Swansea City 0-0 West Ham Utd (20/12/15)

[The Moth]

The midfield was and they should be getting the stick.

Quite right, where's the Kouyate thread? He was terrible.

[Bamber Gascoigne]

He might be past his prime but can't believe some of comments on here tonight! He worked very hard and was frequently seen chasing and closing down. Some of his passes were quite intelligent too - like the one he set up for Noble to shoot. The service to him was today was utterly terrible, and quite frequently there wasn't another of our players within 50 yards of him. It was a very frustrating job he had out there today. The striker wasn't the reason we played terrible today. The midfield was and they should be getting the stick.

^^^100% this!

[hammer1975]

We're busy rating and often maligning ours, but what did people think of Swansea?

Gomis, Ayew, Sigurddson, Shelvey, Ki etc?

2 shots on target all game. :idea:

Thought Ki was the pick of the bunch.
Gomis seemed stunned every time he was flagged offside despite being yards off a few times - suspect he'd wind us right up if we watched him every week

Was expecting more from Ayew and Sigurddson - there was one move that hit Collins', ahem, head but little else in terms of incisive play. For a team praised for passing there seemed a few hopeful balls into the box and pot shots from outside the penalty area

Shelvey seemed too deep and focused on sideways passing in the time he was on

Surprised Montero didn't even make it on to the pitch. Thought they'd match him up against Tomkins

Obvious that they are low on confidence and on the whole they were far less impressive than I expected

[MD_HM]

Although his first start... He has also made 8 appearances from the bench

Not suggesting "abuse" is warranted but this isn't ironically an 18 year old kid playing his first game for us or in the country

He worked his nuts off but fluffed 3 good opportunities, 2 of which should have probably been goals

He might have done better himself 5 years ago but not now

We don't have a youth player to step up anyway so the question should really be should Valencia play instead

[the celestial insect]

Anyone who expects a squad player who had a few injuries last season, and has had almost no game time this season, to win us matches totally against the run of play is likely to be disappointed.

[Humbug]

Did I read someone saying they wanted to get rid of Valencia after today? :lol: He produced the only moment of our play worth turning up for

That was me and I just get the feeling he just doesn't want to play for us. Can't imagine him going in hard for any tackles (like Jelavic did today) and fear he could be like that Mexican lad (Barrera I think) who was the biggest cowardly custard I've ever seen (just didn't like the physical aspect of the PL). So far he's had 34 appearances and 4 goals for our £12m . I know its unfair comparing him to others who were cheaper but have fared better, but Ighalo (Watford) cost about £2-3m , has 52 appearances and 31 goals. We obviously took a risk and come off short but maybe offset by how cheap a bargain Sakho is.

[bubbles1966]

I read that Tomkins has started six games at RB this season. We have kept six clean sheets.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Zarate would probably have buried it or at least forced a save and from what I've seen from Antonio I'm confident that he'd score or at least come close if put through on goal as Jelavic was today.

Hopefully after todays performance Jelavic won't start at Villa and Antonio should be a definite starter.

i am interested to know what you have seen from Antonio that would lead you to this conclusion

[Harry Hound]

Harry Hound"]

Zarate would probably have buried it or at least forced a save and from what I've seen from Antonio I'm confident that he'd score or at least come close if put through on goal as Jelavic was today.

Hopefully after todays performance Jelavic won't start at Villa and Antonio should be a definite starter.

i am interested to know what you have seen from Antonio that would lead you to this conclusion

He's got pace, strength a cool head, decent ball control and looks like a goal scorer.

The goals against Fulham, Watford and Norwich also suggest that he could do the same for us especially against the likes of Swansea or Villa.

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[the pink palermo]

Not at our best today but did just about enough to justify a point .

Three goal less draws on the spin may sound like mid table mediocrity but two of those games were against a decent Stoke side and another away at Old Trafford so I wouldn't be too downcast .The fact that we were bossed in the middle of the park today by a Swansea side residing in the bottom three is of slightly more concern however and it keeps coming back to the conundrum of Noble, Kouyate and Song .

For the umpteenth time, Song is not a proper DM.For the umpteenth time, Kouyate is not a great distributor of the ball .Slaven needs to pick Noble as the deepest midfielder and play him in the middle .It's essential he is our tick over player, the one who touches the ball more than any other : if we do, our passing game gets going, if we don't it's getting hoofed forward in no particular direction . There seems to be an obsession with getting Song into the side , but why ? Are people seeing the Song of West Ham December 2015 or the Song of Arsenal about 5 years ago when they demand his inclusion ?

Slaven, in short, needs to sort his midfield out .

The good news is we kept another clean sheet , Adrian pulled off two good saves, and the penalty Antonio should have conceded for hand ball wasn't given .

The bad news is on this showing Swansea won't be getting relegated .A point earned for us today rather than two lost .

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

I agree with most of what you say there PP...

Pretty certain Antonio got hit in the face, Collins one however...

As for Song, him being in the side isn't the problem, but using him how we have been using him for near enough a year is...when he got forward he looked dangerous. His movement with the ball and pass to Cresswell in that second half was something special...when he has the ball infront of the defence it's worrying.

I think the midfield has been a problem for a while, against Tottenham it was horrendous, and I would like to see Obiang in for Kouyate next game, and Song pushed further forward.

[kayahammer]

We're busy rating and often maligning ours, but what did people think of Swansea?

Gomis, Ayew, Sigurddson, Shelvey, Ki etc?

2 shots on target all game. :idea:

Think we made them look better than they are. Gave them space to play

[kayahammer]

Are you saying that Jelavic didn't work his "nuts off " today ? You can say a lot about him but you can't say he didn't work hard enough, give him a break!

He was a willing runner, but couldn't get his legs going after he was played in in the dying moments. Shame because that should have at least been a shot

[the pink palermo]

Gave them space to play

Didn't we just .

[prophet:marginal]

A few thoughts:

Swansea are toilet at the moment. As much as the commentators today tried to talk them up, they only looked even halfway prem standard by dint of our midfield being inexplicably set up all wrong for the whole 95 minutes. Gomis' understanding of the offside rule is bafflingly poor. I worried when I saw Shelvey, but. lets be honest, this was a squad utterly bereft of belief and inspiration. Even their crowd felt the need to have a cry and moan about every dive they did. Desperados, hopefully going down.

Which fails, totally, to acquit our lot, frankly. What shape was our midfield set up to play? Noble and Kouyate both got the Invisible Man outfits for the first 20 at least.

We have to have a scapegoat, too, don't we? Jelavic missed a biggie at the end, but, by the same token, worked for the chances we made in the first half

Only 2 or 3 players did well today, in the pouring rain on a pits top on the end of an injury crisis. As our knowing moderator points out, we started with a point and left with one.

[Patito]

That was me and I just get the feeling he just doesn't want to play for us. Can't imagine him going in hard for any tackles (like Jelavic did today) and fear he could be like that Mexican lad (Barrera I think) who was the biggest cowardly custard I've ever seen (just didn't like the physical aspect of the PL). So far he's had 34 appearances and 4 goals for our £12m . I know its unfair comparing him to others who were cheaper but have fared better, but Ighalo (Watford) cost about £2-3m , has 52 appearances and 31 goals. We obviously took a risk and come off short but maybe offset by how cheap a bargain Sakho is.

I get what you're saying but he's not that sort of player, he's not built for flying into challenges. I'm not for one minute comparing him to these players but some of the best attackers this league has seen wouldn't be making any tackles either. I think Valencia is a talent and is at his best when he's making runs in behind defences, using his pace and stretching teams. He's been unfortunate with injuries and I'd point to that reason (along with being played out of position on the wing) as to why his goal scoring record has been poor so far. I'd love to see that Sakho Valencia partnership again soon. I think Valencia would be very dangerous with the likes of Payet, Lanzini and Song supplying him too. Hopefully he (and the others) stays fit long enough for us to see that in the new year.

[Stepney]

At half time I felt pleased that we had weathered the storm a bit and still gone in at 0-0. I thought second half we would turn it on a bit but we played so deep and didn't even look like going for the winner. I find it hard to believe that Bilic played for a point but it certainly looked that way to me as nothing changed second half. We didn't put many passes together and weren't doing 'our thing'.

Anyway it's another point. Also a special mention for James Collins who was immense today. Great save Adrian and Song showed glimpses of his old self. A few more games and he will be back to his best.

Surely we will score a goal against Villa? Surely?!

WHTID

[Lee_WHU]

I read that Tomkins has started six games at RB this season. We have kept six clean sheets.

Funny how that one always gets mentioned first. Ogbonna has been at the heart of all 6 too

[Beavis Danzig]

ogbonna has done for our defence what payet did for our attack. hindsight is 50/50 but he shouldn't have spent a minute on the bench when he was fit.

[miles]

All things considered, a good team effort. Little Leon Britton the best player on the pitch.