Swansea manager Bob Bradley admits it will be a 'long hard' battle for Premier league survival
Sunday 20 November 2016 14:19, UK
Swansea manager Bob Bradley is not afraid to make difficult decisions and will continue to ask tough questions of his players in his bid for Premier League survival.
An 11th match without a league win dropped Swansea to the bottom of the table on Saturday when they were denied a win thanks to an 89th-minute Everton equaliser at Goodison Park.
Bradley made wholesale changes - eight in all - for the first match back after the international break having been unhappy with what he witnessed in their previous outing in the 3-1 defeat to Manchester United.
The American's appointment has been criticised by some because he has no experience of English football and - while two points from his first five matches highlights the magnitude of the job ahead of him - he is not prepared to allow his players to get off lightly.
"There are different factors," he said when asked why he had made so many changes.
"It was an international break, there are a few injuries but make no mistake, we looked at the game against Manchester United and the last 30-something minutes of the first half we agreed that is not who we are.
"We played with no intensity and I told the players if any part of the message for the tactics for that game were part of the problem, then I'll put my hand up and take all the responsibility.
"We talked about still being able to keep the ball better, talked about defensively being stronger, so there was a real effort to correct something we're just not satisfied with.
"That is part of the reason for the changes. When you have guys who are inconsistent, that also goes hand-in-hand with a team not playing at the level it should be."
Bradley bemoaned more defensive lapses as having taken the lead through Gylfi Sigurdssonn's penalty just before half-time, a weak header by Jordi Amat a minute before the end allowed Coleman to equalise.
"This was still encouraging but at the same time (it is about) knowing how to see games out," he said.
"We still have a tendency not to clear balls and usually you pay the price; that has happened more than once in the 12 games this year.
"You have to understand that to become a more complete team you have to be better from start to finish in every category. The road ahead is a long and hard one but one we can definitely handle."
