Duff bemoaned his side’s defensive sloppiness in the defeat at Portman Road.
Although Michael Duff, the manager of Swansea City, believes his team “shot themselves in the foot” defensively against Ipswich Town on Saturday, he also admits there were some encouraging aspects of the loss in Suffolk.
The Swans, who had taken the lead via Jay Fulton, were defeated by goals from Jack Taylor, Conor Chaplin, and George Hirst’s penalty kick, though Jamal Lowe did score a late second.
Duff thinks that his team’s incapacity to handle Ipswich’s set-piece threat—a problem that has proven difficult for them in the past—was the cause of all three goals they gave up and Liam Cullen’s dismissal.
In fact, Swansea has been putting a lot of effort into improving their stability in that area over the last several weeks, and coach Martyn Margetson’s efforts are acknowledged as having had a significant impact on the noticeable progress in recent weeks.
Prior to the trip to East Anglia, the Swans were actually the second-best team in the league in terms of goals allowed from set pieces.
“After the game, I thought there were some really good parts of our game,” Duff remarked. “But in the end, if you boil down the match to its most basic elements, we’ve lost to a 35-yard screaming goal, given up a penalty from a set-piece, and had a player sent off from a throw-in.
“In the end, it’s three set plays versus a really strong team. We had excellent ball control and got off to a fast start in the game, but after a crazy fifteen minutes, we shot ourselves in the foot. Nevertheless, we managed to recover.
“I believed we were great when we were down to 10 men. That section of the performance tells you everything when nine minutes have passed and there are 10 men wasting time. Thus, while there were parts of the character that I truly liked, it’s ultimately annoying.
People are fallible. In my opinion, we have the second-best set play defense in the league. But it only makes everything more frustrating. You would accept being defeated by a superior squad if we had came here and were inept and lost 4-0.
However, I believe that we played some really nice parts of our game today. I believe some of the work that has been done is visible. All we need to do is keep chipping away.
“As I mentioned before, I’d want to see us reach a position where we’re controlling the ball and maintaining clean sheets. Right now, we’re working on little projects rather than the entire package.”
In the final ten minutes of the loss, Dane Scarlett’s late tackle on Matt Grimes infuriated Duff. Grimes received extensive treatment after the Ipswich replacement was given a yellow card for tackling on the edge of the Swansea box. At one time, Josh Tymon also needed medical assistance from the crew.
“Those were bad choices,” he continued. “It seems like a fairly poor tackle on Grimes. He’s off his feet and out of control. I believe they have survived it [unharmed].
We work with a group of twelve or thirteen people, and five or six of them are departing for an overseas break, so we won’t be able to see them for a week. This is frustrating since we only have a two-week holiday. Therefore, playing 11v11 with six or seven players will be challenging.
“So it’s another bit of frustration.”
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