Swansea (home) post match thread

[Eccles Blue]

Just watched MOTD bloody hell we are fast going forward

Was I dreaming Ducado or were the three 'presenters' praising us to the skies? I thought I was hearing things they were practically drooling over some of our moves weren't they? Or have I just woken up from a dream??

No you're right, and rightly so. MoTD made us look better than we were for once, but we were pretty good, I'm ignoring the moaners tonight.

We needed a difficult game, we got one, we battled hard, defended well, and came out convincing winners, against the best team at our place bar Bayern.

Nothing bad today, nothing, hard work, good play, great goals, convincing winners in the end. Everyone contributed to a very good team performance.

Couldn't have put it better myself. We were great, just not used to hearing MOTD folk saying so! :-)

 

[jollylescott]

Just what we needed that, a hard game that we had to fight to win.

I thought we were very good defensively, only once did they get through (awful attempt - but credit to Pants for being big), nearly all their other efforts were long distance (2 good saves), but they gave us a game, made us work hard, and in the end we dominated after the break and won comfortably.

I thought it was a very good sign that we had to work hard to have a right to possession of the ball, overcame the fact that ball just wouldn't run for us first half, got our lead, held on a bit, then ran out convincing winners, against the best team to come to the Etihad (bar Rayern) this season, by some distance.

I thought Swansea were very good, they play a nice game, and luckily they didn't have a better finisher, but we fought hard all over the pitch, not at our best, but the work ethic bodes well for the next few games.

3 super goals, we really are privileged to see goals this good in this quantity.

Pantillimon - 7
Zab - 7
Demichellis -7
Lescott - 7
Clichy - 8 (best game this season for me)
Navas - 7
Yaya - 7
Fernandihno - 7
Nasri - 9 (Excellent again)
Aguero - 7
Negredo - 7

Milner - 7
Kolorov - 7
Dzeko - 6

I thought MP made good changes today, at key points in the game.

Well played Swansea too, if any of your fans are reading this, you're the best league club we've played at home so far, keep it up, get a decent finisher back fit, and I hope you can hurt some of our rivals for the title, home and away. Its good to see football played the right way by away teams at The Etihad.

Very good summary. Swansea play very good football and they certainly missed both Bony and Michu. The scoreline doesn't reflect how well Swansea played. That was a tough workout for our lads and will hopefully steel them for the road trips this coming week.

 

[NoahCity]

Just what we needed that, a hard game that we had to fight to win.

I thought we were very good defensively, only once did they get through (awful attempt - but credit to Pants for being big), nearly all their other efforts were long distance (2 good saves), but they gave us a game, made us work hard, and in the end we dominated after the break and won comfortably.

I thought it was a very good sign that we had to work hard to have a right to possession of the ball, overcame the fact that ball just wouldn't run for us first half, got our lead, held on a bit, then ran out convincing winners, against the best team to come to the Etihad (bar Rayern) this season, by some distance.

I thought Swansea were very good, they play a nice game, and luckily they didn't have a better finisher, but we fought hard all over the pitch, not at our best, but the work ethic bodes well for the next few games.

3 super goals, we really are privileged to see goals this good in this quantity.

Pantillimon - 7
Zab - 7
Demichellis -7
Lescott - 7
Clichy - 8 (best game this season for me)
Navas - 7
Yaya - 7
Fernandihno - 7
Nasri - 9 (Excellent again)
Aguero - 7
Negredo - 7

Milner - 7
Kolorov - 7
Dzeko - 6

I thought MP made good changes today, at key points in the game.

Well played Swansea too, if any of your fans are reading this, you're the best league club we've played at home so far, keep it up, get a decent finisher back fit, and I hope you can hurt some of our rivals for the title, home and away. Its good to see football played the right way by away teams at The Etihad.

Very good summary. Swansea play very good football and they certainly missed both Bony and Michu. The scoreline doesn't reflect how well Swansea played. That was a tough workout for our lads and will hopefully steel them for the road trips this coming week.

Also doesn't reflect how many chances we had ;)

 

[Kinkys Left Foot]

I have to laugh at some of the loons on here who think if we don't dominate possession 70 - 30, score at least 6 every game and restrict the opposition to 0 chances, 0 corners and only let them retain the ball in their own half that somehow the team or certain players have had a crap game.
Swansea are a good passing side (without their main two strikers today). We restricted them to 2 -3 shots on target (of any merit) 2 from outside the box by JJ Shelvy in the first half. De Guzman should have scored to make it 1-1 and they wold have deserved that at half time. 2nd half we mauled them and should have scored 6 yet some people rated us as poor in the first half - We won 3-0 with 3 great goals YCMIU

 

[Bluekiwi]

I agree with other posters - Swansea were a very good side apart from their finishing.

I got a little annoyed with Navas cutting inside more than the Spurs game where I thought he excelled on the wing. And some players attempts at goal were a little selfish at times. But then I'd rather see attempts than tippy-tappy trying to walk the ball into the net.

Having said that, the players committed themselves to the task in hand - securing the three points and keeping a clean sheet.

Some of our attacks were beautiful to watch, Pelligrini certainly knows how to get players playing attractive football. And those three goals were a joy to behold.

 

[MillionDollarDream]

I agree with other posters - Swansea were a very good side apart from their finishing.

I got a little annoyed with Navas cutting inside more than the Spurs game where I thought he excelled on the wing. And some players attempts at goal were a little selfish at times. But then I'd rather see attempts than tippy-tappy trying to walk the ball into the net.

Having said that, the players committed themselves to the task in hand - securing the three points and keeping a clean sheet.

Some of our attacks were beautiful to watch, Pelligrini certainly knows how to get players playing attractive football. And those three goals were a joy to behold.

Navas cutting inside is a way to maintain possession while not always playing the simple pass back down towards Zaba or Yaya. When he decides to cut inside it draws defenders in a different angle to allow Zaba the space for a better cross and gives him better field vision to switch the field of play, and play the ball to Nasri on the other wing or Yaya/Fernandinho in the middle.

 

[Dribble]

You know we have done well when the post match thread is struggling to hit 10 pages, sad really isn't it.

Wait until the next away match, you'll be in your element.... :-)

 

[mancunial]

Really good praise from laudrup miles away from the televised manipulative rants we've had in the past in our tunnel from moyse redknapp and others.

 

[stonerblue]

I agree with other posters - Swansea were a very good side apart from their finishing.

I got a little annoyed with Navas cutting inside more than the Spurs game where I thought he excelled on the wing. And some players attempts at goal were a little selfish at times. But then I'd rather see attempts than tippy-tappy trying to walk the ball into the net.

Having said that, the players committed themselves to the task in hand - securing the three points and keeping a clean sheet.

Some of our attacks were beautiful to watch, Pelligrini certainly knows how to get players playing attractive football. And those three goals were a joy to behold.

Navas cutting inside is a way to maintain possession while not always playing the simple pass back down towards Zaba or Yaya. When he decides to cut inside it draws defenders in a different angle to allow Zaba the space for a better cross and gives him better field vision to switch the field of play, and play the ball to Nasri on the other wing or Yaya/Fernandinho in the middle.

Which would all be very good if Navas played the pass to Zab, which he did precisely once despite Zab making the run several times.
Milner came on, played the ball Navas should've done more than once in the first half ,and Bingo goal number 3.

 

[Anonymous]

This is a very minor point considering the whole context of the match but I thought Mr P did exceptionally well with his substitutions today and all three did well when they got on the field.

I understand that on the Chelsea forums they are calling the special one for turning Hazard into "A" James Milner; -

After his little cameo today - they should be so lucky !

I think gradually Pellegrini's getting to know both his players and the league and what's required during games. He got his changes spot on in mid week against Plzen and again yesterday.

Cleavers your overall assessment of the game is pretty much how I saw it too. Swansea are a very good team and they gave us a game. I suspect had Michu and Boney been fit it would've been an even tougher game.

I'm actually glad we've got two quick away games on the bounce - and tricky ones at that. I expect us to play with the kind of intensity we've seen at home this season. If we do we'll run out winners. As I said in the Pellegrini thread, 7 points from 9 in the next 3 games would be a good return, 9 out of 9 obviously would be perfect.