Luke Williams, the head coach of Swansea City, claims that his team gave goals to Leicester City during their 3-1 loss on Tuesday.
Williams is still waiting for his first league win of the season, although the hosts won easily that evening. Actually, with Southampton and the Foxes both vying for the Premier League, his schedule has proven difficult.
After the loss, Swansea is now in 17th position ahead of their matchup with Plymouth Argyle this coming weekend, which should provide a better indication of the team’s development under Williams.
The former Notts County manager felt that his team’s errors in focus at King Power Stadium were “gifts” to give up the second and third goals.
“I think we were competitive in the game for long periods,” he stated. “They are playing in a fantastic way, and the first goal unlocked us with a fantastic action from a very good side.” Then, I believe we held our own between the first and second goals.
We gave you one or two opportunities, but if you want to take anything out from this, you’ll need to be really, extremely clinical. The fact that we lose focus and that the penalty and the next two goals are essentially gifts is therefore really aggravating.
“They are an outstanding side but we made it a bit too easy for the second two goals.”
Swansea was hardly beginning to settle into the game when the hosts scored their second goal from the penalty spot. After sliding in on Notts County, Nathan Wood was given a penalty since it was determined that he had brought the striker down.
Williams was asked about the decision to give the spot-kick. “I haven’t seen it, genuinely, but what I know is, what came before it was a lack of concentration, a lack of focus, and you cannot do that against a top side,” he said.
To be clear, the players find it really difficult to focus for ninety-six minutes against a very good team that raises a lot of issues. Naturally, though, it’s also somewhat annoying. The players must maintain concentrate throughout the whole game if you hope to compete at the top of the division.”
During his tenure in command thus far, Williams has had to deal with both positives and drawbacks in about equal proportion; nevertheless, the team’s performance in the 2-2 draw against Birmingham City gave him some heart. It is certain, nevertheless, that securing his first league victory would significantly kickstart his career.
“It is frustrating, yes,” Williams continued. “In the Southampton game, we were blown away in the first half, but we are actually a little unfortunate not to come away with a point at the end of that game, because we finish so strong and created incredible openings, but they were fantastic, they are a brilliant team. I think we were a couple of minutes away from winning at Birmingham.
“And now we are playing away from home against the top side in the division, incredible, so it’s very tough fixtures, but it will be lovely to get a victory, for sure.”
Now, focus will shift to the final few hours of the transfer window. Swansea has only signed one player thus far, Ronald, an attacker from Brazil, and Williams says he intends to be busy in the market in the coming days.
He said, “Yeah, I think so,” when asked if he anticipated a hectic few days. “Busy in terms of we are going to be trying to bring the right players in but of course it is very challenging, so I hope it’s busy and I hope it’s fruitful as well.”