Williams honest assessment of Swans performance

Luke Williams would have been more than a little disappointed at half time with his side 3-1 down after a forty five minute display that he described as timid and disjointed.   But he took much away from a second half performance that he could see was much better as a result of things that changed at half time.

Williams would have watched on with frustration as the Swans gifted Southampton way too much space and time on the ball in the first half and were punished for that generosity in a display that Williams acknowledged could have been alot worse score wise by the time he got his team into the dressing room at the end of the half.

Two goals inside the first twenty minutes and then conceding straight after we got ourselves back into the game said much about that display and there was certainly no chance of Williams defending the performance when he spoke to the press at the end of the game.

“I think in the first half we were too deep and too timid playing against a quality side especially all the spaces that we left them,” said the Swans boss.

“It looked like it could have been a much heavier defeat.   The second half performance is completely different we are a lot higher up the pitch and a lot braver.   There are positives to take from the performance.”

TV replays showed that the second Southampton goal had a hint of offside about it but it was not something that Williams wanted to dwell on when it came up in questioning and he added “I don’t want to talk too much about that.  We needed to stop them creating so many openings.  Its disappointing if true but we did not play anywhere near good enough in the first half to deserve a clean sheet.

“When we scored you could see there was some anxiety for the opposition.   We needed to capitalise on that feeling and we don’t.   We have so many bodies back – somebody needs to be across the line of the ball when its struck.”

The disappointment of that Downes goal was clear to see in Williams face but it was his half time team talk that set a different feeling about the second half.   So what was it that was said to his team at half time?

“We said to the players they needed to show character and they did that there was no doubt,” Williams added.

” They have twenty-one shots, nineteen of which were in the first half.   We had some of the best chances in the game.   The reason we don’t convert those chances is there is too much anxiety – the reason that is there because we played in such a weak way in the first half that we went in almost feeling second rate.

“We showed in the second half we were not second rate.  We can take a lot from that.  If we play in that manner for longer periods then we will be a decent side in this division but we cannot play like we did in the first half – disjointed and a lack of aggression.”