Carlos joy after last-gasp drama
AFTER this wonderful mess of a match, Swansea’s fifth manager in the past two years sat back and found some clarity in the chaos.
‘Before the game I said if you ask 100 people, 100 will say we will be relegated,’ recalled Carlos Carvalhal. ‘In this moment, in 100, 98 will say we will be rele- gated. Maybe two people will look now and say maybe not.’
He allowed himself a little grin at that, this voice of reason at a club that has spent the better part of three years shouting at its own shadow.
There won’t be any overhyping of this result, no wild proclamations that the funny end of a funny game marks the beginning of their salvation — Swansea’s problems are far too deep for that kind of carry on.
But they have found a slither of hope in a hopeless situation after winning a match in which they were trailing 1-0 at 86 minutes. Until that point, it was all so bleak, more splat than new-manager bounce, with Andre Carrillo having headed Watford ahead in the 11th minute.
And then came the mad finale, with Jordan Ayew equalising on 86 minutes before Luciano Narsingh, Carvalhal’s first substitute as Swansea manager, won it in stoppage time.
Again, optimism must be kept in check. But Swansea are off the bottom and will settle for anything approaching a positive vibe right now, having endured what they have this season, with dross on the field and squabbling off it. As recently as Friday, Huw Jenkins, the chairman, admitted any spending money next month will have to come from sales, with the echoing sound of a towel being chucked in.
But this win shows there is at the least a memory of how to fight in this weakest of squads.
Good on Carvalhal for bringing it out of them just two days after his arrival, which in turn came only four days after he was sacked by Sheffield Wednesday. A bewildering appointment, yes, but for now it is going just fine.
‘I am happy with what I saw,’ he said. ‘We will be better because with more training to change the dynamic we will be better. It is not a case that after one game it will be flowers and birds — it will be very hard. ‘But we are growing as a team.’ Carvalhal’s immediate predecessor Leon Britton has turned down a role in the new manager’s backroom staff. Britton, who was Swansea’s caretaker manager for two matches prior to the Portuguese’s appointment, said: ‘While I enjoyed the coaching experience and learnt a lot in a short space of time, I still feel I can have a positive impact on the pitch as a player.’
For Watford’s Marco Silva, it was a fifth defeat in seven and one he will question after Molla Wague had a goal harshly disallowed for a gentle push in the area during the second half. There was also the sting of Andre Gray missing a one-on-one at 1-0 and a whiff of offside about Ayew’s equaliser.
‘It’s a big disappointment for all of us,’ Silva said. ‘I think we did enough to win this match. Our opponent shot once on our goal early on and they didn’t create one chance until they went 1-1. We had enough chances to kill the match.’
On Wague’s disallowed goal, for a push on Tammy Abraham, he said: ‘I didn’t see a big fault. For me it is a normal contact for the Premier League. But I don’t want to put an excuse on the referee. We look to ourselves first.’
As well they should. Watford were controlling this match, with Richarlison and Tom Cleverley going close before a defensive shambles from Swansea allowed the home side to open the scoring. It really was a study in multiple errors.
First up it was Federico Fernandez losing out in the scramble with Stefano Okaka near halfway for a high ball, then it was Kyle Naughton, whose woeful positioning at right-back was exposed by Okaka’s pass to Richarlison. His shot from the left was weakly parried by Lukasz Fabianski and Carrillo was left free to head in the rebound, despite five defenders in reasonable proximity.
Clearly, the defence is a major area for Carvalhal to fix. But the more pressing cause has always been the attack and there was a trace of improvement in that regard here, even before the late flurry of goals.
The intensity of passing was better, if still some way short of threatening, and there was greater intent and willingness to take the ball.
On that latter point, Renato Sanches had his first start since November and despite a woeful first half he kept searching for possession and got stronger as the game went on.
Perhaps there is hope in the Portuguese. Perhaps there is hope for Swansea.