That was the most egregious and tedious game of football I have watched all season; we were lacklustre, lethargic and sloppy throughout the match. We were nowhere near our usual selves, in terms of being snappy and creating decent chances, and did not deserve anything from it. I do not know what we were playing at, but something has to change before we get humiliated by Rotherham on Tuesday night, who have managed to chalk up one win since we beat them 4-1 in November last year.
You would have thought we would have given it everything, since West Bromwich dropped points in the early kick-off and we would have been sitting just a point behind them. We play them in two weeks time and before we meet, we have two relatively easy games against Rotherham and Huddersfield, which, if we win, we will have the momentum to take something from the game and leapfrog them to go 5th. Alas, it never goes the way you plan. We’ll probably lose to Huddersfield and Rotherham, but manage to beat The Baggies.
The good news: Aaron Connolly and Adama Traore were back for selection, who were both introduced later on; Cyrus Christie is fit again, but didn’t make the bench and Liam Delap may be back earlier than we thought. So, we nearly have everyone back, but we are still without Jean Seri, who is still playing in the AFCON. The latter is a player who we are missing,
That meant, in a 4-2-3-1 formation, we lined up as follows: Ryan Allsop, between the sticks; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Ryan Giles as the back four; Tyler Morton and Regan Slater just below and Jaden Philogene, Fabio Carvalho and Anass Zaroury were above Ozan Tufan, who was leading the pack.
From the off, we never looked like we were interested; we were passing the ball too much, getting stuck down the flanks and even our top players–Philogene, Carvalho and Zaroury–were not at their best today. It seemed like they were showing off too much and trying to take on the game as individuals in lieu of a team. Thus, in the 10th minute an unsystematic Tigers let the Swans have the first blow; from a corner, Josh Tymon, born and bred in Hull, smartly rolled it into the box towards an unmarked Liam Cullen, who slotted it into the left-hand side of the net.
This should have been a wake up call for us and we are usually good at responding after going down early on in a match; however, this was not the case today. Par for the course, we were playing it out from the back, but were very poor at it, I have to say. Nobody was calling for the ball, nor making any runs, and when we did boot it up, the player receiving the ball was always offside. On the other hand, Swansea were more organised and calmer with the ball and they were another team who could play it out from the back better than us.
For the rest of the half, we only managed to get one shot on target, which was our biggest chance of the game; in the 32nd minute, from a free-kick, Ryan Giles swung the ball in, which was flicked into the box by Carvalho towards Ozan Tufan, unmarked and with time, who headed it straight into Carl Rushworth’s, their keeper, hands.
The stats were in our favour, though: we had 61% of the possession to their 39%; three shots, with one on target, which was the same as them and 260 accurate passes completed compared with their 128. It’s another case of it’s not about how much of the ball you have, it’s what you do with it that matters. Rosenior must not have been happy with what he was watching as nobody came out to warm up until the last five minutes of the interval.
However, whatever he drilled into their heads must not have processed properly as we continued to play the same way, just a little worse. It only took him ten minutes to make the first change of the afternoon, Billy Sharp for Lewie Coyle, who did not have a good game. This change made a near instant impact when Tufan’s neat through ball released Sharp, but Wood got back to clear his prodded shot, which was goalbound.
We made three more changes during the half: Adama Traore, Aaron Connoly and Abdulkadir Omur came on for Ozan Tufan, Anass Zaroury and Fabio Carvalho. We finally looked a little more energetic and bothered after these changes, with Omur having a positive impact on his debut making some great passes and decisions, to create some mere opportunities, which nothing came from.
Any glimmer of a point was fading away every minute and a well constructed Swansea defence were able to hold their fort, which wasn’t very difficult, and hang on to three vital points for them. Full credit to this side who came far with a game plan and stuck to it.
This was a self-inflicted defeat and we have to be the most inconsistent team in the league; one week we can beat a team above us in the table and a couple of games later, get beat by a side near the relegation zone. With Sunderland winning, they leapfrogged us and have a two point gap, which could be costly at the end of the season. Norwich picked up a point and they are level with us and Coventry also have the chance to go joint sixth.
The only positive thing about the afternoon was meeting our owner, Acun Ilicali, before the match (which is the cover photo), who was just wandering around the stadium taking photos and interacting with the fans, which is a great sign of an amazing owner. Back to football, as I have mentioned, we face Rotherham on Tuesday and then Huddersfield on the following Saturday, which are both away, and I will be travelling to them. We have to beat them, surely? We’ll see.