Swansea City manager Graham Potter revealed after his side’s 3-1 home win against Blackburn Rovers what was said at half-time and how his side turned things around after an awful first-half that saw his side go a goal down at the break.
He was honest in his assessment – as he always is – and admitted that his side was confused in the first 45 minutes which was something he was responsible for.
He’s spot on too. The team did look confused and the team just didn’t click together – particularly in midfield with Carroll and Grimes – two similar players just didn’t offer enough physical strength and quality up against a strong Blackburn side.
“I thought we were too nice in the first-half so we made that point and didn’t say too much else.
“The players are good lads and they’re learning, it’s not like we’ve got a group full of 28-year-old Championship players who have 300 games under their belts.
“ They’re a group who need to learn, and as much as we want to play nice football and win, you have to have a bit of pain and suffer.
‘As Good A Response As You’ll Get’
After being ‘too nice’ in the first-half, Potter changed things up from the restart – adding both Leroy Fer and Jay Fulton into the mix and taking off Martin Olsson and Tom Carroll. Grimes then filled in at left-back which meant Fer and Fulton were joined by Connor Roberts on the right side of midfield.
The changes were spot on. Fulton added a different dynamic to the midfield that Blackburn struggled with early on. Roberts advanced moves and inside runs also caused problems – not to mention the pace of Dan James flying down the left flank.
Potter added:
“The one thing I can never accuse the players of is being dishonest, they’re an honest group.
“They’re a long group who have been on a pretty bad run with only one win in seven, so there is a certain nervousness around and that showed, because they weren’t themselves in the first half.
“We got a little bit confused which is my responsibility.
“The scoreline affects things but there wasn’t much in the game in the first half.
“It wasn’t a great performance from us but the second-half was as good a response as you’ll get.
I’m so proud of the players because they put everything into the second half and that’s ultimately what you have to do.”
