Coventry City inflict ‘whole world of pain’ on Luke Williams as Swans boss pinpoints 'massive' difference
Luke Williams admitted he had to make a swift exit down the tunnel after the final whistle of Swansea’s 2-0 defeat to Coventry City – a game that he said had left him in a “whole world of pain.”
The Swans’ head coach not only rued the loss of his captain and best player, Matt Grimes, to the Sky Blues but admitted that his players simply “couldn’t cope” with Frank Lampard’s front two of Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas-Asante who, he said, were the “difference” between the two sides, coupled with Grimes’ departure.
Explaining why he’d changed shape to a back three, a dejected Williams explained in his post-match press conference: “I tried to give us more bodies in the middle of the pitch. Losing Matty, it’s tough to replace him, of course, and yes, we tried to change things a little bit to see if we could adapt.
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“I think the front two for Coventry really caused us a lot of problems and that was the big difference between the two teams. I think the best side won but I think they caused us a huge problem. We weren’t able to cope with them.”
He added: “It is very, very difficult to be the same type of team without Matt Grimes. For the moment we need to find a way to control the game again. We made some good openings in behind but we got there and didn’t make enough of them, but I certainly agree that we were more direct than we have been but that was more down to personnel than anything else. We didn’t have the quality today to cause them a significant problem.”
Explaining what happened in the build-up to Thomas-Asante’s goal – a 40-yard lob of the keeper, he said: “Yes, there was a mistake as Goncalo (Franco) slips, but he’s a long way from goal and he hits it brilliantly well. And Vigs (Lawence Vigouroux) doesn’t pick up the flight of the ball quickly enough and that’s it, game over.
“Simms does brilliant for the first goal, wrestles Cyrus Christie inside the box with a kind of lost cause ball and then he makes a pass to Thomas-Asante who wriggles away in the box and hits the ball firmly across the six yard box and Simms is there to tuck it in. And then Asante scores his goal with like a one in a million. But as I say, their front two caused a massive, massive problem for us today.”
Asked why he went straight down the tunnel after the game and what was going through your mind at that point, Williams said: “I’m in a world of pain, a whole world of pain, so I needed a few moments, honestly, to myself to try to compose myself to speak to the players and the media in the correct way.
“We have had some poor results and we have just lost our captain who was a huge influence on the team, so it’s been an incredibly tough week and it’s something that’s going to define many of us, whether we can come through it.
“There has been nobody who has managed this club without Matt Grimes for a long time. But nothing is forever and we now have to find a new future.”
