Swansea City Fan View: The positives and negatives of another frustrating loss

There we go – another Swansea City home loss. That’s four from five at the Liberty with a return of zero points.

While the game was peppered with a few positives, it was ultimately the same old story, with the same old problems. Let’s look at the negatives first…

The Negatives

It’s hard to single-out individuals as it was a generally shoddy display from the Swans as a whole, especially in the first-half. However Tom Carroll was certainly one of the worst.

His set-pieces are awful. Just rubbish. Not only did they prove a complete waste of an opportunity to get something on goal, they also gave Leicester the chance to counter-attack. Which is how their second goal was created.

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More to blame for both goals, however, was the fact that the players didn’t play to the whistle. Leicester’s first came after the Swans assumed the ball had gone out of play, then the second when they assumed it was offside. Neither call went Swansea’s way (rightly, I’ll add). But instead of playing to the whistle, players were too busy complaining and throwing their hands in the air. Frustrating.

We can’t really blame Fede Fernandez for his sensational own goal – it happens, and he obviously didn’t mean it. Had the players kept focus, then the cross wouldn’t have been put in to the box, and Fernandez wouldn’t have had to make the clearance attempt.

Sadly, up front it was another toothless display. Tammy Abraham barely featured today. There was a little direct running from Jordan Ayew and Luciano Narsingh, which was good to see, but no-one could actually get a decent cross into the box or get a good shot on target.

At one stage Abraham almost limped off, which was worrying because there was no striker on the bench. It’s just another way to highlight how Swansea City lack depth on the bench. Thankfully he shook off his ankle twist and carried on, otherwise we’d have really been in trouble.

Talking about the bench, where was Roque Mesa again? If he can’t even make it as a sub, something is going on. He’s not injured, and no-one believes the excuse of ‘he’s still getting to grips with English football’. No, something is keeping him out – and the fans deserve to know what.

The Positives

Anyway, I promised some positives. There aren’t many.

Alfie Mawson’s goal was good – for all his mistakes at the back, the big defender does pop up with some decent goals now and again. That at least gave the Swans something to play for in the final quarter.

It was also positive to see Nathan Dyer, Wayne Routledge and Ki Sung Yueng all make appearances. While they are all far from their best, it was a nice bit of nostalgia. Why? Because they all featured in the days when Swansea were actually good! While that trio get a fair bit of flak, I think Swansea looked better with them on the field.

Talking about decent performances, Swansea’s man of the match was undoubtedly Lukasz Fabianski, who kept us in the game for most of the first half with some top-class saves. A shame his efforts were in vain.

So it’s onto a mid-week League Cup game against Man United, before brushing ourselves off to tackle Arsenal away next weekend… Great.