Clement ‘very frustrated’ as Swans fail to impress
Paul Clement last night slammed his stars for what they offered up against Newcastle – and left them in no doubt their efforts were not good enough.
And he admitted the one-goal margin did little to sum up the difference between the sides’ performance levels as he hit out at his own players for failing to even get the basics right.
In arguably his most damning assessment of his side’s display since taking charge in January, boss Clement admitted he couldn’t explain why his players struggled so badly when the ground had been filled with such excitement ahead of the debuts of Renato Sanches and Wilfried Bony.
And he accepted the 1-0 defeat was a missed opportunity as a Jamaal Lascelles header was enough to give the Toon only their third win in 11 Premier League games against the Swans.
In a measured but stinging reaction to the game, Clement said: “That was very very frustrating and I’m not quite sure why it turned out like that; I’m finding it difficult to understand why I saw what I saw.
“I’m very disappointed with the way that we played because although the margin of defeat is very small, ultimately decided by a set-play, for me the difference in the two teams in the performance was much greater than that. I thought they were better than us.
“We made too many mistakes, we gave the ball away too often. Even right up to the end, where we did continue to push, we couldn’t get a decent ball into the box. That wasn’t good enough but our shape didn’t cause them enough problems. We got the overload in midfield but we never got control of the game. Some of the basics we never got right, just that competitiveness.
“I said to the players in the dressing room, there’s all the makebelieve stuff, what’s written in the paper and how we think it’s going to go, and then there’s the reality of what actually happens. I think we missed an opportunity, I really do. They’re a good, well organised side but we should have done better.”
Reports & ratings: Sport Wales