Sunday 15 January 2012

Swansea F.C

Ever since Swansea City won their play off final at Wembley in the summer, i'm not sure many people would of expected them to be 10th in arguably the best league in the world.. just goes to show you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover. You could relate their style of play to Barcelona's if you so wish, as their players are calm on the ball, seemingly know what they're going to do with it before they receive it. Their team may not be full of superstars or spoilt footballers and they certainly don't have the money backing other clubs around the world do, but they have a brilliant spine in their first team, their wingers can give any full backs a nightmare on a good day and as of November last year, their central midfielder Leon Britton boasted a 93.8% pass completion ratio, which was the second best pass completion ratio in Europe at that time, bettered only by Barcelona's young midfield prodigy.. Thiago Alacantra, which does indeed mean that he held a better ratio than Wayne Rooney, David Silva, Samir Nasri just to name a few PL midfielders ..along with Xavi and Iniesta joining that list.
However, his pass ratio at the Liberty City stadium was the best in Europe for some time, with figures suggesting it was a ratio of 95.5% completion.
Of course this can be classed as a testament to how Swansea play, as they have dominated most games at home this season, dictating not only the pace of the game but keeping some of the games best strikers quiet, notably Wayne Rooney of Manchester United.

[side note]Now of course you will have the minority of people saying "what if most of them passes are just sidewards or small passes".. i can only suggest to you .. watch Xavi/Iniesta/Paul Scholes/ David Silva.
95% of their passes in a game are made to their fellow midfielder or to a winger, not many midfielders feel the need to try and ping a pass out to a rushing winger on their team.
Xavi completes over 100 passes a game on average, imagine if 95% of them were over the top balls.. he wouldn't have the ratio he does have.. same goes for the above mentioned.

As for Swansea, in the summer they signed Hollands second choice keeper in Michel Vorm(Maarten Stekelenburg is Hollands first choice) who had at the time, the best penalty saving ratio at his former club, Utrecht FC. Many people would suggest he's been Swanseas signing of the season and we're only half way through 2011-2012!
He maybe small however he has pulled off a handful of game winning/point saving reflex saves this season.

With Ashley Williams at centre half they not only have an established Wales international captaining their team, they have a leader who brings the ball out from the back and isn't afraid to pick a pass now and again.
You could say they are the improved Blackpool from last term, who came up aiming to stay up, played some good football but ultimately didn't play good enough.

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