Steve Cooper has gone in hard on his Swansea City players with the kind of determination and sense of purpose they were wholly lacking in their abject FA Cup display at QPR.
Cooper may have hedged his bets with an under-strength line-up for their third round tie a week before the club’s Championship showdown at Cardiff City, but he clearly expected a lot more than the pacifist’s performance put up in their 5-1 defeat.
Cooper, who was in charge of a team for the first time in the FA Cup, made one of the most damning accusations that a manager can make of his players – that they didn’t even care.
He said: “I am not happy with the performance and I regret the result, but that was an experienced team I thought would try – and was capable of playing better, and winning.
“I don’t think some of our boys who played over Christmas could have gone again today. It is a bit crazy, the schedule, you are asking a lot.
“But today was self-inflicted. Every goal we could have done better. If you are not willing to play with bit of heart and soul, you can get run over.”
Jordan Hugill scored twice as QPR comfortably secured a place in the fourth round.
In-form Bright Osayi-Samuel also netted for Rangers, who are on a roll following the recent 6-1 hammering of Cardiff and were three up by half-time.
Swansea City’s American owners hadn’t embarrassed me in weeks. This was way overdue.
— Lone Star Jack 🇺🇸 (@mtumulty) January 5, 2020
Substitute George Byers netted for Swansea in the second half but Lee Wallace’s brilliant volley with 14 minutes remaining and an even better strike from Josh Scowen in added time completed the rout.
Cooper added: “Players had a chance to stake a claim today. That wasn’t us. Not often have I questioned attitude, but I am today. We will get criticism, me included, and I am fuming. I can’t accept not trying.
“There’s not many times I’ve questioned attitude and belief, but I have today. It’s self-inflicted. We’ve got no-one to blame but ourselves. Our basics of attacking and particularly defending were nowhere near the average, never mind beyond that.
“Unfortunately, if you’re not willing to get up to people to tackle and to intercept, you run the risk of conceding chances and goals, that’s what happened today. I thought every goal, we could have done better defensively.
“They were ruthless in putting their chances away; it meant we had no room for error.”
“I’ve learned that you can’t lie down when you’re getting beat. You must stand up and fight – even when the going gets tough. You must try to lead by example.
“I was trying to help get the most out of everyone by continually communicating and showing a desire to get back into the game. I must do the most of what is in my control and go from there.”
QPR have scored 11 goals in just two games in all competitions in 2020 (6-1 v Cardiff, 5-1 v Swansea), the first time they’ve scored 5+ goals in back to back games since August 1962.
