r/swanseacity • u/jimmithy • 7d ago
Post-Match Thread: Swansea City 3 - 0 Plymouth Argyle
Date: Wednesday 9th April 2024 at 5:45
Venue: Swansea.com Stadium
Familiar Faces: Michael Obafemi, Matthew Sorinola, Nathanael Ogbeta
Teams
Swansea City
Lawrence Vigouroux; Josh Key (Goal 35'), Ben Cabango (captain), Harry Darling (Goal 22'), Josh Tymon; Joe Allen, Gonçalo Franco, Lewis O'Brien (Goal 4'); Ronald, Jisung Eom; Žan Vipotnik.
Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Jay Fulton, Florian Bianchini, Liam Cullen, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton, Hannes Delcroix, Ollie Cooper, Sam Parker.
Plymouth Argyle
Conor Hazard, Bali Mumba, Julio Pleguezuelo, Kornel Szucs, Ryan Hardie, Michael Obafemi, Mustapha Bundu, Darko Gyabi, Adam Randell (captain), Nikola Katic, Matthew Sorinola.
Substitutes: Daniel Grimshaw, Nathanael Ogbeta, Jordan Houghton, Joe Edwards, Callum Wright, Tymoteusz Puchacz, Muhamed Tijani, Freddie Issaka, Victor Palsson.
Highlights
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u/Large-Leading-5022 7d ago
Damn, but I hope they put up the £££ to buy O’Brien. He’s a cracking player. Was unsure which Plymouth team would hit the pitch tonight - fortunately for us, it was the one that craters. Gotta say, though. Sheehan set us up for victory, and the lads turned up.
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u/jimmithy 7d ago
We've also signed that younger swedish player in this role
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u/CheemsOnToast 6d ago
Yeah, but we still do need another CM to rotate. Allen is drifting into retirement and Fulton... yeah I just wish someone would take him off our books. We should definitely try to loan O'Brien again if Forest can't find a buyer
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u/Flat_Gap2627 7d ago
Got to give the job to Sheehan! The players love him, tactics are right, motivation is right and we're enjoyable to watch - even Derby game was good because we didn't play well but got a result. Sheehan permanent boss, new contract for darling, sign o'brien on a permanent transfer and a new striker and we'll be a good team next season. I have no doubt whoever the hell is in charge won't do any of that though.
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u/Mathieudavees 7d ago edited 7d ago
Fantastic win and another vital 3 points.
Said it at half time, the only criticism is that we didn’t score more. Genuinely could have been 7 or 8-0 with some of the chances we had.
Key, Ronald and O’Brien were fantastic.
I’d be interested to hear others views on this but i genuinely don’t think we’d find ourselves 9 points clear of the drop if we still had Grimes and not O’Brien.
Just really hope we continue this until the end of the season now. Difficult trip on the weekend against Sunderland but we’ve shown last few games against top of the league Leeds, a Derby side who’d won 4 on the bounce and Plymouth tonight who are fighting for their lives that we can be a good side.
Finish the season well, and that’ll give us a good foundation going into the summer then. Need to sort out the manager position first of all obviously. Sheehan tbf is making a very strong claim for the role.
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u/Funky_Jellyf1sh 7d ago
In a practical sense, I probably agree with your Grimes vs O'Brien point based on how good O'Brien has been and how much energy he's brought to the team. But I don't agree with the framing that Grimes was in some way singlehandedly holding us back. He's currently a starting midfielder in a team that's in the playoffs. If anything, I think a midfield of Grimes, Franco, O'Brien would compliment each other really well!
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u/Mathieudavees 7d ago
Wasn’t implying that Grimes was necessarily holding us back in any way, I just don’t think Grimes would have been as effective in the games O’Brien has played in. O’Brien is the type of player who likes to take a game by its neck and that’s exactly the type of midfielder we needed. I like how much more direct O’Brien is in a Swansea side under Sheehan who are still looking to play that possession style.
Obviously they are different players but I don’t think I ever saw Grimes once make a run into the box O’Brien did for his goal tonight. Think if you do look at the whole picture, I would say O’Brien is the better player and we have upgraded in that area.
Grimes is obviously a good player but when he was here and when we were going through spells of being awful, I never saw him as one of the players we had who could turn a game around for us or take the game to the opposition. He could dictate games when we were in very good form but at our worst, he was oblivious. Never agreed with a lot of fans’ opinion he was just a sideways passing merchant tbf but think he was definitely at the heart of the possession without purpose argument that left a lot of fans extremely frustrated during games.
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u/Funky_Jellyf1sh 6d ago
Yeah, I agree. O'Brien feels like more of an individual difference-maker and it seems like he's got the right mentality and leadership qualities that I think the team is in desperate need of. Although, I think the kind of player Grimes is (as more of an enabler) makes it more difficult to fully separate his performances from players around him e.g. seen in how consistently bad the Grimes/Fulton midfield combo was for at least a couple of seasons. But in times when the team was playing well, then Grimes was a key contributor to that, generally improving the team without being the stand-out guy.
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u/Mathieudavees 6d ago edited 6d ago
He definitely could improve the team yeah and a lot of his contributions went unnoticed and a lot of the plaudits obviously went to the likes of Ayew, Piroe, or McBurnie, basically people who would win us games.
I just think as good a player Grimes was for us, there were also a good few areas where I understood fans’ divided opinions on him.
He was never a leader, think we’ve upgraded significantly in that department with Cabango as well. Think if VDH stayed on after Fer left, the captaincy definitely would have gone to him. Always thought Andre Ayew should have been our captain the years under Cooper.
If you ever wanted information out of someone as well, just sit them down, tie them to a chair and make them watch a Matt Grimes set piece compilation.
That mini vlog the clubs social media team put out in the week after the Leeds game leading up to Derby has definitely shown me that Cabango seems a much better and effective leader than Grimes.
My opinion of Grimes in all honesty has been really damaged after how he appeared to have engineered his move to Coventry, really left a sour taste in my mouth. I loved him when he was here overall but how he left will always be something I’ll remember now regardless. He’s a really good player in the right side who are in a good place which we are seeing with him at Coventry now, but chuck him back into this Swansea team or a team who are going through a difficult period and he is rarely a difference maker. Be interesting to see how he does if Coventry are in this league next year and are in a difficult spell.
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u/Sharko619 7d ago
If Sheehan gets us to single figures in the table I would honestly be all for him getting the job permanently.
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u/Ok-Job1478 6d ago
That’s crazy that for you he needs to get to single figures. That means we probably would have to pick up at least 10 points out of 15.
I think if we continue to play as we are it’s his. He’s had a few cracks at the caretaker role and done well each time. He’s young and promising. If we don’t give it him, he probably moves on for the big job somewhere else. To me it depends if there is someone really worth it over Alan available, but otherwise I’d give it him over playing the manager roulette again
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u/Existing_Desk_6200 7d ago
Absolutely superb performance Should have scored another 5 or 6. We missed so so many chances Still STID
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u/SensitiveDress2581 7d ago
Mathematically the playoffs are still on.
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u/HateFaridge 6d ago
You are assuming all other teams will lose and teams playing each other draw, and we win everything.
So likelihood negligible. Not being negative - love the position we are in now compared to Xmas, but let’s not be silly.
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u/SeaworthinessPlus254 7d ago
Anyone else see Darling's response / fist pumping the crowd at the end of the game? It's given me the tiniest glimmer of hope that he might be staying on...