By Paul Jones
Luke Williams reckons he has identified Swansea City’s problem – his players are too afraid to score goals.
The Swans head coach came to that conclusion after watching his team fail to win for the fourth successive match as they lost 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers.
As in their previous three matches during their winless streak, his team created chances but failed to take any of them.
As a result, the club have slipped away from the play-off positions and are now back in 13th place in the Championship – six points adrift of Rovers, who occupy sixth place.
“The problem is so obvious,” said Williams.
“We have to find the opportunity, not the threat. At the moment, in my opinion, it’s not a quality problem. We’re creating enough openings.
Blackburn Rovers moved into the Championship play-off places as Tyrhys Dolan’s early strike was enough to see off Swansea City at Ewood Park.#BBCFootball
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) October 20, 2024
“But the mindset is that it’s a threat and the fear of missing creeps in rather than the excitement of scoring.
“You have to be in a great place to not let those things creep in and to see the moments as great opportunities for you to be sliding on your knees and celebrating with your fans.”
Tyrhys Dolan’s second goal of the season was enough to end a two-match losing streak for Blackburn and move them back into the top six.
Swansea had enough of the ball and play but could not apply the finishing touch, with Florian Bianchini and Goncalo Franco both missing gilt-edged opportunities either side of the break.
They are now winless in four and have failed to score in four of their five away games.
Williams added: “I’m disappointed with how we started the game.
“I thought we were slow, we were second in most of the duels and we paid the price today. We got to grips with the game too late.
WORRYING STAT!
Swansea City have failed to score in their last 345 minutes played.
Our last goal came through Ben Cabango vs Bristol City in the 15th minute. pic.twitter.com/E9mnv48XIK
— SwanseaHQ (@HqSwansea) October 19, 2024
“There’s a foul in there (the build-up to the goal) but it’s pointless talking about that because there’ll be times when we make fouls in the box because everyone is fouling everyone from every single set-piece.
“I’m not really concerned about that. The fact that we allowed pressure on ourselves and conceded corners, that’s the real problem for me.
Blackburn manager John Eustace said: “I’m just very proud of the efforts today.
“It’s been two weeks where we’ve all been very angry and frustrated about the way we finished just before the international break – two difficult away games in that four-day period.
“It’s been a tough two weeks, but we’ve done a lot of hard work on the training field and you can see that coming out today.
“We fully deserved the win. Swansea had lots of possession but I don’t think Aynsley Pears had a save to make so that’s what we were working on.
There’s the old adage that the definition is insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different outcome. That’s Swansea City right now.
The Swans: now the lowest scorers in the Championship. Share your player ratings below…https://t.co/NgfnpmPO8V pic.twitter.com/1Hst0eB2yC
— JackArmy.net (@swansnews) October 19, 2024
“We always looked a threat on transitions. I thought we played some really good football as well at times, especially in the first half, so very pleasing.
“We had three or four great chances to score before the goal.
“As I say, Swansea are a really good footballing team. They set up very well so it’s important we respect that fact. I don’t think they had a shot on target, so I’m really pleased.”
