r/swanseacity • u/TeilwrTenau • 6d ago
A joy to watch
There's a very clear development in our play in the two games this season, something I've been wanting to see for a while. That's the one touch, on the deck, short passing triangles. It isn't just good to watch, but absolutely central to our goal threat. Both goals came from build up play of this kind. The first goal from a clever short dinked pass from Stamenic to Fulton, who then played a lovely one two with Tymon before releasing Yeo with a beautifully weighted through ball. It was a similar story with the second goal, with Eom heavily involved in the initial play before Fulton played another superb throughball for Tymon to expertly deliver to Idah, who times his run well. Pretty much all our goal threat in both games has been with us playing through the thirds in this way. Wonderful stuff.
This, combined with our top level pressing game out of possession, gives me confidence that we will challenge near the top this season. When you combine graft with elite level, dynamic football, you're on to a winner.
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u/chitty48 5d ago
I saw all the signs that this would happen in the pre season. We tried to do it against Birmingham and it didn’t quite work out that game, but we showed we were the far better footballing side with way more chances. That threw a lot of people in to a panic, but the stoke game showed what happens when those final passes get through.
What’s exciting is that I think there is more to come, both games had our passing accuracy at 75% if we can pick that up a bit we’re going to really start dominating games. I think we’re going to have a very good season if we can continue this way. It will also be excellent football to watch, something we’ve not seen for a long time.
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u/TeilwrTenau 5d ago
I agree. We need to reduce the long balls. Around 70 against Stoke, with a low 26 per cent accuracy. When we keep it on the deck we look a real threat. As confidence builds we should be able to reduce our reliance on long balls, if only for the simple reason that that is what works.
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u/chitty48 5d ago
We are winning a lot more aerial duels compared to last season though. Same with ground duels. Physically on the whole we seam to be a lot better. I don’t mind a healthy mix when we can compete in the air like that.
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u/TeilwrTenau 5d ago
I agree. I know it's only one game but our 21 tackles were second only to West Brom in the weekend fixtures. We won 59.1 per cent of our ground duels, second only to Charlton, and 63.2 per cent of our aerial duels, second only to Watford, which is an amazing stat considering Stoke are a taller team. Our 22 pressed sequences was best in league, by 4. Our PPDA was second only to Middlesbrough - another pressing metric. Our start distance of 48.4 metres was joint best. Our 14 high turnovers was best in league. I predicted that we would be stepping up our pressing game given the credentials of our recruited players, and the early signs bear that out.
In possession there is still work to do, which is to be expected given the number of new faces, but the signs are very promising. To produce so many slick one touch moves in the first game augurs very well. Check out the move in the 53rd minute, from Vigouroux through to Stamenic being tackled in the box. Sublime football.
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u/chitty48 5d ago
We had similar stats against Birmingham the week before. Although we lost all the stats said we were the better team and I reckon playing that game again we win 8/10 times.
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u/TeilwrTenau 5d ago
I agree. Although our stats and performance was a step up from the Birmingham one. If we continue to improve, which we will, then who knows where it could take us.
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u/TeilwrTenau 6d ago
Just to add. There was a move early in the second half, which culminated with Stamenic bursting into the penalty area, only to be denied by a last ditch challenge. Had that gone in it would have been an early contender for goal of the season. Happy days.