{"id":76934,"date":"2023-02-18T17:38:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T17:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/?p=76934"},"modified":"2023-02-18T17:38:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T17:38:35","slug":"have-we-run-out-of-options-now-the-process-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/02\/18\/have-we-run-out-of-options-now-the-process-doesnt-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Have we run out of options now?  The process doesn&#8217;t work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There was a sense of inevitability about the late goal from Blackburn Rovers that gave them all three points at Ewood Park and took the Swans run to a dismal three wins in eighteen games.<\/p>\n<p>When you consider that three of our last four wins have been against sides with ten men then the position really is as worrying as the statistics read as the team, squad, formation and way of playing seems to be going backwards at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n<p>The simple fact is we just don&#8217;t look like winning games.\u00a0 \u00a0Watford aside have we really played well since October?\u00a0 \u00a0The Martin supporters amongst those reading will no doubt point to periods of play but the game is over ninety minutes and we have not been able to string a good ninety minutes together apart from that win over Watford.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='3GwyLNYXR3FmsWx0WCFL_g' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1247259068' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'3GwyLNYXR3FmsWx0WCFL_g',sig:'YAHhdR7AtTh8OI2R37UDFnX0YJAypRFbscOXyagGOkk=',w:'594px',h:'413px',items:'1247259068',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>We have a fundamental problem with defending &#8211; two clean sheets in seventeen games tells its only story &#8211; and that is from a team that is led by a defender.\u00a0 \u00a0We can talk about &#8220;the same mistakes&#8221; and &#8220;being brave&#8221; all we like but we are incredibly easy to play against and entirely predictable in just about everything that we do.<\/p>\n<p>Any side that comes up against us with a bad run must relish facing us. Not because they raise their game but because they know that we will make loads of pointless passes in our own half but at some stage will also completely switch off in defence as was perfectly highlighted against Blackburn.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Martin has now overseen seventy-eight league matches in charge of the Swans and &#8211; bar a few small runs of form apart &#8211; then it is difficult to see what we are trying to accomplish.\u00a0 Indeed, the runs of form are so irregular then it is not too difficult to argue that they are very much against the norm rather than the way it is going to be.<\/p>\n<p>The strong run of September and October (seven wins in nine with the two defeats being against the top two) are nothing but a distant memory and, had it not been for that run, then we would be in a desperate situation right now.<\/p>\n<p>Of course there will be fingers pointed at the disaster that was the January transfer window but our problems run far deeper than that both on and off the pitch.\u00a0 We are fortunate to be in a position where relegation is exceptionally unlucky so it seems that if a change is to be made then the time to do it is now and give a new man a dozen or so games to assess his squad and realise what is needed in the summer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='sju0Jy91Q21nPqUZeDkDDA' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1247257211' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'sju0Jy91Q21nPqUZeDkDDA',sig:'IHUMpD_ulcnGqoAjX_HNpikPMjSPaXVxqpwZaNc5WL4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1247257211',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think there was anyone on the appointment of Martin that didn&#8217;t want to trust the process but it is hard to continue to trust something that is very clearly not working.<\/p>\n<p>Our chance creation is poor, we have no real pace or width in the squad and our passing is pedestrian at best.\u00a0 Our transfers over the past eighteen months have been questionable at best with loan signings never given a chance, players frozen out and even those we seemingly chased for some time are unceremoniously dumped to the bench which adds further question to the judgement that signed them.<\/p>\n<p>It is not unusual for opposition commentary to take more than the occasional dig at how dull we are to watch and the crowds are starting to slip at the Swansea.com stadium as the supporters are voting with their feet.<\/p>\n<p>Of course this is not all the fault of Russell Martin and his coaching team.\u00a0 The owners have to take more than their fair share especially for the incredible failures we saw in January.\u00a0 \u00a0Julian Winter is the CEO overseeing day to day operations that fundamentally have taken the club backwards which just means there needs to be changes.\u00a0 \u00a0Multiple ones.<\/p>\n<p>The season ticket renewal figures will make for interesting reading but I am not sure right now that the thought of Stoke at home on Tuesday night will fill many with desires to leave their house and watch the latest ninety minute &#8220;entertainment&#8221; on offer.<\/p>\n<p>And whilst it doesn&#8217;t look likely that we have a relegation threat we should not lose sight of the fact that the bottom clubs have started to win the occasional game &#8211; it wouldn&#8217;t take too many more results like that to drag us in.<\/p>\n<p>Changes needed.\u00a0 \u00a0You can draw your own conclusions on which ones.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='bw3Et4mcQ1VpV9XbT5wkwg' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1247257166' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'bw3Et4mcQ1VpV9XbT5wkwg',sig:'yvI10oy2tPm7OH8GAGfbWSXb9ZI0b0XtDFX52dfXzE4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1247257166',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a sense of inevitability about the late goal from Blackburn Rovers that gave them all three points at Ewood Park and took the Swans run to a dismal three wins in eighteen games. When you consider that three of our last four wins have been against sides with ten men then the position [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203],"tags":[636,665],"class_list":["post-76934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","tag-russell-martin","tag-the-2022-23-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}