Planet Swans ArchivesThe defeat means we have now taken just one point from the last twelve at the Liberty and with the smaller matter of a South Wales derby coming up on Sunday this is worrying times for the Swans at the Liberty as we fall outside the Top 6 after a crushing defeat that will do nothing for our morale.
Yet again the team seemed to lack the tempo that is needed to win games at this level and with passing slow and cumbersome we have become the side that is predictable in our approach and therefore easily out thought by an opposition manager and in particular at the Liberty.
The days of beating Birmingham comfortably at home (our last league win at the Liberty at the end of August) have been long since forgotten and I am not sure that Brentford could have left the Liberty last night thinking it could have been any easier for them. Let’s not take anything away from the opposition, they were a good team and scored two good goals but – if we are serious about our chances this season – we cannot allow sides to leave Swansea with three points too often let alone a three goal victory.
What worries me most at the moment is that Steve Cooper does not seem sure as to what his best eleven is. And when he settles on his starting line up we continue to see the wrong players in the wrong position. We have a squad that contains Bersant Celina, Wayne Routledge and Andre Ayew and yet we have become obsessed with either George Byers or Yan Dhanda playing the role behind the striker. We talked about it on here the other day but it still makes no sense to me.
Having Petersen in the side last night was nice to see one wide man in the team but it’s still not enough – we need to see that more often and a more settled side. I know much is said about the number of fixtures we have to play but a successful team is often a settled one and we seem to be heading down a route of making changes in key positions too often which is likely only to result in teams struggling to score goals as five goals in seven league games will tell you.
The time is not to panic though and calls for Steve Cooper to go are just laughable at the moment and borne from the frustration of a heavy defeat rather than anything structured in its approach. That said he does need to start learning from his mistakes and taking a longer look at his squad and the positions in which he uses them. We seem settled at the back which worked well (until last night) but the rest of the team just isn’t working which makes it more frustrating that we are making the same mistakes over and over again.
What we do know though is that things must change quickly. This is a competitive division and it is still relatively early days but a poor November could see us thinking more about avoiding relegation than pushing for promotion. No panic button being pressed with that statement just a statement of fact that it’s a fine line between the two at this stage of the season.
We need to turn this form around and quickly and there is no better time to start than on Sunday. We can do it.
