Swansea City manager Paul Clement has claimed that his side “deserve to be bottom” following their 2-1 loss to Stoke City.
Swansea took the lead after just three minutes through Wilfried Bony, but conceded two goals within four minutes just before half time.
Bottom of the table
Speaking to the gathered press, Clement said: "We deserve to be bottom. We deserve to be bottom because we’re losing too many games, we’re not consistent enough through a 90 minute period.”
“I believe we’ve gone bottom of the table today.” The 45-year-old said. “I can’t say that we’re unlucky, I can’t say that is the case. We’ve lost eight games by one goal. We’ve lost 10 games now, it’s not been through misfortune.”
The former Bayern Munich manager looked very dejected in his post-match press conference, and went on to admit: “There’s nowhere else to go but up, we’re at the bottom of the table and certainly not a position we’re very happy about being in. We’re a very disappointed team, club, dressing room. Clearly the situation is not very good.
“The players we’ve got need to do better. I need to do better. The backroom staff need to do better. We’re not doing well enough.”
Swansea now sit 20th in the table following Crystal Palace’s 0-0 draw away to West Brom, and have won just one game from their last 12.
Can Swansea improve?
In a scathing analysis of his team, Clement said: “The team are working in a very focussed, professional manner Monday to Friday but what matters most is three o’clock on a Saturday.”
He went on to say that his side “started the game very well, good goal and after that I thought we played some decent football until the mistake where Leroy [Fer] was dispossessed in a very dangerous area and they capitalised on that.”
Clement added that the turnaround is “very characteristic of us at this point now, mentally we’re not in a good state. You go down having led, and we didn’t play well from that point.”
When asked if Clement had the players to turn fortunes around, he said: “Yes I do, we’ve got a team that is struggling as a team. We’ve got individuals that are not playing particularly well. There’s no point me sitting and moaning about the last transfer window, talking about the next transfer windows.”
He added: “I showed last year that I’m capable of working at this level, 29 points over 19 games [Clement’s record last season] was a big effort. It’s nowhere near as good this season.”
Next up for Clement and Swansea is West Brom at home, where they face a new manager after Alan Pardew took over at The Hawthorns.