Planet Swans ArchivesWe said earlier on in the season on these pages that our home form would dictate our league position come the end of the season and so far a return of just eighteen points from thirteen games at the Liberty is simply not good enough.
But we are creating our own problems with some very odd team selections with today being a classic example of that. When you watch Wayne Routledge playing right back then you know that nothing is going to go well. Whether you believe Routledge should be anywhere near the first team or not is irrelevant but he most certainly should not be right back. Particularly not when we have one on the bench in Kyle Naughton.
Graham Potter has gained himself a reputation as someone prepared to make changes but now he just seems to make them for the sake of it. The bulk of the Swans good sides of the past have been built on a solid formation starting at the back but already this season we have barely seen a settled back four and that is before we remember the change in goalkeeper that was made for the sake of it a couple of months back.
The manager has to take the blame for any poor team selection and today is certainly no different. Of course we went into the game on the back of a disappointing result against Aston Villa but that does not excuse the team selection which had most fans scratching their head when the team sheet was announced an hour before kick off.
Changes were forced on the manager at half time (not through injury but because it clearly was not working) and we did well to fight back from two goals down but simply we should not have been in that position in the first place.
“My reaction is one of disappointment with myself for the first half,” said Potter., clearly taking the blame as he had to for the performance.
“I take full responsibility for the first half, we were not able to be ourselves and it was an uncomfortable 45 minutes.
“Clearly we had an idea, but it did not work or I was unable to explain the idea well enough and, in fairness, Wigan did what they did well.
“So I am disappointed with myself first off and I apologise to the players and I apologise to the supporters for the first half.”
At this point it is all well and good Potter taking the blame but he needs to learn from these mistakes which he doesn’t seem to be making. His belief in youth is to be admired but he needs to realise that he doesn’t have to use every member of his squad every two weeks.
He has already hinted at the minimal movement we can expect in the upcoming transfer window (that brings us onto another subject for another day in the Chairman’s programme notes today) but surely by now he has to understand his best team and utilise them as much as he can do to create a stable side rather than one that spends 45 minutes wondering what they are supposed to be doing.
You have the ability Graham (or at least we think you do) but now work with your players and not seemingly against them.
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