Swansea 3-0 Leeds quick thoughts ... Woeful.

Formation

Firstly I'll comment on the formation. Exactly what I feared, happened. Kilkenny and Howson were chosen as a midfield two against the pace and incisive passing of Swansea's five-man midfield. As anybody could have predicted we were overran with such ease it was just painful to watch. This was definitely not the time to roll out the four man midfield. Watt could have played in the hole, Bruce can be crowbar-ed in at defensive midfield and even Sam could have been used, with Snoddy playing in behind Becchio. Those who doubt Johnson's integral nature to the eleven were proven wrong.

Weak midfield and Kilkenny

I'll be sure to give a portion of my match review as a rant at Kilkenny because I don't know how any Leeds fan has rated him this season. He's not the reason the 4-5-1 succeeds and isn't behind any of our success himself, he adds little to nothing in all reality. The 4-5-1 succeeds just because there is an extra man in midfield, it could be anybody. This allows us to keep two players deeper and play Howson higher up the pitch behind Becchio. The 4-4-2 was never going to work today with Kilkenny's presence, his lack of athleticism and willingness to track costs us and gifted them a through ball for their third, Howson tracked his man, Kilkenny stood still and Dobbie ran alone to free Moore. Frankly, he might as well not have been on the pitch today the amount of times he failed to tackle, didn't bother tracking, and failed to show his reported passing ability.

McCartney 

Secondly, I'll single out George McCartney. Pre-match I'd called for him to provide a top drawer performance to be able to cope with Dyer. What we actually saw was a masterclass in defending cowardice as he backed off and backed off, leaving Gradel to do the tackling, and resulting in the gift of a penalty to the Swans. He had no answer for Dyer and knew his pace and trickery would cause him all kinds of issues. He's flattered to deceive and he's now been exposed. There will be calls for a Ben Parker recall, and with him at least we can guarantee an all effort performance for the shirt.

Display lacking desire

Lastly in this brief rant, the lack of sharpness, desire and running was worrying, bar Gradel, who put in more than his fair share as usual. The team failed to get tight to Swansea men as they consistently found space and passed round our undermanned midfield. They did this so well to us and left us without many ideas throughout the games entirety. Usually we don't suffer in the effort and commitment department and I believe it is more that we just couldn't cope with Swansea's incisive play and set up. Without a physical presence alongside Howson, or playing a 4-5-1 we were never going to contain them. It mystifies me as to why we didn't match them up as their dominance in possession began to show.

The penalty incident (despite it being stone wall) I doubt would have made a difference to us, Swansea were far too dominant. They managed 70% possession for example in the first half. We were just outplayed by the better side on the day for a combination of their brilliance - Sinclair and Dyer and our above shortfalls. Again though we were on the receiving end of Premier League quality officials and they were again woeful.

Where from here..?

Hopefully this is the spark of another good run as the first Cardiff game was, and hopefully the players will buck up, with the visit of injury hit Doncaster being the perfect chance to remedy this result. Before then, Simon needs to get the search for loanees stepped up as we have nothing to change the centre of midfield and nothing in the way of backup - he doesn't even feel as if he can play Sam/Watt with Snoddy in the hole and Kilkenny/Howson deeper. We are thin and with Leicester and their quality looming large, it is beginning to look ever so slightly ominous.