Beating The Swans
15.00
The Liberty Stadium is neatly situated in the Landore area of Swansea, Wales. With a capacity of 20,750, it is shared by both Swansea City Football Club and the Ospreys. Being the proud first Premier League ground in Wales, it has the lowest capacity of the stadia in the world’s most competitive league.
Swansea City, notoriously known as the football club which was sold for one pound, returned to the top flight via the Championship Play-Off’s under the current Liverpool manager
Brendan Rodgers. They now sit prettily on ninth place under the guidance of the football legend
Michael Landrup and he will be looking for an upset after a crazy few days at the club.
In the away dressing room, I gave my first ever pep talk to the boys and made it absolutely clear that we had to win the game given our poor position in the league. I saw fire in some of the boys’ eyes and Rafael in particular looked motivated.
When the team left for the tunnel, I pulled Scholesy and Carrick aside and told them I had faith in their capabilities to take care of the ball against a team which base their game on possession. They looked happy and went off to join the rest in the tunnel.
The English midfield pair repaid my faith by keeping the ball well in the opening ten minutes, helping the team to sixty-five percent of the possession. And who says the nation has no players who can take good care of the ball?
Despite having majority of the possession, Swansea was looking threatening whenever they had the ball and right after the 13
th minute mark, Kagawa lost out to Tiendalli in the air and the ball broke for the tricky
Pablo Hernandez on the right flank. He collected the ball and cut inside Evra comfortably before clipping the ball cheekily towards the top right hand corner of the goal. De Gea was beaten all ends up and thankfully, the ball cannoned off the frame of the goal before Rio cleared the ball to safety. I was livid as I waved frantically for the players to get closer to Hernandez before he hurt us.
On the 15
th minute, Patrice collected the ball down the left wing before laying it off to Carrick, who in turn delivered a decent ball into the area towards Antonio. The powerful winger rose above Chico and crashed a header past Tremmel onto the bar as we missed a terrific chance to go in front.
We continued dominating the proceedings and on the 20
th minute, from a cleared corner, Rafael volleyed the ball back down the field and found Shinji at the corner of the penalty area. He twisted sharply past two Swansea players and carried the ball menacingly into the area before hitting the ball towards the far corner with his weaker left. To my delight, the ball found its way past Tremmel into the net and the Japanese wizard had given me a great start to my managerial career.
Seven minutes later, we won a free-kick right outside the penalty box and wearing the number seven jersey, Antonio took control of the ball and thundered the ball off the crossbar. With the ball now free in the air, Vida rose high above Williams and nodded the ball into the net, only to be ruled out by the assistant referee for a push on the Swansea captain. The joy we had was short lived.
For the rest of the half, both keepers had nothing much to do before the referee blew for half-time. Back in the dressing room, majority of the boys seemed composed and I warned them against complacency. Rafael, Patrice and Scholesy responded positively while goal scorer Shinji was looking to switch off after looking the best player in the first half. I sent the team back out early as there was no need to make changes to a game plan which worked to near perfection in the first period.
We started the half on fire and continued to create the more dangerous openings and on the 53
rd minute, we won a free-kick inside Swansea’s half. Scholesy waved the players forward before sending a delicious ball right in between the Swansea’s defense and their keeper. Carrick broke free of his marker and rose to knock the ball past the hapless Tremmel to put us two goals up.
The two central midfielders had combined superbly to get us the all-important second goal and the away fans broke into a familiar chorus of ‘Hard to believe it’s not Scholes, it’s Carrick, you know…’ Both Carrick and Scholesy saluted the fans as the team jogged back in delight towards the center circle.
On the hour mark, I made my first substitutions, bringing on Ando and van Persie for the tiring Scholesy and Wayne respectively. Wayne had a nervy game upfront on his own and did nothing to justify his selection ahead of the Dutch striker. Ando looked happy after I gave him a pat of faith to his back.
Fifteen minutes from the end, the pair of substitutes made use of their extra energy and combined superbly to put the team three goals up. Shinji cuts inside skillfully before sliding a well weighted pass into Ando’s path. The Brazilian midfielder sent the ball through for the mobile Dutch superstar with one touch and the man they call RVP put the ball comfortably past the Swansea keeper with great composure. The points were in the bag.
Ten minutes from time, I withdrew the exhausted Carrick for Nani, with the Portugese enigma taking Shinji’s place down the left wing and the Japanese attacker tucking in behind van Persie in a new 4-2-3-1 formation. The boys closed the game out comfortably and I was off to a great start.
Three goals. Three points. Bring on Southampton.
Swansea 0 – 3 Man United (Goals: Shinji Kagawa 21, Michael Carrick 53, Robin van Persie 75)