Planet Swans ArchivesThe closure of the transfer window was preceded with us making what appeared to be some good signings which forced up the optimism ahead of the fixture. The arrival of Renato Sanches and Wilfried Bony had stirred genuine excitement in the support and I think most headed to the Liberty this afternoon expecting a home win and a place in the top 10 come the end of the day.
But they were treated to an average – at best – Swans performance where there was no cutting edge and what seemed to be no real urgency in the side before we fell to a late free header from a Newcastle corner.
You could argue that we had good chances – Alfie Mawson and Tammy Abraham guilty of gilt edged misses – but Newcastle had just as many if not more and certainly deserved their win when you reflect back on the game.
For the Swans were second best in many departments across the afternoon and guilty of giving the ball away on too many occasions. The midfield was in backward mode for large periods of the game and the team lacked a cutting edge that will give you a good reason why we drew a blank for the third time this season.
Abraham’s chance was an excellent one and maybe a more experienced striker would have put it away but picking the bones over a missed opportunity tends to give a false opportunity on a day when we simply didn’t perform.
What we should remember is that the optimism felt after the closure of the window should not be discarded on the back of one poor performance. As with any signings and new players it can take time for them to bed in and we have seen enough evidence over the past six months to know that we can play much better than we did this afternoon.
That said, we should not just brush this under the carpet as one bad performance. The lack of chances we are creating will continue to be a worry and something that we need to work on. At this level, chances are hard enough to come by without relying purely on one or two great chances per game. That is where we are falling short and what we need to change.
With Spurs away next week we know that we have one of our toughest tests ahead of us and there will be much work needed for that and the games beyond. It is not all about the performance today but how we put it behind us and move on.
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