Laudrup: Our Play Was Too Slow vs Everton

Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup said his side’s defeat was mainly due to their slow play against Everton, as the Toffees eased to a 3-0 win today at the Liberty Stadium.

The Dane was also disappointed with the amount of fouls they conceded in the first half hour, a total that reached 23 by the end of the game.

Laudrup expected Everton to approach the game exactly the way they did, play high up the pitch and put pressure on the defence, but he and his side didn’t have an answer for it.

The Swans often enjoy achieving passing success rates in the 90%+ mark, but today it was lacking at just 82%. Sloppy passes and conceding possession in dangerous areas gifted Everton to a host of chances that they failed to convert.

Laudrup was as honest as ever in his analysis of his side’s performance:

“Everton deserved the win,”

“They were better than us and we were very disappointing in the first 30 minutes where we gave away a lot of fouls.

“We started too slowly and that was the grounds for defeat and even though we tried to come back into the game, overall they deserved it.

“I have to find something positive and perhaps it is that their man of the match was their goalkeeper – we created chances and could have scored two or three, but they could have scored five.

“It was the worst we have seen this season. We know days like this will come and we must learn from it and take from it what we can.

Laudrup also says that today’s defeat can be a good wake-up call for his side:

“We can’t say Everton surprised us tactically because they did exactly what they did last season: man for man, push up, pressure on the back four. But if you play a team stronger than you then you need to move the ball fast. If you move slow there will be fights for the ball and they will win them.

“And if we give away that number of free-kicks against another physical side like Stoke next week then Peter Crouch and co. will score.

“It’s a reminder to us all we are a good team when we are sharp and move the ball fast; if we don’t do that we have problems home and away.

“It’s never good to lose, especially not in this way, but it can be a good wake-up call for everybody after the start we had.”

Laudrup also conceded that his side weren’t unlucky in the game, they simply weren’t good enough to cope with Everton’s quality:

“We had a good reaction after the first 30 minutes and in the start of the second half and we had to open up even if we knew they would counter attack,”

“But then there was the red card and he was a little unlucky but after the first yellow it’s goodbye.

“But we cannot say we were unlucky and we must learn from it. We have a cup game on Tuesday which is not a good moment for us because we have a lot to lose and not much to win against a side in Crawley two leagues below us.

“But we have to use the game to get back to winning again. It depends how we play, how fast we play. It’s up to us.”