Detailed Match Analysis from Come On You Swans.com of Swansea City’s 1-1 draw at QPR.
Swansea City striker Wilfried Bony netted an injury time equaliser to give his side a point at QPR in his final game before jetting off for the African Cup of Nations.
The Ivory Coast international was left out of the starting eleven as Garry Monk favoured Bafetimbi Gomis, and of course the media were quick to speculate Bony’s future with the Swans having not been picked to start.
You can understand Monk’s decision though as he really needs to get Gomis up and running as quick as possible, as the Frenchman will be Swansea’s main striker for at least the next month or so during Bony’s absence.
Gomis, like Bony early on last season, is still getting used to his new team, but a lack of starts and a handful of substitute appearances here and there will always make it difficult for any player – particularly a striker to show his true quality and potential.
Gomis’ general play was quite good. In previous matches he has struggled to play the ‘Bony role’ – coming deep and holding up the ball but there were clear signs at Loftus Road that he is improving.
His finishing though still needs work but hopefully the goals will follow regularly once he gets one to follow his first in the League in the 2-1 victory against Arsenal.
QPR’s high pressure
QPR tried to make the pitch as small as possible for Swansea early on, closing down well and limiting the space in the middle third.
They often applied pressure and closed down effectively in groups of four – shown below.
The groups of 4 players applying pressure is a common theme throughout the match screenshots in this analysis.
As a result of this, Swansea lacked numbers in the middle of the pitch and here is where they struggled to create many chances early on.
Ki or Britton also dropped deep alongside the two centre backs, and with Sigurdsson pushing forward, the other holding midfielder was the only player in the middle and QPR often outnumbered Swansea in this area of the pitch.
Therefore, Swansea’s best way of attacking was playing direct balls for the likes of Routledge and Dyer to get in behind QPR’s defence.
There was controversy after just 5 minutes, when QPR’s goalkeeper Robert Green clearly handled the ball outside of his penalty area.
Swansea always got into better attacking positions when they were able to play direct through balls.
Below, Sigurdsson’s first time through ball picks out Wayne Routledge’s inside run that isn’t followed by the full back.
However, Green rushes out and handles the ball outside the area as Routledge attempts to get around him. Nothing is given, and the home side are very lucky to still have all 11 players on the pitch.
If Swansea get beyond QPR’s high line of pressure, usually when they won possession back in their own half, QPR were having to rush back to get players behind the ball.
However, when Swansea were building patient attacks from deep, QPR outnumbered them as the visitors were reluctant to commit players forward.
Below, Sigurdsson is in possession with three other players available, but QPR have at least twice as many players back defending – making it very difficult for the Swans to threaten.
Wingers coming inside to offer support
With QPR outnumbering the Swans in the centre as shown in some of the previous screenshots, a winger – usually Nathan Dyer would move inside to offer support in this area.
This suited QPR as Swansea never had good width and were never able to stretch the opposition until they made changes in the second half.
Swansea also found themselves too narrow on one side of the field, usually the left and this often left a QPR player in plenty of space in the middle – allowing them to counter attack.
Again, the screenshot below shows Swansea narrow on one side of the field – the left side again as QPR outnumber their visitors – making it very difficult for them to build patient attacking moves.
Another example of this is below – Swansea narrow on one side of the pitch, QPR applying pressure in a group of four and Leroy Fer free in the centre and able to counter if his side can win back possession and get the move to him.
Below, QPR again are grouped in four without the ball as Swansea – this time – are playing the ball through the right channel.
Leon Britton stays deep throughout the game, with Ki given a little more freedom to push forward as a playmaker.
However, the Swans really needed a player pushing through the middle or the likes of Bony dropping deep to give them more presence in this area. Bony’s arrival with 20 minutes to go solved these problems somewhat.
Set piece marking
An issue in recent games has been the marking at set pieces and the baffling decisions for certain players to mark the opposition’s attacking players.
Angel Rangel had been guilty of not doing very well against Spurs’ Harry Kane and West Ham’s Andy Carroll in recent defeats.
Below, it wasn’t the right back, but Gylfi Sigurdsson who – for some reason – was given the job of marking QPR’s top goalscorer Charlie Austin.
Surely, one of the centre backs should be marking QPR’s most threatening player in situations like this?
Sigurdsson shows why he is an attacking midfielder and not a defender. The Icelandic loses Austin, the striker has time and space to allow the ball to drop but somehow he doesn’t hit the target from about 12 yards.
QPR’s opening goal
QPR’s opening goal was a simple case of Federico Fernandez’s poor headed clearance from a long ball and Leroy Fer’s superb strike from 25 yards.
Fernandez looks a very solid and comfortable centre back, and is arguably our best defender – but this was a big mistake for a player of his quality and experience.
He gets the header all wrong, Ki is free to receive the ball, but Fernandez’s header falls perfectly for Fer to pick up, move forward before firing it past Fabianski.
Second half changes and better shape
Swansea City made some much needed changes to their shape in the second half, but not at the very start, as some of the problems above were still evident.
Again, above – Swansea City are still narrow on one side of the pitch, below – Routledge moves inside and Gomis drops deep to add support in the middle of the pitch.
But after Emnes replaced Dyer and Bony came on for Sigurdsson, Swansea’s shape improved. They had balanced width on both sides and Bony dropping deep added support in the middle.
Collectively, this opened up the space as QPR were far more stretched across the pitch, as they dropped deeper in two banks of four.
Below, Emnes and Routledge often stayed wide on the left flank, and Bony drops deep into space to look for possession as extra space open up for the Swans as a result.
As the text explains on the screenshot below, QPR continued to apply pressure in these groups of four, but with the extra width and Bony’s central support – Swansea weren’t as narrow and space would soon open up through the channels for them to exploit.
QPR could still outnumber the Swans in the centre, but with consistent width across the pitch, they were able to have more time and space on the ball as QPR couldn’t make the pitch ‘as small as possible’ like they could in the first half.
Examples below again show the extra space Swansea City could create.
Below, Ki in possession has plenty of space, with Emnes as an easy option down the left side.
There’s also gaps through the channels for the likes of Gomis and Bony.
Bony again could often drop deep to receive the ball in space as a QPR player moves forward to close down Ashley Williams.
Bony makes it 1-1 in injury time
Swansea’s second half dominance is finally rewarded in the second of three injury time minutes.
As Ki makes a run inside from the left, Bony creates his own space just inside the box as he pushes his marker away from him.
Bony receives the ball from Ki, he turns to face the goal, and despite a number of QPR defenders soon closing him down, he can still quickly get a shot on goal with superb technique.
The ball is at Bony’s feet, but somehow he can still fire a shot past Green from just inside the penalty. The striker again shows his true quality with a stunning strike.
Gomis worked hard during the 90 minutes, but he missed some good chances and Bony pretty came on and showed how it’s done. We’ll miss him considerably, but hopefully Gomis can grow in confidence and soon start to score some goals.
QPR’s last minute miss
With less than a minute to play after Bony’s equaliser, QPR really should gave got a second and the winner against 10-man Swansea.
A cross comes in from the right and QPR have four players in space to get on the end of it.
Angel Rangel makes two excellent blocks and Austin then skews a shot wide from about 3 yards. A let off for Swansea but it was definitely a point they deserved.
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