Bob Bradley has had a rough time at Swansea City since his arrival in mid-October. He came into a squad that had only secured four points in seven league games, and has only managed to add eight points himself in his 10 matches in charge.
Swansea shipped out stalwart centerback Ashley Williams over the summer, and their failure to replace him has been destructive.
Bradley’s team doesn’t lack offensive talent, though. Dynamic midfielders Gylfi Sigurdsson and Leroy Fer as well as Spanish striker Fernando Llorente are just a few of the notable attackers on the roster. But the team’s defensive flaws have hindered their ability to stay in matches.
In the busy schedule of the Premier League’s Christmas period, Bradley’s team has four matchups in just 13 days. Three of Swansea’s opponents are in the bottom half of the table, and Bournemouth only sits in 10th on the goals scored tiebreaker.
Swansea sit 19th in the table, but are only three points from safety at the moment. It won’t be long, though, before mid-table clubs separate themselves from the bottom to make an escape from the drop zone much harder.
Here’s a closer look at Swansea City’s next four opponents:
Dec. 26 – West Ham, Home
League position: 13th
Last five results: WWDLL
After really struggling at the beginning of the season, West Ham United have begun to adapt to their new home field and can possibly turn their season around. West Ham is coming off of back-to-back home 1-0 victories over Burnley and Hull, but conceded 11 goals in their previous three games.
Swansea will have to hit the back of the net if they hope to get anything against West Ham, because the midfield trio of Michail Antonio, Manuel Lanzini and Dimitri Payet will be having a field day against the Swans’ defense.
Dec. 31 – Bournemouth, Home
League Position: 10th
Last five results: LWLWL
Bournemouth has been outstanding under Eddie Howe, but the team’s schedule has led to a lack of consistency in results over the last few months. Bournemouth beat Liverpool 4-3 last month, but has lost to relegation candidates Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Burnley.
Jan. 3 – Crystal Palace, Away
League Position: 17th
Last five results: LLDWL
Crystal Palace has finally sacked Alan Pardew after a horrid 2016, and will hope for a new manager bump over the holiday period. Palace travel to Watford and Arsenal before hosting Swansea, and the team’s new manager will surely be circling this match as a must-win.
Attacking threats Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha pose a definite threat to Swansea’s weak defense, but the desperate nature of this relegation match-up could lead to a win for either side.
Jan. 7 – Hull, Away
League Position: 20th
Last five results: LLDLD
Hull’s abysmal season was predictable before first kick because of their lack of off-season spending and last-minute manager change. They’ve allowed one less goal than Swansea, but have only scored an astonishingly low 14 goals. Five of those have come from Robert Snodgrass, and the goal-scoring midfielder will certainly be taking his chances against the worst defense in the league. Hosting the Swans will be seen as their best chance to get three points this season.
I see “holiday games” and think “reindeer games”.
Soooo…hes gotten double the points of the last manager in less than twice as many games. So with the same players, he’s gotten more points per game. Let the man bring in a few new faces before we condemn him. My goodness. This is why England will NEVER again win the world cup. After having lived there for several years I can say with confidence the people there are their own worst football nightmare. They think way too highly of themselves. News flash, as a country you have been mediocre for decades and the best players AND managers in your league are not English. Howard Wilkinson of Leeds United was the LAST English manager to even win top flight English football. That was the year prior to the Prem starting. So if NO English manager has ever won the Premier League, then why can’t an American get a chance?
Swansea’s GD per game has gotten worse and they are in the same position they were when Bradley started. He hasn’t been worse than the last manager, but also hasn’t been much better. If the argument is he isn’t worse than the guy that got fired that isn’t really a big recommendation.
The outcry over Bob’s American terms is silly, but if he was winning and had Swansea in 12th place everyone would just have a good laugh about it. Its no different than people criticizing Klinsmann for his culturally German comments, when the US was winning it was fine, when we weren’t it showed how out of touch he was with his fans and players.
And Swansea is in Wales not England so their fans are for the most part Welsh who are British like the greatest Premier League Manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is British, but not English since he’s from Scotland.
I’ve liked Swansea for a number of years when they combined interesting players with an intentionally chosen passing style of play brought in for the fans. But they abandoned the playing style, sold a bunch of goods players, decimated the defense in the offseason to the point of near hopelessness (like Fulham did its last year on the way out)…..and what’s worse, I thought the local fanbase was obnoxious about them getting American owners and hiring an American coach. So I basically quit following.
It’s amusing in a sad way to see all the interest here, because the team is in free fall and there’s a chunk of oblivious Americans following him just because he’s American who don’t realize your average Swansea fan is peeved no end by American owners and coaching.
No way! You mean to tell me that there are English supporters who are angry because an American is managing an EPL team! Crazy! Is your name Imperious Voice or Imperative Voice?
If you’re going to talk smack at least be aware they’re Welsh and not English.
The supporters were angry before they played a game this season when the American ownership bought the team. They were also embittered before Bradley played a game because he is American. This is not some, it was the majority of fans, peeved by any American leadership. Make fun of it all you want, I’d like Bradley to do well but cannot support a team with this reflexive an American-hating fanbase.
FYI I used to be part of the supporter’s club that owns 20% of the team.
I second Brian’s comment. Shocking…absolutely shocking that British fans are angry that (1) ownership group from a country without a deep football tradition and (2) somewhat poor record of ownership in the premier league brought a (3) manager without any European top flight experience, (4) ignoring established club protocol of involving the supporter organization and (5) results have not improved….in fact the team looks more disorganized as of late.
I am an Arsenal fan, but even Wenger got some slack when he came over from Japan, and he previous coaching at Monaco winning Ligue 1. I like Bradley, but if he looses at West Ham, he’s out!
Leicester City is owned by a Thai who owns King Power Duty Free, that worked out fine. Considering that would have been the background for this season, the idea all English fans rubbish foreign leadership from less storied soccer nations is over-determined.
Given his CV with world cup experience, what he did with Egypt, Le Havre, the “without first division experience” bit you voice is a bit parsed. Many fans did voice it, but you’re not acknowledging the lack of objectivity it reflects about his resume. MLS champs. Knockout world cup.
My point is not them grumbling about how it’s gone. My point is when the ownership change happened, and when he was hired, they were hated when the deal was done before a ball was kicked. It’s not even the grumbling after the fact like the Glazers. It was a reflexive response to Americans being involved. I don’t know how people can be fans of this while they have that attitude.
They crippled the team selling Ashley Williams. The criticism should go the management, not the ownership or the coach.
You mean all “British” fans. That doesn’t mean that EPL fans don’t have a degree of xenophobia about certain outsiders buying their teams. If you remember, there was some blow-back when King Power took over around 2010. EPL fans or rather the British (not necessarily international fans) shy away from foreign owners without a track record of success in their leagues. That’s why they like Russian Oligarchs or big Mid-East money. Current ownership of Liverpool is only starting to undo the damage done by previous Liverpool, Aston Villa, Fulham, ownership, or even the Glazers.
“Given his CV with world cup experience, what he did with Egypt, Le Havre, the “without first division experience” bit you voice is a bit parsed. Many fans did voice it, but you’re not acknowledging the lack of objectivity it reflects about his resume. MLS champs. Knockout world cup.”
-> I stated “without any European top flight experience,”. Le Havre isn’t even the top division in France, and Ligue 1. Listen, I like Bradley, but he is considered a risk, meaning he would have to be overqualified to even qualify (unfortunately). Objectively, I see that managing a club and managing a national team are two different things. Club is more a grind and requirements more adjustment, and more teaching. I also recognize that the MLS that Bradley won in 1998 is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like the MLS is today. The nest Parallels are Le Havre and Denmark, but his record in those places, while good, wasn’t spectacular.
“My point is not them grumbling about how it’s gone. My point is when the ownership change happened, and when he was hired, they were hated when the deal was done before a ball was kicked. It’s not even the grumbling after the fact like the Glazers. It was a reflexive response to Americans being involved. I don’t know how people can be fans of this while they have that attitude.”
-> I am agree it was a reflexive reaction to Americans being hired, but Americans have not had a great record of ownership in the EPL. On top of that, the new owners did not include the supporters group in hiring a manager which is something that is traditionally done. That arrogance made the refliexive reaction even worse. Listen, I still think that they never should have let go Garry Monk, who is a good, young manager (and doing well at Leeds).
“They crippled the team selling Ashley Williams. The criticism should go the management, not the ownership or the coach.”
-> I am agree they never replaced Ayew and Williams. They got $40 million from selling those two alone, but couldn’t spend $15 to get a great organizing defender??? HOWEVER, that is on the OWNERSHIP and MANAGEMENT. Owners took over in July. Those sales occurred in August. They had until September to replace
Also, they have repeatedly sold off the effective forwards, Gomis, Bony. As the team weakens they blame the managers and not Huw Jenkins. Some fans know Huw is part of it but many instead are blaming America. Some of this is the lot of a “selling” team but they have sold so much they are sending the team down like Fulham before them.
Anthony, you’re just stereotyping like they are, which is my point. I struggle to think of the last EPL title won under domestic ownership. Glazers have won several at Man U (that alone undermining the American ownership moans), Abu Dhabi owners at City, Abramovich from Russia at Chelsea, and a Thai owns Leicester. Flipping your myopic argument around, the championship record of domestic ownership in EPL the past decade is actually abysmal and perhaps non existent.
Current table, first domestic owned team is Spurs in 5th. Of the other top 5, it’s one Russian owned team, two American (Arsenal and ManU), and Abu Dhabi.
You are indulging inaccurate xenophobia.
Furthermore, if you look at EPL management choices, they will pick someone who barely won anything anywhere, Coyle (won in lower divisions), Moyes (only ever won in lower divisions), Phelan (never won anywhere), before they will take someone like Bradley with an objectively better CV. Bradley has won a first division, MLS. He has made it to a World Cup knockout round. But the view you are indulging is that some mediocre British manager whose high water mark is finishing, hmmm, 8th or so, and not winning any cups, is automatically better for being British, and that winning the championship with Burnley means more than the Fire or USA. At minimum it’s debatable and shouldn’t be a reflex response.
McBride has a statue and a bar named after him. This reflexive response is not universal. The suggestion it is rubbish. Swansea’s response is unusual. Even the glazers got a ManU honeymoon.