Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Grayson confident of winning at Swansea
Grayson confident of winning at Swansea
Friday, 25th Feb 2011 18:43 by Tim Whelan

Leeds need a win at Swansea City to get our promotion challenge back on track, and Simon Grayson thinks we’re capable of getting it. Provided of course that we can eliminate those defensive howlers that are threatening to spoil our season.

A few weeks ago I would have been happy with a draw in one of our most difficult games of the season, but we’ve already shared the points rather too often in the past couple of months. We’ve only lost once in the league since the end of October, but seven draws in the last eleven is too many for a club hoping to win automatic promotion, so we really need to aim for a victory at the Liberty stadium tomorrow.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Grayson said “We know what’s at stake. It’s a big, big game – I think one of the deciding games of the season. We beat them early on and it was a great win. If we do that away from home, it’ll give us confidence to finish off the season.” And Grayson will know more than anyone else that his team need to eliminate the defensive errors that have caused us to drop points in most of those drawn games.

 “It’s frustrating because, when I look on the performances against Norwich and Barnsley, we probably deserved six points out of six. The players are frustrated with themselves and they’re frustrated with the sloppy goals they gave away but that shouldn’t detract from the way they performed.”

Leeds have no new injury problems, but Bradley Johnson is suspended after his red card against Barnsley on Tuesday and Paul Connolly has yet to recover from his hamstring problem. So Grayson will have to decide whether to replace Johnson with another midfield player and keep the 5 man midfield, or to change formation and play two up front. I presume he will still want to protect the back four, which is likely to come under a bit of pressure at Swansea, so he’s probably going to stick with Luciano Becchio as the lone striker.

In contrast to Leeds, Swansea have drawn only five league games this season, which could be down to manager Brendan Rogers’ gung-ho approach of non-stop attacking football. "When the game's 0-0, some people would be happy with a point so they bring on an extra defender. I've always been one that, even if you're winning the game and people might expect you to put on a defender, I'll put on a striker because the spaces open up”.

These tactics must be working, as the extra wins have taken the Swans up to second place in the table, five points ahead of us. And they’ve got their own supersub in the Davide Somma role, in the shape of Stephen Dobbie, who came off the bench to score the winner against Coventry in midweek, and will now be hoping to get a starting place for this game.  Swansea also have no new injury problems, but defender Garry Monk  and midfielder Andrea Orlandi are still out, with knee and thigh problems respectively.

So what to predict for this game? Neither side wants to draw this game, but I think that’s what’s going to happen.

 

Photo: Action Images



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.


You need to login in order to post your comments

Colchester United Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© FansNetwork 2024