Swansea City manager Carlos Carvalhal said he wasn’t disappointed despite our poor performance and exit from the FA Cup at home against Spurs – as he tries to remain positive as we focus back on fighting Premier League relegation.
It was our best FA Cup run since the 1960’s, but it came to an end as we gave Spurs an easy and simple path to the semi-finals as they romped to a 3-0 win at the Liberty Stadium, a winning margin that could easily have been greater.
We were missing the two Ayew brothers – Jordan (suspension) and Andre (cup-tied) as well as Andy King (also cup-tied) who would have added some much needed defensive stability in what was a very weak central midfield that included Ki and Carroll. The latter looked like a boy up against his former club, who time and time again missed tackles and sometimes even refused to attempt them, as Eriksen was given 3-5 yards of space throughout the game, and allowed to net a brace.
We tried to sit in a compact 5-4-1 shape with our lines very close together, but this didn’t mean that the likes of Lamela and Eriksen would be quickly closed down and given no room to impress – because they were – pretty much at all times.
We missed Jordan’s energy and pressing up top, Abraham had no support and no hold-up ability so the ball could never ‘stick’ up top. Spurs’ passing success rate was around 92%, they attempted 266 passes in the attacking third compared to our 66, 14 corners to our 1 and 11 shots on target.
Whilst it was a very poor outing for us in a game that we didn’t really look ‘up for it’, Carvalhal tried to remain positive and keep morale high as they can now purely focus on Premier League survival.
‘I am not disappointed,’
‘After the storm comes the good weather.
‘They have a very good side. I said before to achieve something, we must be at our best and they must be not so good. We know there is a gap and that they are better.
‘They were full of energy and very good. It was a credit to them that they respect us and had analysed us. So, they were the best team on the pitch.’
‘There were crucial moments in the game. We expected to go 1-0 down at half-time so it was a very bad time to concede another goal,’ he added.
‘At the start of the second-half, if we had scored with Tammy, then you never know what might have happened. It was a key moment.
‘The FA Cup has been a fantastic run for us – our best run since 1964.
‘It`s not created any harm or damage for the future. We lost to a quality team who played well and scored fantastic goals.’
We’re now back in action at Manchester United in two week’s time following the international break. Jordan Ayew serves the second of his three-match ban so we’ll have to find a way to improve our attacking threat which was very limited to say the least against Spurs.
His brother Andre Ayew may return to replace Abraham up top as a lone striker, who is far stronger and can hold the ball up at least and bring others into play.
Following results today and Palace’s win at Huddersfield, the Swans go up to 14th, three points above 18th-placed Southampton, who like us, have a game in hand on some of those around us.
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