Rob DaviesSwansea City struggled but did enough to take all three points from bottom of the league Peterborough United last night in a ding ding battle that further highlighted the Swans deficiencies at the back.
Michael Obafemi scored twice and Joel Piroe netted the winner in stoppage time after Peterborough had turned the game on its head with two early second half goals.
Urgency only when chasing the game
The frustration of passing for the sake of it is all too evident when it comes to Swansea’s play this season but we looked like a different team when needing to chase the game.
There was urgency and the tempo was vastly increased which led to the two goals which secured the points. The question is why do we never show that urgency when it’s goalless or 1-0 up?
Midfield trio far too defensive
I spoke about this in the match report but the fact we are 36 games into the season yet still seeing the midfield trio of Grimes-Downes-Smith is baffling – much as it was last season substituting Downes for Jay Fulton.
The goals scored from those three centre midfielders this season totals just one and when you’ve then got a back five (usually) then it means you have eight out of a starting eleven who aren’t going to worry the goalscoring charts.
Cabango’s struggles
Ben Cabango has been an intriguing case this season – so impressive last term but this year he struggled to break back into the first team earlier in the campaign and always looked like one of those players that wouldn’t fit into Martin’s style.
In fairness to him he has consistently started of late but his indecision along with Kyle Naughton for Peterborough’s second goal is typical of his struggles to get to grip with what Martin is asking of him.
There’s no doubt there’s talent there but he needs to take the common sense option sometimes rather than pacify his manager – although that’s easy for us to say!
Star strike duo
Joel Piroe added his 17th goal of the season last night whilst Obafemi added his 7th and 8th goals – both are clearly going to be huge if Swansea are to achieve their aims next season.
Piroe will undoubtedly attract attention from higher divisions but whether it’s under Martin or not, the Swans will always have a chance with two fine strikers in their line up.
Ntcham’s quality makes the difference again
Another interesting contribution this season is that of Ntcham – quite often struggling when starting games but his cameo appearances have been very impressive.
He came off the bench to set up the opening goal against West Brom away and his pass/shot was controlled by Wolf for Piroe for the winner last night.
Another player with undoubted talent just if only he could show it on a consistent basis.
