Planet Swans ArchivesWhen you see match stats that show one side had 20+ more shots at goal than you, you know you have been on the end of a proverbial hammering but when you consider that Southampton only had 2 shots on target then it’s a case of the home side not taking the chances that come their way. Thirteen corners for the Saints and none for us also tells a story of one of the most one sided games you could wish to see.
When we look back at this game come the end of May then it could well be a vitally important point but the Swans will have to shape themselves up big style after this opening fixture although a point is more than we normally get at Southampton.
We were guilty of wasting one of our key chances in the first half when Tammy Abraham could not get his header on target from a Routledge cross. But that was a rare chance in a game that was dominated by Southampton and Paul Clement will have much work to do on the training pitch this week with Manchester United next up at the Liberty next weekend.
The sheer fact that we turned to Jay Fulton and Olly McBurnie – with respect to both of them – when we were backs against the wall sparks a question as to why Roque Mesa was not used given the fact that surely a game with this pattern of play was crying out for a player of his calibre.
Outside of us earning a point there is not much to take away from the game in terms of positives which is disappointing when you consider some real positive away performances in our previous six years in this division.
However, we have to take that point and look to build on it but if our season is going to be shaped by backs to the wall performances then it will be a long hard nine months ahead of us and it shows just how much we relied on Sigurdsson and Llorente last season.
We need to get the latter of these fit and the transfer speculation on the former sorted and get our squad ready for the challenge to come – and on the evidence of today that challenge is a very big one.
Thirty-nine points to go….
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