Swansea (a) Post Match Thread

Tarka was the best defender in La Liga season before he joined us so he's got it in him. Mangala had "potential" when he joined us but I think we can safely say that he's not fulfilled that potential. Nor does he look even remotely close to doing so. The opposite in fact: he is a liability.

The man is 28 though and he dives in and makes as many daft decisions as Mangala does. I'm not defending Mangala as he is a lost cause also but you would of hoped for a man of 28 he wouldn't make anywhere near the mistakes he does.
 
I agree, and its ironic that a player nobody would have given any hope to playing for Pep, Fernando, may well have played his way into contention, one of a small number that has impressed in recent weeks.

Pep would be trolling half the posters on Bluemoon if he kept Fernando ;)

Agree though he's been very very good in recent weeks and does look bothered (although IMO he went missing at the Bernabau).
 
I didn't think he was bad, just a bit unlucky with his touch. I thought he worked quite hard, and he tried to influence the game away from the box. Great prospect, but still raw, as is to be expected.

He was directly affected by Kun early on in the game when he took a shot, and got fucked for it by Kun who wanted the ball.

From there on, the lad didn't know what to do and it affected his game.
 
He was directly affected by Kun early on in the game when he took a shot, and got fucked for it by Kun who wanted the ball.

From there on, the lad didn't know what to do and it affected his game.
so your saying hes a little wimp ?
 
Another goal in them? The one they scored, Joe had it covered until Fernando got his head in the way. They never looked likely to score at any point in the game.
With Mangala and Otemendi playing, they looked like scoring every time they got near our box!!
 
The man is 28 though and he dives in and makes as many daft decisions as Mangala does. I'm not defending Mangala as he is a lost cause also but you would of hoped for a man of 28 he wouldn't make anywhere near the mistakes he does.
Completely agree. Otamendi is a shocking defender and will repeatedly leave us exposed if we stick with him. It's the basic fundamentals he's terrible at, and there simply isn't any way of coaching that if you've made it to 28 and are still incapable of holding your position and staying on your feet. He's garbage.
 
Poor Kelechi he was woeful yesterday but fuck me that boy is going to score an unprecedented amount of goals for us in the years to come.

Be interesting to see how Pep utilities him next season or whether he's sent out on loan.

Ooh, don't say he was woeful: I got slated for saying that in the Kelchi thread.
 
I appreciate that Nacho is young but this is big boys football we're playing and if he crumbles after having a bollocking then it's something he needs to address sooner rather than later.
 
Thank god it is all over, our defence is horrible, conceding just on half time. It's also as well Swansea did not have a full team out. God Mangala, if wit was shit he would be constipated. Roll on next season, and let's see what Pep can do!
 
Pep would be trolling half the posters on Bluemoon if he kept Fernando ;)

Agree though he's been very very good in recent weeks and does look bothered (although IMO he went missing at the Bernabau).

He's going to have to keep quite a lot of them, more than I would like, and Nando may well be one of them. The thing with Nando and several regulars is that they need to become squad players and, pretty much to a man, all the incomings that don't go straight out on loan need to be guys that one would expect to feature in our strongest 11.
 
Completely agree. Otamendi is a shocking defender and will repeatedly leave us exposed if we stick with him. It's the basic fundamentals he's terrible at, and there simply isn't any way of coaching that if you've made it to 28 and are still incapable of holding your position and staying on your feet. He's garbage.

His biggest fault is as you have pointed out. He goes to ground far too easily.

However, there are 2 things I'd argue. Sometimes that diving in like a fucking goalkeeper has actually saved our ass once or twice. I'm not saying I agree with it, just that it's been effective. The 2nd part is that for me, it can absolutely be coached out of him. I'm pretty certain Pep will do so.

These 2 have cost us 70 million pounds. I get the feeling they will be staying. In fact I'm almost certain they will be our primary centre backs next season.
 
His biggest fault is as you have pointed out. He goes to ground far too easily.

However, there are 2 things I'd argue. Sometimes that diving in like a fucking goalkeeper has actually saved our ass once or twice. I'm not saying I agree with it, just that it's been effective. The 2nd part is that for me, it can absolutely be coached out of him. I'm pretty certain Pep will do so.

These 2 have cost us 70 million pounds. I get the feeling they will be staying. In fact I'm almost certain they will be our primary centre backs next season.

I would argue him diving in has cost us a lot more than it's saved us though. Looks great the 1 in 10 times it comes off. How can you coach something out of someone at this late stage of his career though?

If they are our primary centre backs next season then we are well and truly fucked.
 
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Thank god it is all over, our defence is horrible, conceding just on half time. It's also as well Swansea did not have a full team out. God Mangala, if wit was shit he would be constipated. Roll on next season, and let's see what Pep can do!

Our defence has not been great but yesterday Swansea scored a lucky goal from a free kick that came about because a forward didn't take the ball in and protect it. Throughout the season we have conceded too many goals for sure but only four teams in the league conceded less and not by any huge difference plus (just for Bob K) we conceded the fewest shots on goal. I would venture that had Vinnie been fit all season, we could easily have had the best defensive record.

Next season, I will be very disappointed if we do not continue to be the league's top scorers whilst also conceding the fewest goals.
 
I would argue him diving in has cost us a lot more than it's saved us though. Looks great the 1 in 10 times it comes off. How can you coach something out of someone at this late stage of his career though?

If they are our primary centre backs next season then we are well and truly fucked.
Of course you can coach someone at that age and Pep's staff most assuredly believe that: the point to that effect is made quite clearly in Pep Confidential. As I said yesterday, everyone on here should be made to read that book :-)
 
Of course you can coach someone at that age and Pep's staff most assuredly believe that: the point to that effect is made quite clearly in Pep Confidential. As I said yesterday, everyone on here should be made to read that book :-)

I would tend to agree with DB. Sure you can improve players and coach certain things out of them, but there's IMO too many inherent flaws in both Mangala's and Otamendi's game. Personally I think Ota will be the one who survives simply because he backs himself when he gets given the ball at his feet (not matter how naive that is at times). Mangala seems to shit himself whenever he's given the ball. That won't fly for Pep i reckon.
 
Did Otamendi dive in all the time when he was playing in Spain? Difficult to see how he got such a decent reputation if he did, unless he just had an incredible season where more or less every time he dived in it worked out well?
 

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