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As a coach and manager. Cooper out thought Harris, changing the shape and personnel to negate Cardiff's only real tactic which is to get the ball forward as quickly as possible. Harris failed to alter the personnel during the game to combat Swansea's superiority. Some managers would have made changes before half time when they could see things were not working.
Harris was also at fault in not changing the players either for this game, or more importantly imo, the Stoke game.
We will be ok this season, but I dont want Harris to be given money to spend in January as I do not see his long term future here.
Blakey bangs on about identity. I think we have identity, a big strong physical side which is difficult to play against and scores many of its goals from set pieces. The problem is that we do not have a manager who can adjust tactically when the need arises.
I don't think Cooper out-thought Harris, he just had better players at his disposal and a way of playing that generally causes us problems. Harris was too slow with his substitutions, but today was one of those days where, collectively as a club, we were second best by a distance.Originally Posted by Former Labour leader
I think that's a big shout, Eric, saying Swansea have better players. Evidence please.
After 90 minutes today I saw 11 players who were comfortable on the ball, had some pace about them, read the game well, whose movement off the ball was significantly better, whose passing was significantly better. If our players were on a par we'd have matched them in those areas. We fell well short. We're ok if we drag teams down to our level, make it a bit of a battle, bombard them with aerial stuff and win lots of set pieces. Swansea barely allowed us to do that to them. We were that easy to work out and our players and management had no answer.
I don’t think Swansea have better players - yes some but how many of their supposed superior midfield players would you take over our supposedly inferior midfield players - Grimes maybe? Corey Smith is no better than Pack and I don’t rate Jay Fulton . Lowe had only scored one goal before today, same as Harris then. The Jacks 2 wing backs are good and Guehli is a solid player but they’re not outstanding- they seemed to want it more than our team today, they started at a higher tempo and kept on the front foot all game. We started slowly and at no point did we pick the pace of the game up
Would Ralls, Vaulks or Pack get into the Swansea midfield. No chance. They can't pass the ball well enough or create opportunities.
Yes Ralls is miles better than Fulton and Korey Smith.
Just not today.
This is spot on.
However.....I don’t think that the JBs have better players than ours (I suspect that they’d love to have Wilson, Ono etc). In fact I think the opposite.
Yet Cooper is getting MUCH more from his players than Harris is as you quite accurately describe.
THAT is the difference.
The difference was the way they set up. When we had the ball they closed us down quickly when they had the ball we let them run at us whilst we backed off until they were in crossing or shooting distance.
They wanted it more and in my opinion if a manager can't motivate his team for a derby game or change tactics when needing to then he shouldn't be here
All of their players are comfortable on the ball. Hardly any of ours are. THAT is the difference.
Absolutely, without a doubt. I'd also suggest they have better positional sense.
My bet is add in Ralls goals scored and assists against Smith and Fultons combined and Ralls comes out on top. Maybe even adding on the Swansea duos last seasons as well would see Ralls on top.
I think Pack would fit into Swansea's team quite well and Ralls is better than both Smith & Fulton
The 442 with Ralls and Vaulks didnt work.
I back Harris but coming out 2nd half with the same was shocking.
If you turn the game into a scrap, we'll come out on top.
If we get on top early, we'll come out on top.
If you keep the ball and score early, we'll end up chasing shadows.
We've beaten 4 good sides recently but we couldn't get near Swansea today. They're a good side, their players are underrated and ours are vastly overrated. They defended ever so well, too. We've got a centre mid at right back and neither centre mid in our team can pass. Ralls in the right team could be very effective however, as we have seen.
I think there's going to be big changes in January. He's clearly run out of patience with Murphy, he doesn't rate Whyte and we can't play Pack, Vaulks and Ralls together. Basically, we've got no options.
Interesting you say that about them defensively. They were fantastic.
I notice they were happy to foul just inside their own half and leave us launch aimless free kicks towards the box. They defended a high line. We got 4 or 5 flick ons into the 6 yard box to no-one as a result. When we did have throw-ins, corners and free kicks close to their box, I noticed how much of a height advantage we had. They doubled up, timed their leaps well and nullified our set pieces. They did the ugly things very well. Their game management was very good, too. It's no surprise that they've won lots of games 1-0.
I hope so. It'll make or break Harris, providing he's backed by the board.
‘4 good sides’? Did you watch any of the games?
Stoke were absolutely rubbish and Luton and Huddersfield little better.
Swansea are a good side (well they pass and move anyway) and so are Bournemouth.
We on the other hand are absolutely dreadful.
That cannot have escaped even your attention? (I’m assuming that you saw the game today and so were able to compare and contrast the two teams?)
What I saw was their players thinking two passes ahead and the 3rd man moving into space. Our lot were taking each pass like it was an isolated single intention.
We seem to ask our players to basically stick to their positions and not lose shape. Don't get me wrong, it does work in certain situations, but not yesterday.
We couldn't get a tackle in and Swansea broke up our promising moves with tactical fouls. Man City do it all the time.
The game was over after 5 minutes. We play every game like the away side and are so negative and are only capable of taking the initiative against sides we can bully. We're incapable of ball retention, passing & movement. Yesterday Ojo & Wilson were totally wasted, as is Bacuna playing at full back. Why the insistence on width.
Add "or players" in your last sentence after the word "manager" and I'd agree with it.
Harris played the same side in 5 games back-to-back despite Nelson and Vaulks in particular looking off the pace against Stoke. Then, knowing we have have a game Wednesday, a weeks break and then 3 games in 8 days, he kept on key players yesterday for another 90 minutes even though the game had realistically gone from Ralls red card on 67 minutes. I think that's a case of making a mistake and then doubling down on it which does show his naivety as a manager, and potentially limitations of our squad as well.
Exactly. Since the defeat at Coventry, Harris has changed to a system that wins us games if we play well. Before that, we weren't winning games even when the performances were decent. We would probably have won yesterday if we had scored the first goal, but when that didn't happen the result was inevitable.
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