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Swansea v Middlesboro
Swansea v Middlesboro Sat 11 March 15:00
Middlesborough, our next opponents, were 21 of 24 in the table last October when Michael Carrick took over as head-coach from Chris Wilder.
Today they are third in the table, pushing for second place and auto promotion, a miraculous turnaround in form in 136 days under Carrick, and last match they hammered Reading 5-0.
They’ve made clever use of the loan market, just as top of the table Burnley have done, by bringing in players mostly from PL clubs such as Zack Steffen - goalkeeper from Man City, Ryan Giles - left back from Wolves, Aaron Ramsey - attacking midfielder from Aston Villa, Cameron Archer - centre forward from Aston Villa, Rodrigo Muniz - centre forward from Fulham and Alex Mowatt - central midfielder from West Brom.
A club owned by multi-millionaire and life-long Boro fan Steve Gibson, he has ploughed a lot of his fortune into trying to get them promoted. They had a one season stint in the PL in 2016-2017, and before that an 11 season run there up to 2009. They’ve had a history of top managers such as Jack Charlton, Gareth Southgate, Gordon Strachan, Tony Pulis, Neil Warnock, and even our own Gary Monk.
So, how do Swansea beat this lot. Well they are beatable, ask West Brom, the match before last they ended Boro’s five match winning run with a brace from Daryl Dike at the Hawthorns, even with Boro having 70% possession. West Brom then surprisingly lost 2-0 at Hull next match.
Swans are in disarray with a shocking run of only 3 wins in 21 games, a run which at most clubs would not have been tolerated.
There were green shoots of recovery second-half at Luton last Saturday, but missed chances again cost us, although a Cullen goal was disallowed for dubious off-side.
Boro form guide last 6 matches WWWWLW 15 points
Swans form guide last 6 matches LWLLDL 4 points
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Grimes back in for Joe Allen the only change from Luton:
Swans: Andy Fisher, Ben Cabango, Nathan Wood, Joel Latibeaudiere, Matty Sorinola, Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes (c), Ryan Manning, Luke Cundle, Ollie Cooper, Joel Piroe
Subs: Andreas Sondergaard, Harry Darling, Olivier Ntcham, Jamie Paterson, Morgan Whittaker, Liam Cullen, Liam Walsh.
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Another big defeat -
FT: Swansea 1 (Piroe 18) - Middlesboro 3 (Ramsey 54’, Archer 57’, Akron 77’ pen)
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So the difference between the teams was better quality loanees?
Sorinola, Cundle for Swans.
Sorinola another poor game, Cundle substituted.
Steffen, Giles, Archer, Ramsey, Mowatt for Boro.
Archer and Ramsey scored two of their goals
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Oh dear, Sorinola and Latibeaudiere more mistakes again.
Wide open on our right flank with Sorinola.
Wide open and beaten for pace on the counter with our slow defenders and no-one back covering for the first goal.
Highest paid Swans player, sub Ntcham, stopped and appealed for off-side and watched Archer score the second goal, even schoolboys are taught to play to the whistle.
What was Latibeaudiere doing in the box, no immediate danger and he dives in to give away the penalty for the third goal.
A catalogue of ineptness for the three goals.
:mad:
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Okay boys, it looks like the owners won’t sack Martin until the end of the season.
What about the defence coach, he must be hitting a brick wall with these players.
Under Martin’s system the defence are not good enough, so he needs to change the system to accommodate the players, but he stubbornly refuses.
Goalkeeper Fisher - Martin’s signing from his previous club L1 MK Dons
Centre-Back Wood - Martin’s signing, a rookie from Middlesborough
Centre-Back Darling - Martin’s signing from his previous club L1 MK Dons
Right-Back/Wing-Back Sorinola - Martin’s signing on loan but played under him at L1 MK Dons
Three players signed from League 1 MK Dons, Martin guided them to an amazing 15th in the table.
We are signing League One standard players and that’s where we’ll end up with this guy in charge.
Not forgetting the absent owners from across the pond, who must take some responsibility. They will not invest and are in hiding.
Surely we’ve set a record for a manager not being sacked after 3 wins in 22 games? An appalling record.
