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Clement: Difficult To Take Positives From Bournemouth Defeat

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Swansea City boss Paul Clement admitted that it was ‘difficult’ to take any positives from the 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth.

Things were looking up when we came back from behind to beat Burnley 3-2 a fortnight ago, but two straight defeats – in poor fashion have knocked some of that momentum out of us.

The Hull game hurt us with injuries, and it forced Clement to put Fer at right back tonight at Bournemouth, and with Olsson also sidelined, we just didn’t look like the same outfit.

The defence is looking very vulnerable again, while there’s little up top to be excited about, and Bournemouth’s lead looked safe even at 1-0 with 30-35 minutes remaining.

But Clement told the Official Site after the game that the squad must stick together and make the most from the two consecutive home games they have coming up after the two-week international break.

“It`s difficult to take any positives out of this result when clearly we needed more, but we have to reflect on the bigger picture as well now,”

“At the start of January we had 12 points and were rock bottom.
“With nine games to go, we are 17th and we play two home games next.

“Bournemouth have just shown what you can do when you put two good results at home together. They have a bit of breathing space now and we have to try to do something similar to them in the two home games we have.

“Clearly, Middlesbrough next is a very, very big game.

“But we must not panic and we must not start looking for culprits, pointing the finger or blaming people.

“We are very much in this together and the players have pulled together well since I have been here.

“They have trained well and we have got some really positive results over the last two-and-a-half months.

“We now have around two-and-a-half months left of the season and there`s no reason why we can`t get some more good results from here on in.

“Our objection, as it has been all along, is to finish 17th. Anything higher than that will be a bonus.”


Clement added that his wasn’t good enough, and again he’ll be disappointed with the defensive mistakes that were made:

“Clearly we didn`t do well enough,”

“That`s disappointing, particularly after we lost last week as well.
“Before the first goal we were doing fine, but they scored via a deflection and that knocked our confidence.

“We got going again in the second half but their second goal knocked the window out of us again. It`s disappointing because we wanted to run them much closer than we did.”


‘Players can handle the pressure’

“It will be about which players and which teams hold their nerve, who can block out the situation and focus on performances,”

“The players have shown they can handle that pressure. They did so against Burnley and against Leicester, two pressure games for us.

“Now we have to react well to this defeat, get back to our stadium and produce a good performance, as we did in our last home game.”

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