keith margam
Vital Football Legend
This Saturday we make a welcome return to league action after completing yet another two week International break.
We don’t do International breaks very well and the last one started our poor run of form with a home loss to Forest, and culminating in losing at home to winless and bottom of the table Stoke.
A high press by Stoke, resulting in our creative play out of defence stifled, and our midfield outplayed by a team that wanted it more, especially by Joe Allen, who was on a mission to beat Swansea single handed, and there was going to be only one result.
Another potential booby trap awaits us, this time it’s the 508 miles round trip to Barnsley, who are 4th from bottom of the table. On the positive side we are a different team away from the Liberty, unbeaten on the road, with excellent wins at Leeds and Charlton.
The form table over the last 6 matches home and away:
Barnsley DLLLDL
Swans WLDDWL
........and home and away form respectively:
Barnsley last 6 home matches only W1 D2 L3 F7 A12 Pts5
Swans last 5 away matches only W3 D2 L0 F6 A2 Pts11
We may see some rotation of the squad with some players coming back tired after International duty, although away form and tactics are not the problem so far.
On the following Tuesday night we have Brentford at home and then the crunch match against Cardiff at home on Sunday morning. Both teams will be aware of our weakness at home to the high press and close marking, nullifying our playing the ball out from defence, and will be trying to exploit it to the full. As yet we haven’t found a way to counter this tactic.
We don’t do International breaks very well and the last one started our poor run of form with a home loss to Forest, and culminating in losing at home to winless and bottom of the table Stoke.
A high press by Stoke, resulting in our creative play out of defence stifled, and our midfield outplayed by a team that wanted it more, especially by Joe Allen, who was on a mission to beat Swansea single handed, and there was going to be only one result.
Another potential booby trap awaits us, this time it’s the 508 miles round trip to Barnsley, who are 4th from bottom of the table. On the positive side we are a different team away from the Liberty, unbeaten on the road, with excellent wins at Leeds and Charlton.
The form table over the last 6 matches home and away:
Barnsley DLLLDL
Swans WLDDWL
........and home and away form respectively:
Barnsley last 6 home matches only W1 D2 L3 F7 A12 Pts5
Swans last 5 away matches only W3 D2 L0 F6 A2 Pts11
We may see some rotation of the squad with some players coming back tired after International duty, although away form and tactics are not the problem so far.
On the following Tuesday night we have Brentford at home and then the crunch match against Cardiff at home on Sunday morning. Both teams will be aware of our weakness at home to the high press and close marking, nullifying our playing the ball out from defence, and will be trying to exploit it to the full. As yet we haven’t found a way to counter this tactic.