I like the way you guys play. But you're blatantly going to get relegated playing that way.
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This is the fifth season we have played this way - it was introduced by Wigan coach Roberto Martinez who was our former captain. In all of these seasons we have been picked to be relegated. In two of them we were PROMOTED, and the season before last, we finished one place outside the playoff spots. We shipped four goals in our first game last season, and we haven't won on the first day of the season for six years.
We made 528 passes against Man City, and we average around 480 a game. Man City and the top six sides can beat us with 40 per cent possession, the others, especially the long ball merchants, will struggle, especially at Liberty.
I'm pretty happy the way we play, and if it is only one season, so be it. This way of playing works for us - and it also works for Barcelona.
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Can you do it on a cold wet Tuesday night at the Britannia?
Three for me, and two for them.
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Geez Buff, it's a Welsh club. Wales is the world leader in cold wet Tuesdays. And cold wet Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. I can remember two weeks Summer hols in my Uncle Ian's caravan on the Gower and it rained EVERY day.
Best guess, is if they are training outside in Swansea, a little bit of cold and wet won't bother them. There are 19 clubs going to have to travel at least 250 miles out of their comfort zone to play in Swansea. Law of probability says 17 of them will have a cold wet, Welsh welcome. Perhaps that is why we had the best home record in the football league last year.
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I like the way you guys play. But you're blatantly going to get relegated playing that way.
Been watching them lately.
Still playing that way, had a standing ovation from Liverpool fans. 10th in the league and clearly better than all those below them.
I recall not too long ago, when the Swans were in the fourth division, that teams that were promoted from the conference often went straight up to League 1, because the Conference was stronger than the bottom half of the League 2. The same is now true of the Championship, and with Norwich, QPR and Swansea, all deservedly in the top half of the Premier League.
The Swans won't get relegated, they have played four of the top six away, with only Man Utd and Tottenham to go, and have yet to concede a goal from the opposition at home at Liberty.
They play the way the game should be played, are owned by the fans and are a shining light to other sides, that you don't need foreign blood money to have a decent side to watch.
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From the Guardian:
A popular theory at the moment is that it is better to be chasing promotion from the Championship than to achieve it, go up and find yourself on the end of thrashings in the Premier League. There is a certain logic there, that like a relationship, the chase is more thrilling than the prize itself. We've got what we want: now what? Yet that can be taken only so far; after all, without a reward at the end of all the hard work, there is no point trying in the first place. Football needs dreams, however hopeless they might turn out to be, or else every side might as well while away life in mid-table obscurity.
Before the start of a season promoted sides are usually tipped to go straight back down but they often end up well away from danger. The only surprise is the surprise itself. You would think we would have learned by now. Part of the gloomy predictions are down to a lack of knowledge about the sides coming up, an assumption that there is no way Scott Sinclair, to pick a name at random, could make it in the top flight because he failed to at Chelsea.
Norwich and Swansea must be wondering what all the fuss was about and, although there is still plenty of work to do, neither side looks like going the way of Blackpool. Both sides have young, progressive managers in Paul Lambert and Brendan Rodgers, both play football that is easy on the eye, neither have spent millions and they do not possess household names. But they do not need them. Too often in the Premier League there is a focus on the name rather than the man behind it, allowing cannier managers to pick up an unknown quantity from the lower leagues for a pittance.
For Norwich Grant Holt and Steve Morison, neither of whom had played a minute in the top flight before this season, have shone in attack, despite low expectations. Andrew Surman, another one out of the Southampton academy, has shown he can play at this level. Wes Hoolahan is a fine player and Anthony Pilkington, signed from Huddersfield Town, is one of the finds of the season. As for Swansea, Nathan Dyer and Sinclair have terrorised full-backs, Leon Britton is reminiscent of Xavi, Gylfi Sigurdsson is a superb signing, Ashley Williams is dominant in defence and Danny Graham, a clever and clinical forward, could be worth a look for England. Signed from Watford for �3.5m in the summer, he has scored 10 goals already, more than Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll put together.
At Queens Park Rangers, the other promoted side, there has been a focus on big-money players, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton brought in by Neil Warnock during the summer, followed by Djibril Ciss� and Bobby Zamora in January. But while they are one point above the bottom three, Norwich and Swansea are ninth and 10th respectively. Lambert and Rodgers appear to have worked out that the Premier League is not as good as we like to think. Or maybe the lower leagues are not as bad. JS
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