Cooper: We’re fourth because we deserve it
SWANSEA City’s tough run continued as they lost 1-0 to Preston North End at the Liberty Stadium on Monday.
Here’s everything Steve Cooper had to say after the game.
Another disappointing day at the office. How would you sum it up?
SC:
We’re really disappointed. We didn’t do enough in the game to win and we’ve lost it – you could say a little bit unfortunately with the ricochets and how it’s ended up going in.
That’s three long throws in three games where we’ve conceded goals from and lost. I know the game against Birmingham was a penalty, but it’s exactly the same really where we’re not clearing the first one or the second, and in the end we’re letting the opposition get into goal-scoring areas. That’s an issue.
We know that we’re not looking as much of a threat as we should do. We don’t look like scoring a goal enough. They’re the two things that are playing on my mind at the moment.
How much of a concern are those defensive errors given that you previously had the best defence in the league?
SC:
I’m not going to hide away from any of this, we’re not keeping clean sheets and we’re not winning.
We’ve got to stand up and be counted here and tackle it head on.
In terms of conceding goals, out of the four games we’ve lost – Bournemouth was a different one – but it’s three games on the run of not dealing with long throws. We’ve only got ourselves to blame with that.
No shots on target. How worrying is that?
SC:
Well it is, it’s no goals in four games. There were blocks, so you’ve got to be careful with the stats, but still we’re not looking enough like scoring a goal.
We changed the shape, we tried to get some width in the game with offensive players. Little glimpses in the second half of what we wanted it to look like, but certainly not enough to be the threat that we should be, especially here at home.
I’m not dressing it up, I’m not making excuses. We’re falling short at the top end of the pitch, and it’s not just the attacking players, it’s the whole team.
Are players lacking confidence? SC:
I’ve not seen it on the training ground and I’m not seeing it when I’m speaking to them.
There’s no doubt that we’re not hitting the heights. We’re not playing with as much personality as we’ve shown before. I get it, it can be like this at this stage of the season when there’s so much to play for, wherever you are in the league.
Obviously for us it’s a promotion
chase. It’s about dealing with that.
What we’ve got to do is fight even more, stand up and be counted even more. I understand we’re not in a very good moment. We won’t be hiding away from it. I certainly won’t.
The Watford, Reading and Norwich home games were examples of what you can do. You’ve not been able to replicate those.
SC:
Nothing’s changed with our work and with our approach to games.
Does it need to change? SC:
Well we changed the shape today. We’ve tried to be as offensive as we can, and we’ve tried to be that all the way through the season and we’ve just played better previously to the last month or so.
We’ve got to believe in our work, I’ve got to believe in the players. We’ve shown we can perform at a good level and we’re got to work even harder to try and get back to that standard and it’s only us that can do it.
We can’t look outside our own circle, and that starts with me, and the players I know will do the same.
Still right up there to challenge?
SC: That’s the lens we’re going to have. We know the last four games have not been good enough, and those really disappointing stats that run along those losses.
But we’re still fourth in the league, there’s still seven games to play. We’ve got to try and step away from it a little bit, put things in perspective and say ‘come on then, there’s still loads to play for.’ We’re not going to give up. Let’s go.
Is the focus now to stay in the top six?
SC:
We won’t give up on above, but of course the teams in the top two picking up a lot more points than us makes that difficult.
We won’t give up. We’ve just got to get back to winning games. That’s all that matters now is winning games. Of course we want to do it by performances, we want to be confident, and it’s hard. But at the end of the day, success isn’t easy. You’ve got to get through the rocky patches.
If somebody said we were going to be fourth with seven games to go right at the start of season, I think a lot of people would have taken it.
We’ve got to put things in perspective, put a little bit of context on the situation and use that as motivation to get through this difficult period. Because as I said, we’re going through one.
You’ve got to deal with the downs to get what you deserve in the end.
Is it difficult just to focus on yourselves given other results?
SC:
I saw the results and I don’t think any of them have gone for us, but that’s our fault. You’ve got to look after your own business first and foremost, then you have a look and see what difference elsewhere makes.
Today, not good. But we’ve still got a lot of things in our hands and we’ve got to take confidence from that situation and really fight for what we want.
Have you been victims of your own early success?
SC:
You don’t want to be giving false hope to anybody, but we’re in this position in the league because we deserve to be, so we should take confidence from that.
Stand up and be counted, I’ll be first in line. I’m not backing away from anything and hope we can turn this around and get out of it.