It was a honest assessment but the words were long overdue

Luke Williams did not hold back yesterday evening when he was reflecting on the 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough but the words will have a hollow meaning if they are not heeded and turned around by a group of players who have been protected from criticism for far too long.

The words of Williams should ring loud in the players ears as the Swans boss said “It was completely unacceptable, it was lacking in energy and conviction. We concede two ridiculous goals, we showed nowhere near enough for our supporters to watch that and be happy with what they saw.

“We had nothing. We got players into unmarked positions in the box, the number of times we get close and overhit a cross or make a bad touch. It’s just sloppiness, there is not enough focus or concentration.”

They are words that could have been uttered many times over the course of the past few seasons given the nature of performances we get “treated” to on a regular basis by the team.   For April 2024 at Middlesbrough you could probably reel off at least a dozen games in the post Covid period that could have the same words used by the Swans boss of the time in a post match interview.

All too often we have seen a performance where the ball is played around aimlessly in the back line, where the football is played at a walking pace and where we can go ninety minutes without forcing the opposition goalkeeper into doing anything of note.  Yesterday being a classic example of this with our only shot on target being a weak effort from Jamal Lowe that was straight at the goalkeeper.

Unfortunately what we witnessed yesterday was just about a typical performance from the Swansea City class of 2023-24.  The 2-0 demolition of Cardiff a few short weeks ago was a performance out of the norm and one that we seem to want to dine out on rather than turning in that level of performance week in, week out.

It was said on these pages after that win over Cardiff that we needed to put in that kind of performance in the more mundane fixtures but unfortunately for our current crop of players the games at Sheffield Wednesday, QPR and Middlesbrough have seen us play anything but the high tempo game that saw us beat Cardiff.   Or to be much more accurate we have failed to get anywhere near that level or shown any desire to get there.

All season (and for seasons before) we have heard from various team members about the togetherness in the squad, the improvements we are going to see soon (does soon ever arrive?) and how we will see a step up in performances.   It has become a tired out repetitive story and the reality is the actions never speak louder than the words.   Or the actions never actually mirror anything near the words that are used.

Today’s it was Harry Darling who was asked to talk about yesterday’s game and he said (amongst other things) “We’ve got two home games next so we really need to give performances that the fans and gaffer can be proud of.

“They probably haven’t seen that since the Cardiff game, and that’s something we need to do because we know it’s not been good enough and we’ve conceded two sloppy goals to lose here.”

What Harry has admitted there is that Sheffield Wednesday was not good enough so we put in a performance against QPR that was not good enough and then followed that up with another not good enough one at Middlesbrough.   Is it the performances that are not good enough or is it the personnel?   I’ll let you decide on that one as to your particular stance as it could easily be either or even a mixture of both.

What I find the most frustrating is that we see players putting in performances like this when technically their futures are on the line.  Sure some are protected by contracts but football is a short career at the best of times and contract or not it is very easy to get a reputation that can mean the next move is at lower levels on lower salaries.   Nothing in life should be taken for granted.

Whatever is being said in the team meetings that will follow yesterday’s debacle it should be the words of Luke Williams that need to be heeded.   We cannot afford to be sub standard and we do not need to hear how wonderful everyone is in training or how great we are on the verge of being.   The only judgement on the class of 2023-24 will be their performances on the pitch and all we ask as supporters is that we show pride and passion in the shirt.   We will never win every game but we should never be accused of losing without trying.  Unfortunately though that is what appears to be the case at the moment or certainly that is the impression that is being given.

The Swans face Stoke on Wednesday night and Rotherham next Saturday.   Both sides are below us in the table which means that both can be classed as worse than us.   We don’t need to hear “it was difficult as they are fighting for their lives” because we are fighting for ours.    It is up to the players to deliver a performance that they can show some pride in and deliver the results that we need.   Get this week wrong and the need to fight will increase and our desire to fight is lacking, we already know that.   If we can’t fight when the pressure is off we certainly don’t have much chance of doing so when the pressure is on.

So let’s not hear words.   Let’s not hear excuses.   And let’s not hear how great everything is and certainly let’s not hear about “togetherness”.   Let’s just see how good you are on the pitch and that you have the capability to represent this club in the way it deserves to be represented.   Because, right now without exception that is up for question.   We await to see what the answer is.