Player ratings and comments from Saturday’s game as Swansea City lost 4-0 at home against Manchester United.
Lucasz Fabianski – 6
Had little to do for first 70-80 minutes and made a good save to try and stop the first goal but couldn’t recover in time to clear the ball from danger. Distribution seems to have improved, no kicks going out of touch and couldn’t have done better with the goals.
Kyle Naughton – 6.5
A player that often receives criticism but had a solid game defensively, but he was unsupported when attacking down the right in the 3-5-2 system.
Federico Fernandez – 7
An excellent performance for the vast majority of the game but it was baffling what he was doing for the first goal. Rather than attempting to hook the ball clear, he just stands there with his arms out expecting Fabianski to claim the loose ball. For the second, he, along with Mawson are caught ball watching, leaving Lukaku free inside the box. Those two instances let him down, but for the rest of the game he was excellent, and was always effective at closing down and eliminating the threat.
Kyle Bartley – 7.5
A contender for man of the match for his marking job on Lukaku – helping to keep him uninvolved. Proved to be a useful player to have when adopting three at the back.
Alfie Mawson – 6
The weakest of the centre backs. For the first time under Paul Clement, he looked a bit on edge, and struggled up against United. Passing wasn’t quite as good as we’re used to from him and rarely got tight on his markers in the defensive third.
Martin Olsson – 6.5
Plenty of effort from Olsson down the left, solid defensively and unlike Naughton, has the benefit of having Tom Carroll to link-up with alongside him and will be a good asset when playing a 3-5-2, but some of his final balls lacked accuracy.
Roque Mesa – 6
A decent full debut from Mesa but not specular. Didn’t quite get on the ball as much as he probably would have wanted but that was partly down to our style of play now and playing through the full backs. You could see what Clement was talking about when he needs to get used to the increased tempo of the Premier League as he did make one bad missplaced bad pass that gave United a chance to run towards goal. He’ll only improve and there was plenty there to suggest that he can fill in for Leon Britton.
Leroy Fer – 5.5
Fer can pick out a good long-range pass that we need, particularly getting the ball away from a crowded area and into space to help us move forward, but when we’re out of possession – particularly when Clement made the changes, his attitude falls away. He tried doing a fancy trick before getting robbed before one of the goals, and for the rest he jogged back slowly as Pogba ran through to lift the ball over Fabianski. You have to feel that his place is one of the main ones up for grabs when we sign a few players.
Tom Carroll – 7
Very busy on the ball and was excellent in possession for most of the game, very disciplined positionally but he struggled after the changes – like Fer. Made a bad pass that was intercepted for one of United’s goals, but other than that, he’s a key player for us. Also did a good job with his corners, but we need Llorente in there to make better use of them, sent in a good cross for Abraham who headed over.
Jordan Ayew – 5
Ayew, like Fer is another player I feel that needs to improve or risk getting dropped when new players come in. He loves a dribble, but he kept running into a crowd of United players and losing position. We needed better hold up play front 2 – such was the gap between them and the midfield, but Ayew always wanted to go on his solo runs.
Tammy Abraham – 5.5
A tough game for Abraham, lacked support and desperately needs a number 10 behind him to link with or a better hold up player like Llorente to work off. The Spaniard might have done better with his headed chance in the second half, but other than that he had no service.
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