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Reply | FA YOUTH CUP 4th Round
at 08:08 21 Jan 2026
It has been a poor number of years at the club including the drop from the Premiership we have seen little progression of our younger players because of the underlying aim of getting back into the Premier league without fixing the problems that got us relgated in the first place, Potter seem to be trying to introduce younger players in trying to rebuild a team but that takes time, which with the offer he received he wasn't prepared to take.
Cooper almost got us back up but things weren't apparently right behind the scene both Cooper and Potter moving on relatively quickly, rebuild stalled.
Martin's again wanted quick success but would accept the way he wanted to play wouldn't work with what we had, losing Downes to balance the books just meant again no team building, Martin didn't like what he saw from the youngsters he had at his disposal and giving youngster very few minutes iwas not going to work, Duff didn't work, Williams working with older players with quality but they couldn't last a full game consistently but we were relying on them.
Last year we lost a lot of older players brought in to steady the ship including the younger Darling who had stabilised the back four.
This season we started the season with so many players or youngster not up to speed with the championship and other who hadn't the experience of being in a successful championship side, it was always going to be a rough start to the season but now those youngsters and inexperienced players are getting coached properly,.
I am a little worried about who we will lose at the end of the season if our good form continues will we be left with older players like Burgess or Ward who have limited game time left, hopefully we can hold onto more youngsters than we lose and with experience gained and good coaching our own academy youngsters can see or be explained were gaps can appear for them. |
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Reply | Swansea City v Blackburn Rovers : Match day thread
at 07:22 21 Jan 2026
Not sure Stamenic is quite up to championship speed yet, it is only little things about his game that needs adjusting, he seems uncomfortable with his defensive role not being sure who he is supposed to be picking up, he seems unaware of opposition players on his shoulder but that may be a lack of communication from our centre halves as the opposition forwards came deeper, Stamenic marking is very reminiscent of a younger Fulton who initially under Cooper use to be a yard too far away from players meaning he dived in giving silly free kicks away, with Coopers coaching that was remedied bar the Play off sending off but Fulton obviously regressed after being badly managed firstly by Martin and then a succession of managers. Fulton does appear to be regaining some of his better attributes. We have seen Matos's coaching improve a number of our players defensive skill.but we have still got one or two issues which we have to iron out so we don't let points slip away which to be fair isn't happening so much these days.
I think in general Widell and Franco played well maybe a bit slow to get up to speed at the start maybe the weekend game made them a bit stiff, Widell was up against one of Blackburn's best player No.24 Baradji he caused problems but still it was nip and tuck and eventually I think our midfield operated well enough to overcome a team we made look poor at times.
Galbraith and Franco lost track of each other just before the goal it ended up with Galbraith taking the wrong option but apart from that for the most part we were on top of the game.
Did Cabango struggle with a lively couple of forwards a bit but as a team we covered well to reduce their clear chances to a minimum which under Matos we slowly seem to doing better.
After our goal Blackburn were always going to try and attack us, even early in the game they press high on us, learning to adapt to those situations or teams tactic is paramount in this division especially given the number of subs.
Did our initial subs make us stronger maybe not but subsequent ones did help us to see the game out comfortably.
Two enjoyable home games watched. Nice to see Eom and Ronald getting far more ball enabling us to get up the pitch more often to supply Vipotnik who seems unstoppable at the moment. We do seem to be making better use of the ball up top, calmly trying to take the right options quickly. [Post edited 21 Jan 7:27]
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Reply | Swansea City v Blackburn Rovers : Match day thread
at 22:30 20 Jan 2026
My comment "Pretty poor all round" was in response to a question about Saturdays refereeing.
As for tonight's game we were well on top and in control of the games we had scored and made numerous dangerous opening causing chaos in the Blackburn defence but then we went and made it hard for ourselves.all for playing balls to feet but not when pressure is needed by the opposition to pull a game back, silly mistakes in dangerous areas of the pitch let them back into the game.
To be fair the better quality of our team justifiably won the game for us against a poor Blackburn team, they had a few good players the No.24 was a problem in yhe middle and their forwards caused Cabango and Burgess issues but overall we were the better team with more of a threat |
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Reply | Swansea City v Blackburn Rovers : Match day thread
at 08:41 20 Jan 2026
Think the referee's are being asked to let things go a bit early on but it does seem as if persistent fouls are being committed to break play up by different players in a team especially across the midfield, we have seen on a number occasions refs finally awarding bookings citing numerous offences by individuals but surely the same rules as in Rugby should apply , the ref warns the captain about the number of fouls committed and states he will book individuals if the number of fouls continues whoever from the offending team commits the last foul.
The only thing with that would the bias against us that seems to be prevalent still exist? |
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Reply | Vipotnik
at 08:22 20 Jan 2026
Both points are valid, there are reasons why people often offside, early runs off the shoulder by forwards expecting the early ball from deep that never come quick enough, how many times have you seen we been complaining about defenders not playing the early ball.
How many times has Ronald been caught offside similarly because he is supposedly not looking across the line of the defence.
At free kicks how many off our players try and hold the line high up the pitch standing offside it is obviously tactics used.
When the team is disjointed players not doing what others are expecting then you get no rythym to your game, you cannot anticipate or know what your teammate is going to do, accept that that the player on the ball can't play the ball you as a forward want because of the position of the opposition players marking, so they play a different forward ball. I would say the supposed lack of options available up top was down to the overriding thinking that if you cannot play the ball to feet you don't play a ball forward, which is rubbish, if a player has the ball at his feet and looking down the pitch he can see the best option available to him, be it to feet, over the top , down the line, through the channels, very rarely should you be playing the ball aimlessly.
The understanding between Key and Ronald has been woefully it has lead to stalled forward progression, bad defending and undue pressure on the defence, that has been mirrored in other areas of the pitch.
Slowly the belief that getting the ball forward quickly is a good thing is starting to appear, yes players will get caught offside but the more you get the ball forward quicker the more forwards with get it right,, typical of the lack of goal scored because of the lack of supply the better supply the better number of positive outcomes or chances made. [Post edited 20 Jan 19:17]
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Reply | Vipotnik
at 13:56 19 Jan 2026
He tends to be offside a lot because he spends the majority of his pressing on the goalie, sometimes if we have got back into a good defensive shape the need to press the goalie is not required, if the goalie comes further up the pitch then he can then be targeted by a conserted press with an eye to exploit the fact the keeper is so far out from his goal area.
The whole point of using the goalie is to create a situation where with one player pressing the goalie there are only 9 players to mark the opposition 10 outfield players so creating the free man who can take the advantage of out numbered outfield players how many times in the passed have we been chasing shadows because we got the press wrong. Often leading to Vipotnik running around in circles quite pointlessly, it does seem tobe something that Matos needs to keep on reinforcing similar don't drop so deep in the midfield as teams try get on top in games. |
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Reply | Swansea City v Birmingham City : Match day thread
at 11:14 19 Jan 2026
Nice to have good players in possession of the ball but it has to be inthe right areas of the pitch and the players has to be aware of where the opposition are around you. Classic example was down our left we had so much good played quickly but eventually the full back worked out what was going to happen and cut out the ball into the middle, good players work out what tactics are being used and anticipate their actions, towards the end of the first half and in the second half we started to react to situations too late rather than anticipating them. [Post edited 19 Jan 13:36]
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Reply | Swansea City v Birmingham City : Match day thread
at 09:46 19 Jan 2026
Keep it simple at the back, make the space to turn quickly then you only have one or two touchs to move theball on, once closer to the opposition goals that is when you need to assess your options, take that extra touch as needed to open teams up and create scoring opportunities, not give the opposition a chance to close you down at the back and put us under pressure where we end up making mistakes.
Must say that Birmingham's goal was an instinctive open being able to react to the opening that became available with quick feet and movement [Post edited 19 Jan 10:00]
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Reply | Swansea City v Birmingham City : Match day thread
at 08:40 19 Jan 2026
Any thoughts on long goal kicks when every one crams into one side of the pitch leaving a huge open space down the other wing, we have seen that Inoussa have pace to burn it would seem that open space would be an area to be exploited because we would know the tactic to play the ball there is to be used so would have the advantage to break away from the crowded area quicker. Not a tactic to be used very often but seem a ploy that could be used especially given our lack of options up top when Vipotnik goes off.
As for the use of Cullen up top he hasn't the pace or stature to caused defences too many problems in that area not in that role when we need to keep a viable threat up top , we know this because it was the reason for getting Idah Surely we needed to persist with Wales to try and get him use to playing at the higher level. We use Inoussa because he seems to be the only option out wide so why not Wales in that leading role he must be better option than we have tried unsuccessfully a number of times before.
Losing amd being unable to sustain a viable threat up top is losing us points as teams commit more players forward with little fear of being caught on the counter attack. |
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Reply | Swansea City v Birmingham City : Match day thread
at 08:13 18 Jan 2026
Vipotnik's pressing game has become much better but that was helped by Framco and Widell plus the flanks were made differcult to attack with the work done by Ronald and Eom, add Tymon and Galbraith awareness and timing to know when to intercept the ball, Fulton fulcrum role in the centre was excellent and he got himself and the ball forward a lot better yes we did drop deeper at the end of the first half and almost paid the price, in a way we got lucky that the ball came in so hard that the player at the back post didn't have time to adjust his feet. It took a while in that first half fr Burgess and Cabango to work out who was going to go for the aerial ball and would get in each others way but they sorted it out.
The second half we saw more pressure as they needed to score yes we did drop deeper and the substitutions didn't improve us, I thought Galbraith got lost in the game when moved, Cullen's pressing was in affective in stopping them switching the side of play quickly, Inoussa isn't fully up to speed and they closed the flanks down better not helped by the lack of options for the winger on the ball as we dropped deeper. BUT having said that we still made chances an xample was the whipped in ball that Inoussa could on another of got on the end of.
As had been said Fulton was of the pitch at the time of the goal and that little extra space was well exploited with a good finish.
Good game of football to watch, disappointed with just a point we deserved more but with a better ref I'm sure more decision would have gone our way, a certain amount of play acting towards the end of the game with screaming performances with challenges made and penalised were as earlier in the game weren't. It would appear that the ref doesn't know about playing the advantage either.
We lost to them earlier in the season so is a draw and improvement lots more chances made by us. More enjoyable to watch makes sense if disappointed but not a bad display. [Post edited 18 Jan 18:39]
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Reply | Swans v Blues : Chris Davies under real pressure this weekend
at 21:02 17 Jan 2026
Thought a number of the long range shots were overly ambious, all for shot just outside the area but I thought we could have worked the ball closer at times but in that second half we started to force or rush things instead of showing a calmness in the final third.
Good game of football, their keeper pull of a fantastic save off Franco's strike unless I am mistaken
Birmingham movement was excellent but so was our defending, yes we did drop a bit deep which meant any good possession by the forwards needed more forward movement from deep to support and go beyond them.
Disappointed to not get the three points we deserved.
Fulton off the pitch when they scored had a very good game as protection against their runs from midfield [Post edited 18 Jan 8:52]
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Reply | Kaelan Casey
at 19:39 15 Jan 2026
Maybe he will get some starts with West Ham to help them get out of the danger zone. |
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Reply | Eddie Mcreadie
at 18:42 15 Jan 2026
Was he sacked by Chelsea or did they just accept his resignation over the lack of a company car?
They had just won promotion back to the top flight. |
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Reply | Kaelan Casey
at 18:39 15 Jan 2026
Casey one to look at in or for the future? I would have him back. |
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Reply | Swansea City v Birmingham City : Match day thread
at 12:45 14 Jan 2026
Let hope we can create the chances again and put them away clinically meaning as we attack we can get players into good attacking position while keeping things tight defensively and not leave ourselves open to counter attacks as we committed too many players forward without cover. [Post edited 14 Jan 13:19]
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Reply | Casey
at 10:01 12 Jan 2026
Hope Casey realises that he had a good support as he walked around he did look somewhat dejected but that would be understandable given he would have wanted to stay on. |
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Reply | Swansea City v West Bromwich Albion : FA Cup match day thread
at 09:57 12 Jan 2026
Both our goals came from playing the ball to feet in a controlled manner with good build up play and support or runners available off the ball, moving the ball quickly, surprising how fast it can go on the floor catching defenders in a quandary , good precise goals |
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