Wednesday 20 December 2017 23:04, UK
We examine the problems which ultimately cost Paul Clement his job as Swansea City head coach.
Clement earned widespread plaudits for steering Swansea to Premier League survival following his appointment in January last season, but he has been sacked less than a year into his tenure with the club bottom of the table.
Relegation fears are mounting at the Liberty Stadium with the club four points adrift of safety and the board have opted to sack a manager in December for the third year in a row. Here, we look at what went wrong...
There was cause for optimism at Swansea in the summer. Clement's side had avoided the drop with an impressive run of four wins from their last five games of the previous season, and a string of expensive new signings further raised expectations around the Liberty Stadium.
The new faces were exciting but Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente have been missed and the recruitment has not had the desired effect. Renato Sanches, an incredible coup when he arrived on loan from Bayern Munich, has endured a particularly wretched start, dropping out of the squad altogether after he was substituted midway through Swansea's defeat to Chelsea last month.
Sam Clucas and Roque Mesa arrived at a combined cost of £28m but have also struggled to hold down their places in the team. And with the goals drying up for Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham, Swansea were dealt a further blow this week when Wilfried Bony - who had recently hit the net against Stoke and West Brom - limped off five minutes into Monday's 3-1 defeat at Everton.
With just 10 goals scored in 18 games so far, Swansea have the worst scoring record in the Premier League by a distance. It is partly down to poor finishing - their shot conversion rate is a meagre nine per cent - but the bigger issue is a glaring lack of creativity.
According to Opta, Swansea have created just 99 chances this season - 10 fewer than any other Premier League side and an average of 5.5 per game. A closer look at the stats reveals that defender Kyle Naughton is the only player in the squad to have even reached double figures from open play.
While eight teams have conceded more goals than the 25 Swansea have let in this season, their problems are not restricted to the top end of the pitch. No team has faced more shots on target than the 95 Swansea have allowed at their goal, and their plight would be even worse if not for Lukasz Fabianski, who boasts the third-best save percentage (73.9 per cent) of regular Premier League goalkeepers.
The number of chances they are conceding points to systemic failures.Under Clement, the defenders were exposed by a midfield which was not functioning either defensively or offensively. Clement's successor must find a way to shore things up if they are to turn Swansea's season around.
Swansea's problems have been exasperated by a loss of confidence. "It's been no secret that the team has been down on confidence," said Clement in November. "The players always go out with the intention to do their best, but confidence and poor form can have such a big effect on the way a team plays."
The issue is most evident in Sanches. The 20-year-old was regarded as one of the most exciting young players in Europe after his breakthrough with Portugal at Euro 2016, but after a difficult spell at Bayern Munich he has found little respite in a relegation dogfight at the Liberty Stadium. Sanches's days at Swansea look numbered, but Clement has departed before him.
