Swans v Hull | Vital Football

Swans v Hull

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
It’s the end of the International break and next up we have Hull City at home, Saturday 11 Sept at 15:00.
Hull, who’ve just been promoted from League 1, beat Preston at Deepdale on the opening day of the season 1-4, so are no mugs. Riis Jakobsen scoring the only goal for Preston that day.
Riis, remember, was the player who said after our 3-1 defeat there last time out that we were easy meat and so predictable -
“We needed to figure out the distances. That’s when they got the goal unfortunately. After we figured it out we had them in the palm of our hands. We knew they were going to come here and play. They didn’t try anything else so we just kept doing the same thing. We were on top of them all the time and kept going. We were trying to get the ball high up the pitch and create something from there so we didn’t have to go all the way back and try and build it up. We got the ball high up and it was pretty much easy from there.”
Let’s hope we’ve used the last two weeks well in training and figured out how to counteract the high press and aggressive opposition play that will now be the norm every match.
Since that match, where the team selection was weakened by injury and Covid, we’ve signed a few players that will hopefully make a difference, Rhys Williams, Olivier Ntcham and Michael Obafemi.
RM - “We will have to manage their minutes, but they are all good and have trained brilliantly and had time to get used to how we want to work.”
Liam Walsh, Flynn Downes and Ben Cabango have also returned to training following injury and illness respectively.
RM - “We want to kick on and keep going. We have not had time to put everything in place and make sure everyone understands everything we want and expect.
Physically we are in a better place than two weeks ago, and it’s now about making sure we improve and learn as we go through the games.
We want to see performances, with real intensity and conviction because that is what will lead to results.”
 
Last edited:
Here are today’s opponents results so far this season -
Preston 1 Hull 4
Hull 0 QPR 3
Hull 0 Derby 1
Fulham 2 Hull 0
Hull 0 Bournemouth 0

Hull made a great start to life back in the Championship after winning League One last season, beating Preston North End 4-1 on the opening day of the season. They have not won or scored a goal since, a scoreless draw at home to Bournemouth two weeks ago ended a run of three straight defeats.
Last season’s top-scorer Mallik Wilks, George Moncur and possibly Josh Magennis are back for today’s match which has given Tigers boss Grant McCann a welcome boost -
“For us, we’ve had a lot of important players missing over the past four or five games. As for Swansea, it’s a transitional period with a new manager going in there. I think both clubs will see an improvement after the international break. Hopefully it’s us that comes out on top on Saturday and their improvement comes after that.”
 
I really hope Russell Martin gets success with the Swans but instructing the players to play the ball out from the back at all times and not hoofing it out if need be, seems a bit naive to me. It invites the opposition to high press us and not worry about any long clearances. The Preston match as an example, they kept a high line, hustled us off the ball and we were unable to get out of our own half because we were instructed to only play one way. Consequently we got dispossessed countless times and were in disarray, and a shambles defensively.
Strangely Martin was not happy with the Bristol away win because we cleared the ball out of defence by any means instead of playing it out.
I know which method I’d prefer, to me it’s all about winning the match, not sticking to principles at any cost and losing.
Let’s see today if the two weeks training he’s had with the players has made them any better at understanding his tactics and more able to counteract what will be the opposition’s inevitable high press.
 
The teams:
Swans: Ben Hamer, Kyle Naughton, Ryan Bennett, Rhys Williams; Ethan Laird, Flynn Downes, Matt Grimes (captain), Jake Bidwell; Olivier Ntcham, Jamie Paterson; Joel Piroe.

Subs: Steven Benda, Jay Fulton, Ryan Manning, Ben Cabango, Michael Obafemi, Liam Cullen, Joel Latibeaudiere.

Hull: Matt Ingram, Lewie Coyle (captain), Callum Elder, Jacob Greaves, Mallik Wilks, Greg Docherty, Keane Lewis-Potter, George Moncur, Tom Huddlestone, Di'Shon Bernard, Josh Magennis.

Subs: Richie Smallwood, Nathan Baxter, Josh Emmanuel, Ryan Longman, Sean McLoughlin, Matt Smith, Tyler Smith.
 
Last edited:
FT: Swansea 0 - Preston 0
Possession: 69% - 31%
Passes attempted: 711 - 313
Passes completed: 651 - 260
Pass accuracy: 91% - 82%
Shots: 16 - 4
On target: 4 - 1
Corners: 7 - 2
Fouls: 9 - 11
Cards: 1Y - 2Y
Att: 16,317
Ref: Keith Stroud 4/10
 
Last edited:
Yesterday was a marked improvement from the Preston shambles. I liked the look of Downes and Ntcham and it was pretty passing football but we created very little. Our build up play was too slow and predictable and we lacked the guile to prise open a resolute Hull defence. We badly needed the points and were unlucky with a Grimes free kick that was turned onto the post by Ingram and a blatant penalty for a foul on Laird not given, one of many poor decisions by ref Keith Stroud.
Last season after 6 games we had 11 points, 3W 2D 1L and were 5th in the table.
This season after 6 games we have 5 points, 1W 2D 3L and are 21st in the table.