Rob Davies
Swansea City again failed to deliver a decent performance or result as they were well beaten by a previously winless Middlesbrough team to plunge Russell Martin’s team into the relegation zone.
The Swans, aimless, gutless and passive, failed to lay a glove on Chris Wilder’s men who were as surprised as everyone else to see a penalty awarded late on to give the away team a chance.
They should have been far out of sight as Blackburn were, Luton were and so many other teams over the last season. Nobody fears us but we fear everyone else.
But what is more galling on top of this rancid run of form is to hear the manager defend the performance with such arrogance to suggest that his team “dominated.”
That is not just delusional but it is downright disrespectful to the strong away following that travelled yet again in hope more than expectation. They deserve more and so do we.
We have no divine right to expect to be in the upper echelons of this division or the Premier League but we can expect better things after all the talk that came before from a manage that is fast becoming out of his depth.
Martin told Wales Online post match: “We started the game really well, loads of purpose and control.
“We make a mistake and don’t react well enough to it. That’s a sign of where we’re at at the minute, we’re really getting punished for those mistakes.
“It’s probably a sign of having a young team. We had a wobble for 10 minutes which leads to the second goal. After that, the boys couldn’t give us any more in the second half.
“It felt like it was coming, and it did, we got the goal, but Ben makes a mad decision. It’s not the reason we don’t go on to get something because we were still so dominant, we looked like we were really dangerous, but that decision and getting sent off is probably a sign of where we’re at.
“There wasn’t enough willingness to run in the first half, too safe, guys not running to give each other time and space on the ball.
“We played brilliantly until we got to their final third, and that was because of a lack of intensity on the top line. It’s why we made a change, not because Cam made a mistake. He’s going to be a brilliant player, today will be a huge learning curve for him. But we had to change something at that point.
“The same with Olivier at half-time. The guys who came on had a real willingness to run, stretch the defence and make it a bit messy in the final third.
“Joel Piroe scored, he deserves that. I said to the guys after the game, he scored however many goals he did last year, it would have been so easy for him to come back with a mindset that he might be moving. There’s been so much noise around him.
“He’s just a brilliant guy, he deserved that goal. We need more like that who just have courage, regardless of the situation they’re in.”
You are in charge Russell. You choose to start Cameron Congreve, realise you’ve made a mistake and withdraw a young talented midfielder inside the first half. That’s not acceptable.
Nor is this performance or many over the past 52 league games under this manager. Something has to change.
Simples ! Martin OUT, YANKS OUT ! Unless both happen, it’s League 1 here we come !!!
Way OTT comments on the manager. You need to get a grip on reality, like many other delusional, reactionary Jack’s with no patience who are making the club toxic at the moment. We’re a few games into the season with the transfer window yet to close. That is way too early to judge a season. Funny how all the ex-pro pundits and journalists are correctly saying that our problems are down to a shocking lack of basic investment in the squad. We should all be united in a campaign against the owners, not massively slagging off a manager trying to work with a threadbare squad with morale clearly low not helped by articles like this.
Well said!!!!
If you lookback over the year and a bit Martin has been here the investment in the squad has been large although it has also been largely disappointing. Not one to defend the Americans by any stretch of the imagination but to lay the blame on a lack of investment is as OTT as you claim the original article to be