Was That The Worst Performance of the Season?

Swansea City produced one of their worst performances of the season at West Ham United today, losing 2-0 against one of their relegation rivals at the Boleyn Ground.

Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan linked up to deliver the goods for Allardyce’s side who were in desperate need of a result, as were Swansea City.

Manager Michael Laudrup was forced to drop Rangel to the bench who had a slight knock to his calf, while Leon Britton was also among the subsitutes.

Nathan Dyer also made his first start since suffering an ankle injury at Norwich, but he couldn’t inspire Swansea City who struggled to create anything in the final third.

The hosts did the damage in the first half as the Swans simply failed in their simple task of dealing with the Hammers’ main threat – Andy Carroll. The tall targetman nodded the ball down for Nolan to fire home, and the two linked up again to double the lead before the break.

It wasn’t difficult for West Ham to take a 2-0 lead, and that’s a worrying concern for the Swans as they sit just 2 points above the drop zone ahead of a massive South Wales derby next weekend.

What was also worrying and equally as frustrating, was Swansea’s struggle to get a single shot on target in the entire game. Thanks to a solid enough home defence, and the visitor’s lack of attacking creativity, Adrian in goal was left to take goal kicks during the game and little else. 20 shots came in on goal, but 12 were blocked with the other 8 failing to hit the target.

West Ham were direct as we knew they would be, but still they were able to execute a basic game plan of getting the ball up to Carroll as often as possible.

People say that teams have ‘worked us out’, but we know all about West Ham’s style of play. Carroll was not always in a goalscoring position when he was winning headers inside the box, so you need to pick opposition players around him who are looking for the knockdown. The Swansea defence didn’t, and Nolan was free to fire into the net.

2-0 at half time, Swansea needed a massive improvement, but attacks were still the same, lacking urgency and usually ending with a poor cross into the box.

The Swans might have thought that they had a glimmer of hope when Andy Carroll was sent off for a raised arm on Chico, who proceeded to roll numerous times along the ground as referee Howard Webb showed a red card. An arm was raised, but Chico’s reaction was nothing short of disgraceful, and we don’t like having players reacting like that at this football club. He’s done it many times this season and Laudrup still hasn’t stamped it out of his game. It was a shame that Chico’s defensive display didn’t match that to his play-acting skills.

Another big talking point of the game was Tomkins’ tackle on Bony as he looked to race through on goal. There’s the debate as to whether contact was made, but the ball changed direction away from goal, and it looked like the defender did make the vital touch, but it was very close.

Against ten men and a 2-goal deficit to chase, Swansea’s lack of urgency and desire to get forward into the danger areas was frustrating. They looked too content to play the ball around the park and the Hammers’ maximum points never looked in doubt, despite their numerical disadvantage.

After the mid week win against Fulham, which eased the pressure slightly, it’s back on like never before, and you hope Swansea City have the character and attitide to dig out a win against arch rivals Cardiff City next Saturday.