{"id":84719,"date":"2023-08-14T08:24:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T07:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/?p=84719"},"modified":"2023-08-14T08:24:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T07:24:40","slug":"two-games-in-and-yet-the-knives-are-out-already-in-some-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/08\/14\/two-games-in-and-yet-the-knives-are-out-already-in-some-quarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Two games in and yet the knives are out already in some quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had to check the fixture list after Saturday&#8217;s defeat as I thought I had fallen asleep somewhere and missed a large chunk of games given the reaction to the defeat at West Brom.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody is claiming there were a huge amount of positives from the game itself but to see the reaction on social media to the defeat you would have sworn that it was ten straight defeats without scoring a goal that had led to them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='TJZ4YsK6SkRiEauqIOTR-w' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1593746684' 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:'TJZ4YsK6SkRiEauqIOTR-w',sig:'I8NaYcRxsGlLwu84FR7bHhX7IBis95J2Qx0TsN74L0Q=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1593746684',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Michael Duff is two (yes, thats TWO!) league games into his Swansea City managerial career.\u00a0 \u00a0That is nowhere near enough for anybody to draw any conclusions to how thw career will pan out let alone give any sound debate as to whether he was the right appointment or not.\u00a0 \u00a0I saw comparisons with other managers and first games of the season but none of those managers were two games into their time in charge, indeed one of them had six months under his belt to shape the way his side was playing.<\/p>\n<p>It does seem &#8211; and this is frustrating &#8211; that Michael Duff is now compared to Russell Martin in the same way that Russell Martin was constantly compared to Steve Cooper.\u00a0 All three of those managers are different in the way that they approach games but there are also more than the odd similarities to be seen.\u00a0 \u00a0After Cooper left for two years we heard about play off teams when comparing him to Martin and now Martin has left then it seems that the last two years we have in reality been watching Brazil in action when the revisionism is completed.\u00a0 \u00a0The reality is both previous managers did well enough with the Swans but both went through pretty lengthy periods where we were exceptionally tough to watch and certainly nowhere near the track of the Swansea Way.<\/p>\n<p>Duff may or may not fall into that category at any point in his Swansea City managerial career but the way that some of the reactions to the weekend have been portrayed it seems that he will not even be given the chance to prove himself one way or the other.\u00a0 For some he was written off even after losing meaningless friendlies in pre-season let alone a league match against a side who clearly have ambitions of promotion this season (make no mistake here their manager will not survive the season if they are not in the top ten before Christmas)\u00a0 \u00a0The football on Saturday was nowhere near good at times but Duff has had to rebuild large chunks of his side during the course of the summer and, for several, they are relatively new to the squad (less than two weeks in several instances) so things take time to bed in.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='XMD1LyhSQghrimMgI89Ikw' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1585074456' 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:'XMD1LyhSQghrimMgI89Ikw',sig:'J-uAMqb0CjjsMQdSf25_QihRZoXTu8pOmQFJAvlUAv4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1585074456',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Twitter was a pretty depressing read for any Swans fan on Saturday and it does appear that Duff has been demonised by some already.\u00a0 \u00a0Every word he says is scrutinised, every comment from the opposition fans are dissected and turned into ammunition against a Swansea boss who has still only played three competitive matches at the club and, at the last glance of the calendar, is still only in the middle of the month that contained the first of those three games.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sorry but to start this campaign at this stage of his reign is wrong in so many quarters.\u00a0 \u00a0Firstly it is destabilising for the club.\u00a0 \u00a0Last season we saw lots of ammunition fired at Andy Fisher on social media and then we read how that had impacted his form (and mental wellbeing) so it is disingenuous to think that firing similar comments at the manager would do anything different to the squad.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly any hints of disharmony would make any players think twice about Swansea City as a destination.\u00a0 As a manager tries to sell the &#8220;dream&#8221; of coming to a club with ambitions of growing then any feeling that looks the opposite in the fanbase could make other options look attractive.<\/p>\n<p>And thirdly, the sheer fact that it is so early (two league games remember) is the biggest reason how it can be so wrong.\u00a0 There is not a single manager in the history of Swansea City who will have determined his whole playing shape (and personnel playing to that shape) inside two games.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a fact and one that seems to have been missed when the knives are being sharpened for a man who has a track record of delivering success at the clubs he has been at.\u00a0 \u00a0Ironically something that neither of his two predecessors have.<\/p>\n<p>These conversations (and suggestions) should not be taking place until the season is at least ten to twelve games old and even then I could easily argue that they are well too early.\u00a0 \u00a0Very occasionally &#8211; Bob Bradley &#8211; you get a view that things are not going to work out early doors but it is rare and this for me is part of a longer term goal and Christmas &#8211; broadly the halfway mark of the season &#8211; is usually the time when you get a full gauge of what is really happening and whether we can progress under a manager.<\/p>\n<p>Now is the time to be showing the support of the manager at all times and not picking holes in his every movement, every word, every misplaced pass but look for the positives that are there in some of the recent signings and the ones that are still to come.<\/p>\n<p>That is what should be the Swansea Way.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-84718\" src=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience-696x392.jpg 696w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Patience-1068x601.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had to check the fixture list after Saturday&#8217;s defeat as I thought I had fallen asleep somewhere and missed a large chunk of games given the reaction to the defeat at West Brom. Nobody is claiming there were a huge amount of positives from the game itself but to see the reaction on social [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203],"tags":[1524,1509],"class_list":["post-84719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","tag-michael-duff","tag-the-2023-2024-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84719","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=84719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}