctly, it’s all well and good propping the club up by selling the Crown Jewels, but it won’t work as we saw yesterday. There has to be some financial support for Russell Martin to implement what he and most of us know he can do. With all due respects to Fin Stevens he isn’t going to give Swansea the fillip they need, and we can count Matt Sorinola as well. And the pathetic pouting and teddy throwing from Michael Obafemi on more than one occasion is disrespectful to our club, and the shirt he is very well paid for to wear.
And this has to be said. Both Obafemi and Jamie Paterson have taken liberties in the last year and why anyone can respect that behaviour is beyond me as a life long Swansea supporter. It’s supported behaviour from the management and that’s what hurts the most. We have a side that is more than capable of securing premier league football again for the city. But it needs at least some supportive financial investment from owners who haven’t invested anything other than time since 2016. You see, we also have a side that could do that very thing, get promoted, with the right sort of player with the right sort of attitude. There are three more games to go until January, and if some of the deadwood and liberty takers can be moved on and replaced properly there is still some hope of a decent season.
This side needs investment and it needs the mouth pieces who really couldn’t care about Swansea City out of the door. This has been a long time coming, but what’s the point in keeping Russell Martin at the club if he is expected to magic players in to a winning side that can compete in the championship on a shoestring.
Doing things on the cheap without any form of insight in to what needs to be achieved has to end. There is a chance with Russell Martin and his coaching team to really get things right at Swansea City. However, as long as this situation continues then unfortunately the frustration we all feel this morning will be repeated time and time again until it’s the end of the season.
Because at the moment it’s all a waste of time.
Swansea City: Steven Benda; Nathan Wood, Kyle Naughton (Armstrong Oko-Flex 80), Ben Cabango; Joel Latibeaudiere (Joe Allen 72), Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes (captain), Ryan Manning; Jamie Paterson (Ollie Cooper 60), Luke Cundle (Olivier Ntcham 60); Joel Piroe.
Unused Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Harry Darling, Liam Cullen.
Norwich City: Angus Gunn, Max Aarons, Grant Hanley (captain), Ben Gibson, Isaac Hayden, Sam McCallum (Dimitrios Giannoulis 74), Gabriel Sara (Liam Gibbs 74), Danel Sinani (Kieran Dowell 67), Teemu Pukki (Adam Idah 80), Kenny McLean, Josh Sargent.
Unused Substitutes: Tim Krul, Andrew Omabamidele, Onel Hernandez.
Referee: Stephen Martin 6/10