Swansea City head coach Carlos Carvalhal was seen laughing on numerous occasions during this evening’s 1-0 home loss against Chelsea, but there was nothing funny about our performance which, let’s be honest, wasn’t good enough.
Referee Jon Moss had a mare from start to finish, and that is what caused Carvalhal to laugh ironically from the touchline as he watched a number of fouls go against his side.
This sums it up:
https://twitter.com/ryanno6/status/990277958861574144
Regardless of the refereeing performance, it had no impact on the result. Their goal was fair, the penalty shout in the second half was a fair challenge – it was just an on-going annoyance of Jon Moss giving Chelsea the decisions, many of which were baffling like the one in the video clip above.
But there just wasn’t anything funny or worth smiling about during the 1-0 loss against Chelsea. The performance was lacking in every department really up until the final 15 minutes or so when we finally managed a shot on target and caused some problems in and around the penalty area.
Ki’s long-range mistake in the fourth minute gifted Chelsea possession in our own half. A then missed tackle from the South Korean allowed Fabregas to receive the ball in space and he curled a first time shot into the top corner. A classy finish which we were never able to recover from.
And it wasn’t as if Chelsea grew in confidence from that early opener either because they didn’t. Lucasz Fabianski wasn’t called into action on too many occasions, but our efforts in front of goal were rather lacklustre in the opening 45 minutes.
It reminded me of earlier games this season when Paul Clement was in charge. Trying to move the ball wide on every occasion, sending left wing-back Martin Olsson down the left flank on his just wasn’t a tactic that was ever going to work. The two Ayew brothers were often playing too far away from each other to link up and we lacked some real attacking width.
With Federico Fernandez and Kyle Bartley both out with injury, we thought that Carvalhal might have been forced to switch to a back four, we were hoping he was, but he didn’t, and opted to play Kyle Naughton as a right centre-back and giving Connor Roberts a chance at right-wing back. The youngster did reasonably well, and believe it or not, Naughton looked more comfortable in his new role, but it was in midfield that we were lacking once again.
Firstly, Ki never broke into a sweat. He just trotted around the pitch with seemingly no care in the world. King was slightly better in that he was a bit more tenacious than his South Korean team-mate, but that’s hardly an achievement to be proud about.
Carvalhal’s conservative tactics once again appear to be wearing thin on Swansea City fans. Even the most reasonable and patient supporters are getting a little bit tired with the defensive approach to these crucial home games, and as each game passes, the gap to the bottom three reduces.
Some of us wanted to switch to a back four during the game but it didn’t happen until very late on. Carvalhal wasn’t helped though with a poor subs bench. It lacked attacking quality, and a striker, as Tammy Abraham couldn’t feature against his parent club.
When Tom Carroll, Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge are your three substitutes to come on when chasing a game, you know the squad just isn’t there for us.
But Carvalhal can still be a bit more adventurous at home. A back four against Everton saw us create 7 shots on target, and we were on the front foot for large parts of the game.
Will he be more positive in the games to come? Who knows but we’ve got to be to get points against both Stoke City and Southampton, who have a bit more about them in recent games in my opinion. Neither side sit back and defend, and both are capable of scoring. Stoke held Liverpool to a goalless draw at Anfield, while Southampton beat Bournemouth, a club who we face next week – a side we’ve yet to beat at this level.
