S25/26 | The Official Match Thread | Middlesbrough 1 Swansea 0 | Att: 26,035 (Away 685) | 3pm | Saturday 9th August 2026

[Jackareme]

I think we need to decide what the plan is to take the game to the opposition. Unless you have a lot of possession high up the pitch, you CANNOT start Cullen as a lone striker.
With Fulton and Franco unable to work the ball through the midfield effectively - you CANNOT have positionally high possession (therefore I refer to the first point above!!). I am a simple soul.
To me we need to be a lot braver with our selections - a midfield of Franco (anchoring) Galbraith and Widdell with threats out wide would be a statement that we are trying to win.
Having said ALL of that - it is clear that we desperately need a box to box midfielder and most importantly a striker that has attributes we can build an attacking strategy around.
This striker can be either pacey (to stretch the game and create midfield space) or physically strong (to hold up play and get runners in behind the opposition) or ideally both.
But with the addition of a capable striker and a few games for the new boys to get up to speed and understand championship football - I am sure we will be decent.
Bad day at the office for the players and Sheehan - BUT Innoussa looks very sharp, Casey looked composed and a good physique for a youngster, and Galbraith is a very accomplished player.
Come on boys - Swansea wasn't built in a day

 

[peter]

Good post

this is where we missed an Obrian like player but here is where we are within the financial restraints and i really hope the club can sort the loan for the brighton lad VERY soon for one and of course a stiker

 

[NWJack]

Positives: Galbraith, Burgess, Casey, Inoussa, Ronald, Vig
Negatives: Vip, Franco, Eom, offsides, substitutions, shots on target, 2nd half

The rest just, meh

 

[magicdaps10]

Let's not kid ourselves, it hasn't been great in pre - season, did everyone think we were just going to turn it on today? That was a shocking performance, in line with what has been shown in previous friendlies. Why are we never ready for the start of the season, same last year, now this today.

No, I didn't in reply to your question.

Sheehan seems to have set up a decent shape but attacking wise it was below limited.
I didn't see anything that I would expect from a Swansea team, passing was poor and didn't see wingers getting passed their full back and putting crosses in.
Cullen up top won't help as a lone striker a d I'm still figuring out what type of player Widell is!
I think we need to go with 2 holders in midfield with Cullen or even Eom at no 10 playing behind a right handful of a striker.
I think Ronald and Inoussa can do a job but they have clearly been given a lot more defensive duties which saw them both receiving the ball too deep.

A few tweaks, a few new faces and it can be a different picture than today.......let's face it, today was as poor as we have seen over the last 6/7yrs.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

Definitely missed LOB, or anyone who could bring the ball forward in the center of the pitch and bring others in.
All 3 midfielders picked were playing way too conservatively.

Inoussa looked lively though, so there's a positive.

2 completely toothless teams who barely created anything between them. Of course, the player who breaks the deadlock is a defender who hasn't scored in 3 years.

Football's back baby!

O’Brien was the difference last season.

I am hugely disappointed we didn’t get the money together to bring him in.

Would have been better to sign him rather than Widell and Inoussa imo. You can have quality out wide but it won’t matter at all without a midfield driver.

Let’s hope we can bring in what we need this week as our midfield is not going to be good enough.

Franco today was so poor. I honestly thought Fulton added more. (Although given many of our fans found great delight in him having spent most of the summer partying, maybe it’s no surprise he’s off the pace at the moment).

 

[gerwyn.evans]

After solid enough first half second half was very, very poor.

Vipotnik is simply a waste of time. Cullen in the first half at least showed some ability to win a ball and hold it up. Vipotnik is constantly in the wrong place, has awful movement and can’t be bothered to stay onside.

Widell looks very very lightweight and ordinary at the moment. Can’t quite believe I was watching a full Swedish international play. No better than academy products at the moment.
Inoussa looked more promising.

We have absolutely no creativity whatsoever. We could have played for two days and not scored. And quite what’s with the lumping it up I don’t know. There was no one in midfield who showed any drive.

On a brighter note Casey was assured when he came on.

Midfield and up front. Urgent. And some sort of system that isn’t just hit it and hope would be great.z

Don’t know how it can be concluded VIP is a waste of time with virtually zero service. Ok he wasn’t great last season but again service wasn’t great and a lot of players don’t hit the ground running when moving to a new league and a new country and often need a season to acclimatise.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

today was as poor as we have seen over the last 6/7yrs

Really, Daps?

As bad as Pompey away last season?
Coventry at home? Thumped at Cardiff, who went down?

I actually agree with pretty much everything else you said, but let's get a bit of perspective on it. Going up to Boro, not giving much away and only losing due to slack set piece marking is not anywhere near those debacles.

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

Except he hasn't though.

Casey only arrived the other day, and anyone can see we're still crying out for another midfielder and a proper striker, ideally two. That's why we're not ready.

I'm not making excuses for today's game btw, I'm just pointing out that you can only do so much with what you've given.

Yeah, nothing’s really changed. We’ve st

I think we need to decide what the plan is to take the game to the opposition. Unless you have a lot of possession high up the pitch, you CANNOT start Cullen as a lone striker.
With Fulton and Franco unable to work the ball through the midfield effectively - you CANNOT have positionally high possession (therefore I refer to the first point above!!). I am a simple soul.
To me we need to be a lot braver with our selections - a midfield of Franco (anchoring) Galbraith and Widdell with threats out wide would be a statement that we are trying to win.
Having said ALL of that - it is clear that we desperately need a box to box midfielder and most importantly a striker that has attributes we can build an attacking strategy around.
This striker can be either pacey (to stretch the game and create midfield space) or physically strong (to hold up play and get runners in behind the opposition) or ideally both.
But with the addition of a capable striker and a few games for the new boys to get up to speed and understand championship football - I am sure we will be decent.
Bad day at the office for the players and Sheehan - BUT Innoussa looks very sharp, Casey looked composed and a good physique for a youngster, and Galbraith is a very accomplished player.
Come on boys - Swansea wasn't built in a day

Yep, seems like a reasonable assessment. It was square pegs in round holes today and ended up reverting to safe passing into centre mid and then back to the CBs again, leaving the only option for Burgess to try and ping long balls that our up front midgets can’t win. No chance of building through the midfield. Tymon and Key didn’t help in building the play either. It looked like we didn’t have much of a clue to be honest.

I thought Widell was supposed to be a box to box type, but is he more of a 10? He livened up a bit when he was across more on the right linking up with Inoussa, but looked lost on the left side. I had big hopes for him (more out of desperation than anything!). Inoussa had some nice touches, though.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

Don’t know how it can be concluded VIP is a waste of time with virtually zero service. Ok he wasn’t great last season but again service wasn’t great and a lot of players don’t hit the ground running when moving to a new league and a new country and often need a season to acclimatise.

Enough with this.

This isn't 1985. Motionless target men whose only function is to get on the end of crosses just don't cut the mustard anymore. To be a striker in the modern game you need to offer a lot more than he does. And Cullen for that matter.

Our only two striking options, and both are pitiful. No more excuses. It's killing us more than any other issue.

 

[Swanjaxs]

Basically a shit sandwich day...

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

Don’t know how it can be concluded VIP is a waste of time with virtually zero service. Ok he wasn’t great last season but again service wasn’t great and a lot of players don’t hit the ground running when moving to a new league and a new country and often need a season to acclimatise.

Watch his runs. He’s always about 2 yards away from where he needs to be. He’s had a whole year and nothing’s changed, which is why we’re having to start with Cullen even though he’s not suited to the lone striker role. I’d like him to find his feet and you’re right about limited chances/needing to settle, but he needs to show more to deserve a starting place (imo of course).

 

[magicdaps10]

Really, Daps?

As bad as Pompey away last season?
Coventry at home? Thumped at Cardiff, who went down?

I actually agree with pretty much everything else you said, but let's get a bit of perspective on it. Going up to Boro, not giving much away and only losing due to slack set piece marking is not anywhere near those debacles.

Probably not but today was poor.
Going down to a 3/4 or 5-0 whimper is very bad but today was absolute zero after they scored from us as an attacking force.

I feel in a system we seen today from us, management would see a 1-0 loss as not a bad result.
I hate football like we played today because its based more about the opposition rather than what we can do with the ball and go out and win the game.

 

[Captain_Sham]

A few tweaks, a few new faces and it can be a different picture than today.......let's face it, today was as poor as we have seen over the last 6/7yrs.

Evidence that this idiot is off his meds

 

[gerwyn.evans]

First day of the season, squad not complete, injury problems and at a ground we usually struggle at. Predictable defeat, we ideally would have created more and ideally the squad would be complete but almost all non elite clubs are still trying to recruit and our low income means we struggle to compete financially which often means deals take longer to find and compete.

 

[magicdaps10]

Evidence that this idiot is off his meds

Classy reply Sham, very classy