It’s enormous credit to the performances
this season that Swansea beating Liverpool isn’t really news, even if the
distractions elsewhere on the final day of the season hadn’t happened 11th
beats 8th is hardly an earth shattering event.
As both Swansea and Norwich have proved, a
team of dedicated players with a defined vision of what to do and an
inspirational manager can achieve more than sides spending bigger money on
individuals. Personally I don’t think
either Wolves or Blackburn would have been relegated if they had Rodgers or
Lambert in charge.
The match against Liverpool saw Swansea
dominate in the first half with the second being more even:
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| Liverpool largely restricted to efforts outside the box in the first half |
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| Vorm busier in the second half but Graham's clinical finish made the difference |
Graham’s goal was his only shot all game which
again highlights how well he’s played this season scoring 12 (only 1 a penalty)
from relatively few chances (there’ll be more on this in the end of season
stats review coming up in the next few days).
Graham had only 20 touches all game and rarely
ever has more than 30 compared to the 100+ for Rangel but what he does, he does
well and combined with his off the ball work shows how well he has fitted in to
the system.
Comparing Graham and Carroll’s contribution
in the game isn’t a direct comparison as they have different roles, but the number
of red lines on Carroll’s chalkboard can’t be ignored. In his defence Carroll won 5 of 6 aerial duels although only one
of these was in the Swansea penalty area.
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| A mixed bag from Carroll but tidy from Graham |
It’s now going to be a long 3 months and if
we somehow started next season with the same team (and manager) I’d be more
than happy to take that. Caulker on loan
for another season would probably only happen if Spurs splashed out on a big signing
which would be great for us but arguably unnecessary given how Caulker has
performed for us this season.
It’d be a dream to keep Sigurdsson and the
only hope is that clubs with bigger cheque books for some reason decide to
overlook him and that Hoffenheim feel that what we can offer is worth more to
them than keeping him (I think I’m clutching at straws there).
That leaves Rodgers who is arguably the key
to keeping the rest of the squad at Swansea. With the
Villa job already up for grabs along with potentially that for
Chelsea/Spurs/Liverpool or at the least speculation on these roles, it could be
a long summer. Putting aside league
positions and a 'my club is bigger than your club' mentality, Villa are genuinely a ‘Big Club’ and the fact that the thought that
Rodgers could go there is pretty much inconceivable is a credit to how far
Swansea as a club have come.
Twitter: @we_r_pl http://www.twitter.com/we_r_pl
Match Stats: Created using http://eplindex.com/ http://whoscored.com and Statszone
Chalkboards: Created using Statszone http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone
