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Swansea v Leeds
Well that’s the International break over and it’s back to the Championship action this weekend.
We were well entertained the last two weeks though.
Wales did us proud, ending up top of the Nations League Group 4 and elevation to League A.
Craig Bellamy’s unbeaten run in charge was extended to 6 games after a hard fought draw in Turkey which culminated in a 4-1 win over Iceland on Tuesday night.
Our own Liam Cullen scored a brace and there was a pretty impressive total of 8 Wales players in the team who had come through the Swans Academy - Cullen, Sheehan, Rodon, Roberts, Davies, James, Cabango and Allen.
Moving on and the squad face another of those gruelling 3 match weeks -
Sun 24 Nov Swansea v Leeds 15:00
Wed 27 Nov Derby v Swansea 20:00
Sat 30 Nov Swans v Portsmouth 15:00
Starting with Leeds, third in the table and only two defeats so far, one of them 1-0 at Millwall last away game. They have a solid defence with just 9 goals conceded in 15 games, mind you we’ve only conceded 10 goals, it’s just that we have a problem scoring them.
Leeds had a lot of player movement in the summer, failing to get promotion after losing to Southampton at Wembley in the play-off final. They sold 8 players worth 162 million pounds and brought in 4 players worth 33 million pounds, plus 4 loanees.
They did the double over us last season, 0-4 at the .com (Piroe, Summerville, Gnonto 2) and 3-1 at Elland Road (Piroe, Rutter, James).
Let’s hope we put on a better show this time, stop Piroe scoring and spoil his day.
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Leeds are big favourites to win this one, not helped by the Swans goals for this season.
Up to and before the Leeds game today the Swans are the lowest scorers in the Championship this season with 11 goals, converting just 6.8% of their shots, the second worst conversion rate and just ahead of bottom club QPR at 6.5%.
In contrast the Swans are defensively mean, they have conceded just 10 goals in 15 league games and 14 of their last 15 matches have been either draws or won by just a single goal either way.
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Swans:
Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Josh Tymon, Matt Grimes (c), Goncalo Franco (Bianchini 75’), Joe Allen (Fulton 56’), Ronald (Abdulai 83’), Myles Peart-Harris, Liam Cullen
Lilywhites:
Illan Meslier, Sam Byram (Wober 84’), Pascal Struijk (c), Joe Rodon, Jayden Bogle, Joe Rothwell (Guilavogui 84’), Ao Tanaka, Manor Solomon (Gnonto 75’), Brenden Aaronson, Daniel James (Debayo 95’), Joel Piroe (Joseph 75’)
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Disappointment at the end as once again we let in a goal in added time for another defeat.
A brave display and a great game for the neutral in a seven goal thriller but we our own worst enemy leaving ourselves exposed on the wings to the counter attack every game.
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Tough to take boys after leading at half-time. I thought we more than matched them but this time our defence let us down.
We just don’t know how to hold a lead. Wide open spaces on the wings for their wingers to exploit. Our offside trap didn’t work albeit with the help of a dodgy linesman.
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