Swansea City Fan View: Stumbling our way to relegation

After another loss on Saturday, Swansea City are now back in the relegation zone with two games to play. It’s not looking good.

The team has returned to the same shocking form they displayed under Paul Clement. This is all the more depressing following such a promising start from Carlos Carvalhal.

Since beating West Ham 4-1 at the start of March, the Swans haven’t won a game. Ridiculous. That’s seven games with points squandered. Just one win in any of those matches would have changed the entire approach to the end of the season. Even an extra draw or two would have helped ease the pressure.

Instead, the team missed their chances and are now forced to beat Southampton tonight to have a chance of staying up.

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The standard party line churned out by management and players is, ‘This is a cup final’. So why the hell they continue to play like it’s a pre-season friendly beats me.

Still, Swansea could be in a worse position. For now, survival is still in our own hands. Thank you Everton for equalising against the Saints on Saturday with the last kick of the match. We can also take a tiny bit of comfort that, after playing us, Southampton will have to find some points against Man City, whereas we only have to take on already-relegated Stoke.

(I say ‘only’ – watch Stoke batter Swansea next weekend, as Southampton nick three points against the champions…)

The truth is that Southampton seem a lot more capable and up for the battle than the Swans.

Carlos Carvalhal must take some of the blame for his negative tactics. Playing five at the back in crucial matches where we needed to have a go has proved a big mistake. His poor subs haven’t helped.

But the majority of the players (Fabianski and Roberts excluded) need to look at themselves too. They are the ones who are paid to put in the effort and they are the ones constantly under-performing.

Of course, the biggest portion of the blame still lies in the boardroom, with those who failed to equip the squad properly. This has been the case all season, but it’s really starting to take its toll now, with zero creativity in a bargain bin squad.

What a mess.

How do we approach Southampton? If the squad actually live up to their words and play like it is a cup final – and the Liberty Stadium crowd do the job of recreating a cup final atmosphere – then we may have a chance.

There are calls to dust off Leon Britton and Angel Rangel, as both players – while past their prime – have more club pride than all of their teammates put together.

That’s something that is needed and it’s probably a good call.

But, when a club is relying on a 35-year-old midfielder who has barely played this season, and a 35-year-old right back on the verge of retirement, is it even a club worthy of remaining in the Premier League?