The vultures were circling overhead. The bleached bones of the dead lay all around. Wait…a movement…a moving hand. A hen peckered face turns to the light and screams out, ‘Jack Butty here. I’m back with my latest missive from the defiles of dreadful duplicity.’ The cheers of voices were raised. Jack Butty looked around, ‘You lot can pipe down. You’re all gonners and gooners.’ And so, it came to pass…
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY
It is unquestionably a roller coaster for Vitor Matos as he began the second week of his four-year contract as head coach at Swansea. After the debacle of Derby on Tuesday night, Matos had only a day on the training ground before travelling to the West Midlands for Saturday’s game with West Brom. If he had a lot to shake his head about on Tuesday, then that was as nothing come Saturday’s game.
The game started so promisingly. The Swans were pushing from the off, a breaking ball falling for Zan Vipotnik to run onto and lob the oncoming keeper. The Swans were playing at pace, with more one-touch passes, good movement, and effective pressing and counter-pressing. For fans, these were the positive signs that we’d dared to hope for from a new head coach. The Swans set the tone and pace for about 30 minutes, and then WBA gradually got into the game more, but without yet threatening our goal. In hindsight, this was a turning point for the game. The second half, with four substitutions at half-time, saw a reenergised WBA take over and dominate. The Swans were a completely different team from the one that had taken a two-goal lead and set the pace during the first half.
The outcome is well known.
Fans knew how much work Matos had on his plate. He will have seen in his first two games that this is a side with some talent, several very skilled players, and a desire to play football in a particular style. He will also recognise that his team is low on confidence. It has a leaky defence where opposing teams almost appear to have free rein to walk through and punish it. When playing out from the back, we keep fannying around the eighteen-yard box, often giving the ball away and having to scuttle back to defend.
The right-hand side is a continuing weakness. Josh Key and Ronald (below) do not understand how to work effectively together, and this is regularly the side opposition teams probe. The team fails to create enough opportunities for its strikers. This means there are not enough goals being scored to win games. The shots on goal on Saturday were 26 (WBA) to 3 for us, a stat that is not untypical throughout this season and recent seasons.
Overall, the team plays without sufficient aggression to impose its style of play on the opposition. When our players press and counter-press, they too often stand off and fail to put in tackles. The Championship is a relentlessly physical league, and aggression has to be matched and linked to the desire to impose our game and game plan.
Possession, which we’ve been talking about for years, seems to have become in itself a holy grail. Instead, it should only be regarded as a reflection of the game and how the game plan has worked. This outlook must change. As many have been saying for some time, possession without purpose is boring to watch and not a sustainable formula for a successful team. Instead, possession needs to show intent that leads to goals and supports a strong defence. High levels of competitiveness are required to ensure that possession delivers the intended results.
The misplaced emphasis on possession, for possession’s sake, may well be related to the coaching ethos of recent coaches, in particular Russell Martin, Luke Williams, and Alan Sheehan. The three were all connected and played in a similar style, perhaps believing that was their version of the Swansea Way. Arguably, these three have contributed to a football style that is now embedded in the way we play. This also needs to change. The fact that all traces of the coaching team (except Kris O’Leary and Martyn Margetson) have now been removed can only be a good move for Matos to redefine the football style in the way he wants and the way the club needs.
This is a tough time for Swans fans. The more so, as we all had high expectations after what was seen as a strong summer transfer window. Understandably, fans are asking what went wrong. Was it the data driven approach to recruitment, shouldn’t a Director of Football be in place to provide football nous in recruitment, are the players fit enough, do they care enough, do we have the right head coach in place for a relegation fight, was it the loan signing of Lewis O’Brien who really saved us from relegation last season, or that the squad has been steadily weakened season by season since relegation. There may be something in all of these and more, but right now they won’t help the club or Matos.
The club is crying out for stability. Since relegation, we have had seven head coaches. It would be a perfect Christmas present if Matos could establish a style of football that fans enjoy watching and, as a result, move the team away from the relegation zone. The club needs a strong and capable head coach who loves the job he has at Swansea and gets the best out of the players, so that, season by season, we can collectively build towards where we deserve to be. Pride is the word that comes to mind.