Clement: Anxiety and Fear Shown in West Ham Defeat

Swansea City head coach Paul Clement conceded his team showed too much anxiety and fear as they lost a crucial game at West Ham.

Kouyate scored the all-important winner just a minute before half-time, but the Swans looked nothing like the side under Clement that won a few games to get themselves out of the bottom three earlier in the year.

We’re going backwards at a worrying rate, we don’t look like scoring and we simply cannot cope when Fernando Llorente is not involved from the start. He came on for the start of the second half today but we completely lacked attacking invention and creativity – as we couldn’t involve him in the game as we tried to get an equaliser.

It never looked like coming though, again – barely a shot on target in the 90 minutes and even ending the game with the likes of Narsingh, Ayew, Sigurdsson and Montero assisting Llorente, we never looked like getting even close to scoring – and that’s the biggest worry.

Paul Clement didn’t hold back in his assessment of the game – one that he said lacked quality from both sides.

‘It was a poor performance, not what we were looking for after the recent run we have been on. I thought it was a poor game, lacking quality,’

‘There were two teams playing with a lot of anxiety, and for us that was really the case in the first half.

‘There was a lot of fear in our play, and although that improved slightly in the second half from a battling perspective. The technical aspect was very disappointing.’

‘I can’t explain why we were so flat and I cannot sit here and make excuses for that. It was not good enough.

Clement also said that his side suffered from some fatigue after the effort put in midweek against Spurs, and a lack of team changes was a surprise given that fact.

‘There are six games to go and you are in a battle for survival. You expect the basics to be done a lot better than that.

‘I can only assume it is a combination of anxiety because of the situation and what happened on Wednesday night.

‘We put in a massive shift physically – one of our biggest of the season according to the figures – and there was a lot of heartbreak at the end, but you have to put that behind you quickly.

‘There were physical limitations for us today, we were a bit fatigued.

‘The players were up for it, but the physical side and the fact they are clearly anxious showed in our confidence with the ball and we made a massive amount of mistakes today.

‘We have to deal with it or we will be playing in the Championship next year.’