Planet Swans ArchivesMake no mistake about it West Brom are not a good side and neither were Crystal Palace before them but the lack of passion, desire and more worryingly skill showed us up this afternoon on a day when a win was essential to keep us from looking over our shoulders.
With the next two games being trips to Goodison Park and the Emirates it is difficult at the moment to see where the next points are coming from and the only consolation that we can retain at the moment is that there are probably three worse teams than us in this division although on current form and play that is probably only just.
There are plenty of players this evening who need to take a long hard look at themselves and wonder if they are up to the fight that we now have in the last nine games of the season with probably around 7-10 points still needed to ensure Premier League survival for next season.
The last two games should have yielded two wins and given us a comfort zone that would make the last couple of the months much more relaxed but instead we have thrown away winning positions to earn just one point out of the six available and more importantly giving up four to teams who are in the same fight that we are in.
The early passion and style that seemed to return under Garry Monk has given way to a team that looks dis interested and players that – putting it bluntly – shit out of 50/50 challenges and give possession up too easily letting teams into the game where they simply shouldn’t.
Roland Lamah’s second minute excellent finish should have given us the confidence that we needed to push on from but glaring misses in the first half (missing the target from six yards out is unforgivable) were always likely to come back and haunt us and you just knew that at some point we would come under pressure and the one thing we seem to do under pressure at the moment is show every sign that we have no idea how to cope with it.
The introduction of Michu introduced us to a player who not only looked off the pace but seemed to have little interest in what was going on around him and the one thing that we need to do in the summer is to sign the player called wrongoption as we always take the pass in that direction.
A few months ago we were told that we had the fight for the battle and that we would show the determination but let me say straight away now that the battle will not be won by fancy flicks and clever touches that find nobody but the opposition. The battle will only be won with grit and determination and a desire to succeed all of which are sadly lacking at the moment. Quite simply against both Crystal Palace and against West Brom today we have been lacking in the desire to be first to the ball and both teams clearly wanted the result more than we did which is the biggest worry of all for me.
Both goals we conceded today were soft and came from poor defending and both should have been prevented. The early goal should have seen us finish off a West Brom team that had taken just nine points from their thirteen away games this season. They came into this game so low on confidence that after two minutes ther heads should have dropped and never been allowed to lift again.
However, at half time with the one goal the only difference between the two sides then Pepe Mel clearly told his side we were there for the taking and – to be frank – he was right.
The boos that rang out around the stadium at the end of the game were the loudest of the season by far and were more as a result of the pathetic display on the pitch than the result itself.
Today we finally played ourselves totally into the relegation battle – for too long we have been able to point at games like today as the ones that could save us, as it turned out they could be the ones that completely cost us.
Much work to be done and massive improvements needed.
