Swans v Millwall | Vital Football

Swans v Millwall

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Another International Break over and it’s back down to business. Next up is the first of three matches in a week where we entertain Millwall at the Liberty.

Last 6 matches:
Swansea W2 D2 L2 Pts 8
Millwall W3 D1 L2 Pts 10

Swans record over the last 6 home matches:
W2 D1 L3 Pts7
Millwall’s record over the last 6 away matches:
W0 D3 L3 Pts3

Last time out Millwall beat Charlton at The Den 2-1 with a 91’ goal.
Last time out Swans drew with the Owls 2-2 away with a 94’ equaliser.

Last away match Millwall lost 2-1 at Reading.
Last home match Swans won 1-0 against Cardiff.

Millwall’s away record this season P8 W0 D4 L4 F7 A15

On 21 Oct 2019 Gary Rowett was appointed Millwall Manager, taking over from Neal Harris, who is now Cardiff Manager. An experienced Championship Manager, Rowett previously managed Birmingham, Derby, and up until last January, Stoke.

In his four games as Millwall manager he has W2 D1 L1
(Caretaker boss Adam Barrett was actually in charge of the side for the first of those games as Rowett settled into the job, having been appointed only the day before.
22 Oct 2019 Millwall 2 - Cardiff 2)
 
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Steve Cooper said in his Press Conference this afternoon:

“Sam Surridge is fine. He trained a couple of days ago, he has had an ongoing knee problem for a while and it flares up from time to time.
We thought it might have been a little bit worse this time, hence the scan, but it was an ongoing thing so we were relieved it was nothing more serious
so he is fine.”

“Aldo Kalulu will play for the under-23s against Fulham on Friday for 45 minutes to build his fitness back up so that he will not be too far away from selection for the senior team. He needs a couple of games as he has been out a while and he missed pre-season too, so he has not really played regularly since the end of last season.
But he is training well, he is getting strong every day and the way he is going he will not be far away.”

In addition, Cooper reported a clean bill of health for the Swans international contingent – including Andre Ayew – also that Erwin Mulder is back in full training after breaking a finger.
 
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Steve Cooper:

“We are looking forward to getting going again because we have got a big week coming up in terms of schedule.

You can be on the wrong end of scheduling at times. I don’t think it’s unfair in terms of scheduling but it is swings and roundabouts and next week is a busy one for us, that’s for sure.

We have a home game Saturday, but then to go to Huddersfield on Tuesday and then play Friday is a quick turnaround.

We are not going to moan or cry about it, but we know we are going to have to prepare wisely for the week.

We are looking forward to the challenge, I don’t think we will be using just 11 players so we have to think through things carefully.

It’s quite tough, but we plan at least a month ahead and we will stick to that.”
 
Bitterly disappointed. Yet again a poor, relegation form home display, where the opposing manager has sussed our predictable tactics and another defeat inflicted on us by struggling team without an away win all season.

High press us trying to play out from the back, bully us off the ball with big players, overrun and outmuscle our lightweight non tackling midfield and there’s only one outcome

We pick full backs who are afraid to overlap, a 5’9” winger at centre forward against giant centre backs, ageing wingers who stay narrow, and a weak non-vocal captain.

It was obvious at half time that we were going to lose this match if we continued with the same tactics but we substituted like for like players and stuck with the same routine. There is no plan B and we are bereft of ideas when plan A is not working.
 
Cooper:
“We know that we fell short today with our performance levels.
We're big believers in focusing on performances and think that we'll get results through that and today was not at the level required in many areas and for that we didn't get the result we wanted.
We didn't show enough creativity and quality at the top end of the pitch to allow ourselves the opportunity to score."

Rowett:
“It was a really nice way to end the run of games without an away win.
The players were conscious of it and needed to do something about it.
We've worked on a formation the last few weeks to help us away from home. We felt we needed to change something, not just from a football or tactical perspective but from a psychological perspective.
I thought at times we did it really well. I thought we pressed Swansea in the right areas, we made it hard for them to play through us.
We created the best chances of the match and I thought we were relatively comfortable in terms of Swansea's chances."
 
Swansea 0 Millwall 1
Possession: 68% - 32%
Shots: 10 - 13
On target: 4 - 5
Corners: 4 - 3
Fouls: 14 - 10
Cards: 1y - 2y
Ref: Andy Davies 1/10 - just as well have worn a yellow shirt
Att: 16,840
 
Did you see their captain, number 15, 6’2”” centre back, 31 year old ROI International Alex Pearce begging the ref to send Hoorn off for the coming together and dive that led to the free kick and the goal? How unprofessional and cynical was that, as he fouled and dived, and complained at every decision that went against them, throughout the match.
 
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Teams -

Swans:
27 Woodman, 26 Naughton, 20 Wilmot, 5 Hoorn, 20 Bidwell, 28 Byers, 8 Grimes,
12 Dyer (9 Baston 70’), 10 Celina (19 Surridge 45’),
15 Routledge (11 Peterson 45’), 22 Ayew
Subs not used: 1 Nordfelt, 6 Fulton, 23 Roberts, 44 Cabango

Lions:
33 Bialkowski, 4 Hutchinson, 15 Pearce, 5 Cooper, 12 Romeo, 8 Thompson,
6 Williams, 3 Wallace, 7 Wallace (9 Bradshaw 90’), 23 Bordvarsson (26 Skalak 76’),
21 Mahoney (10 Smith 67’)
Subs not used: 14 Steele, 17 Brown, 22 O’Brien, 42 Mitchell
 
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