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Wigan Athletic Fans’ Reaction – One Fan Compares Swansea To Manchester City – “Tremendous Ball Movement” – “Swansea Had Us Chasing Shadows”

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Wigan Athletic fans seemed impressed with our performance at the DW Stadium on Tuesday night as Graham Potter’s Swansea City side produced their best 45-minute spell of the season in the first half – they just lacked a goal to go with it as they had to settle for a point.

We clocked another 600 attempted passes, 60% possession, 80+% passing accuracy, 17 shots and five of them on target – but our problems still remain in front of goal as we failed to take our chances during the first half when we were by far on top as Wigan relied on direct counters to offer a threat.

Some of our first half play was sublime at times. The one-touch, pass and move passing play was a joy to watch. We saw through-balls, quick give-and-go’s and plenty of movement off the ball – all of the things that we have severely been lacking in in recent seasons.

Graham Potter adopted sit back and wait for a counter-attacking opportunity tactics earlier in the season but now it’s as if the manager has given the go-ahead for a possession-based game. He’s been wise not to implement it from the word-go – as if the players have needed the time to adjust and learn his methods in training first. The younger players, those promoted from the under-23s squad have been used to playing that style but the likes of van der Hoorn, Kyle Naughton and Tom Carroll have had to play a complete opposite style of football for us in the Premier League.

Most of the Wigan fans commenting on their forum about us were very complimentary of our performance:

“A well earned point in the end against a well drilled side who know how to pass the ball.” – formbylatic

Let’s give Swansea some credit, tremendous ball movement at this level. – wiganfanfrank

We easily could’ve won or lost that, it was a really tough game against a side that moved the ball better and were more fluid than any side we’ve seen in literally years at the DW. Even when we played City last season they didn’t move the ball so effectively as Swansea did last night. So credit to Swansea at times they had us chasing shadows, their composure and movement are the best we’ve seen this season. The way Swansea were able to keep posession under pressure showed we’ve got a long way to go to be a real top team at this level. – king_dezeeuw06

I like Swansea’s tempo, moved the ball quickly. Never more then 1-3 seconds on the ball for each player. When Carroll went off just after half time with an injury, they lost their key player in the build up phase. Moved Grimes from left back into that position and wasn’t nearly as effective under pressure or quality of pass for the rest of the game. – Victor Moses 😉

That was a point gained taken from a more skilful team who played it around nicely in that first half. I expect Swansea to be in the playoffs. – Lazysid

Swansea were a fast, free flowing passing team who had us chasing shadows at times. Some great saves from Walton kept us in the game & those last 10/15 mins I thought we seemed to get on top n Swansea backed off us. As others have mentioned I think Swansea will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. – jocklatic

Although some were more critical of our play and the need to “mix your game”:

Good side Swansea but you need to mix your game a bit more than the twenty passes to get nowhere approach. Your tippy-tappy game almost dropped you in it with that back pass. One pass too many.
Overall though you moved and passed the ball well at pace and came for a win. –
jeffs right

Swansea passed the ball well, though they were living on a knife edge doing so at the back. I felt it inevitable they would concede chances doing so but unfortunately we couldn’t capitalise.  – Made in Wigan

Swansea where a parody of a Martinez side. Even Roberto adapted and changed things up. – Studds40

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