There are teams in football that are not appreciated. They don’t win

week in and week out and to the untrained eye don’t appear to be very

good. Other teams play horrible football, it is a means to an end as

opposed to a tactic and style that inspires hope for the future of

football. We can all agree on that and for the most part, it is stating the obvious.

Of the former, Swansea are a perfect example. Michael Laudrup is

developing a team of footballers that attempted the most passes (621) in

the premier league on saturday which included performances by

Pellegrini’s City, Villas Boas’ Spurs and Wenger’s Arsenal. City were

closest with 551 attempted passes.

Watching Swansea’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal made a few things very clear,

they refused to lump it forward as other teams might have done having

gone behind to a revitalized Arsenal side. They played keep ball, passed

the ball around and made Arsenal work extremely hard. Their full backs

waited for opportune moments to move forward to collect balls when the

wide men had pulled infield, taking the opposite man with them.

In Michael Laudrup, Swansea have a man who is one of many men influenced

heavily by, arguably, the inventor of modern football, Johan Cryuff. He

was a Barcelonista and a major part of Cryuff’s dream team in the early

90’s. He is destined for massive things as a football coach and the

project at Swansea is an example of introducing enjoyable football with

limited resources.

On Saturday, yet again, Laudrup and Swansea were foiled by what looks

like an excellent Southampton side who don’t concede goals. However,

some stats do stand out. Of the top five passers of the ball on

saturday, 4 of them were Swansea players with only Morgan Schneiderlin

sneaking into the top 5 from the opposition.

Cañas(69 attempted passes), Shelvey (59), Rangel (53), Davies (53) and

Schneiderlin (47).

As if that wasn’t enough, Swansea dominated in the attacking third

passing sector aswell. all 5 of the top 5 were Swansea players. Rangel

leading the way with 21 of an attempted 23.

Swansea also led in attempted shots with 17 as opposed to Southampton’s

12. Perhaps efficient shooting is where Swansea need to improve with 7

of them not even troubling the goalkeeper.

It is also a testament to Laudrup that a team who currently lie 15th in

the Premiership have a player in Michu who has been called up to the

current Europen and World Champions of football. He also kept him at the

Liberty Stadium this summer with a host of different clubs sniffing

around for his signature.

A few more examples of Laudrup’s influence? The goal that Ben Davies

scored against Arsenal was reminiscent of a goal scored by the Kings of

the Camp Nou. A meandering run into the box by Davies, head up, neat

one-two with Wilfried Bony and the end result was Davies pretty much

walking the ball into the net. It was neat tight passing that you don’t

generally see from English teams when they are 2-0 down.

Another example is the signing of Jonjo Shelvey. Okay, he is not cut

from the same silk as Messi, Xavi or Iniesta but he has an ability to

throw the ball around effortlessly and see the final pass. Although his

temperament has been questioned, his quality was evident against

Liverpool earlier in the season. Liverpool, a team who had not conceded

prior to the two sides’ meeting were opened up by Shelvey in the opening

minutes. He also had an assist on a well worked goal that day too.

They won’t win the Champions League and won’t ever receive the credit

they probably deserve but when Laudrup goes on to great Eureopean nights

as a manager, we can look back to his time at Swansea and begin to

understand how he believes football should always be played, regardless

of resources.