A return to the old ways for Steve Cooper and it frustrates us all
Sunday, 18th Apr 2021 11:40 by Keith Haynes

The aftermath of the game and the supporters frustration for the swans inconsistency. Steve Cooper doesn’t lose sight of his objectives but admits the Wycombe result at the Liberty was not what he expected. The usual non negotiables popped up again too.

Cooper was in some ways upbeat about the performance, maybe more a relief to see the swans fight back in the last twenty minutes. However, the draw against Wycombe was a tremendous opportunity lost, and it all seems down to Cooper wanting to accommodate Hourihane and Roberts. He changed back to his old formation and once again it was to the teams detriment. It just didn’t work - again !

“I do think that it's a missed opportunity. The objective today was obviously to win. We're at home, we've played well for two games and we're playing a team that are fighting for something else," added Cooper. We felt there would be enough space and gaps to go and hurt them. We didn't play well enough in the first half with the ball and our positional play wasn't quite right. Because of that we didn't make enough passes and it had a bit of a knock on effect of how the game went. The start of the second half was really poor and disappointing to say the least. Two soft goals”

Cooper has to get it right on Tuesday

"In whatever minute of whatever game, you have to do the non-negotiables well, and for that period, we didn't. I saying that, 2-0 down, the players showed a lot of heart, courage and good play to get back in the game. We shouldn't lose sight of that obstacle we gave ourselves to get over. But in the end it leaves you with real mixed emotions. The result could have been worse because of what we did at the start of the second half."

There's a real example of looking after your own business. You're going to look at what the opposition have done, but my focus really is on us not winning, but in saying that, results have gone OK elsewhere. You can say it's a point closer to Watford, but I also know we're disappointing not to get three points. I've always said, whatever there is to play for, we're going to go for it“

Andre Ayew
Andre will have a scan to investigate the latest injury within the squad, leaving the game after eight minutes will mean he will almost certainly miss Tuesdays win or bust game against QPR. Cooper said “You don’t walk out of a game after eight minutes then expect to play three days later, however we are going to need 48 hours to assess Andre and the injury, it’s too soon to say”

The positives
Believe it or not there are a few positives from Saturdays game. The main one is Liam Cullen, clearly a goalscorer as he has proved when putting on a first team white shirt. On Saturday he got his first goal at the Liberty in the league and his FA Cup performance against Nottingham Forest was astonishingly refreshing. Sadly that was marred with his injury. It seems he is back now and raring to go, if that’s the case and Ayew is out on Tuesday then Liam has to start. He told Swans Official “The injury was a big disappointment because I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was,” said Cullen. “In the end I needed surgery, but I kept positive and worked as hard as possible in training. Initially we thought it was season over for me. The surgery went really well — the surgeon did an unbelievable job”

“The credit must go to our medical team though, because they’ve helped me all along the way and got me to the stage I’m at. I didn’t want to push it, but I couldn’t believe how well it went. It’s important not to over-do it. It was my first game back and I can’t go from being injured to 100mph. I have full confidence in the gaffer and the medical team as they’ll know what’s best. “I was just happy to get back on the pitch and put the shirt on,” said Cullen. “To get the equaliser was an amazing feeling after working so hard for 10 weeks. “Connor had the ball on the right flank and I just wanted to get behind the defender before making my run. I then just threw everything at I, and it went into the net. It’s a feeling I’ve really missed since January.”

The fans reactions were expected, many now seem confused as to what Cooper and Marsh want to achieve, our site poll on their future continues to support their removal at the end of the season. Not something we agree with here at Swansea Independent, but opinion is opinion no matter if you like the answer or not.

Anything other than three points on Tuesday will almost certainly spell the end of any chance to challenge Watford in second place, it’s unlikely that will happen anyway, but hope springs eternal in SA1. Well, at least in some.