Only players who registered this stat are listed — somebody on nought tackles is not part of a tackle ranking, and padding the table with them buries the players who did something. Bars are scaled to the best figure shown; this is a within-match ranking, not a league-wide one.
The opening few minutes of the second half reminded me a little of that Chelsea League Cup game, because we had deservedly gone in ahead and then suddenly found ourselves hit by a one-two before we had really recovered from the first punch. The equaliser was particularly frustrating because it did not feel like the sort of goal we usually concede. We had plenty of bodies behind the ball, but there was a passivity to the defending that was completely at odds with what we had done so well in the first half.
Having players back is not enough on its own if nobody engages, attacks the ball or takes responsibility for ending the move. It felt as though we had a chance to clear the first phase and did not quite deal with it, then suddenly Swansea were alive around our box in a way they had not been for the previous 45 minutes. They had barely touched the ball in our area before the break, but in that move they were allowed several touches in a matter of seconds, and that showed how sharply the intensity had shifted.
The second goal was simply horrible luck. Stephen Eustáquio’s strike took a huge deflection off Towler and wrong-footed George Wickens completely, leaving him with that awful goalkeeper’s moment where the body has already committed one way, and the ball suddenly heads somewhere else. There was very little he could do about it, but conceding twice in such a short space of time completely changed the game state.
As frustrating as that was, Swansea deserve plenty of credit for what followed because they did not simply score twice and retreat. They found a way to disrupt one of the mechanisms we use to build sustained pressure, particularly the way we recycle attacks through Wickens. We often go back to George after a set piece or a cleared cross while the centre-backs are still advanced, allowing him to hit a diagonal back into the attacking area and effectively start the pressure again.
Swansea clearly knew that was coming. They pressed Wickens harder as he prepared to release the ball and pushed their back line up aggressively, which hurried the delivery and occasionally caught us offside. It sounds like a relatively small tactical detail, but it had a big impact because the first-half pressure had been built on Swansea never quite being allowed to escape, whereas after the break those reloads became less clean and they found more ways to get themselves out.
They were also clever when they won second balls, often moving the ball into wider areas rather than allowing us to collapse around it centrally. That was probably the biggest difference between the two halves. In the first, Swansea had possession without really hurting us; in the second, they used it far more intelligently and made it much harder for us to drag the game back into the areas where we had been dominant.
That is why I came away impressed with them rather than simply disappointed with us. I think Swansea are the best side we have seen at Sincil Bank this season, certainly on the evidence of that second half, and there are going to be occasions in the Championship where the opposition simply play well. Not every difficult spell needs to become an investigation into what Lincoln got wrong, because sometimes the other team are good enough to find solutions.
We did try to change the game, and I liked the boldness of the substitutions. We effectively ended up in a 4-4-2, with Hackett operating at left-back at one stage so we could get more attacking players onto the pitch, while Ladefoged, Ogbene and Konak were all introduced to try to shift the momentum. Ladefoged in particular gave us a very different physical presence, but there is still some learning to do around how best to use him when we are chasing a game.
Having a 6ft 8in centre-forward does not automatically mean every ball should be launched towards him from 45 yards. There were moments late on when we became a little too anxious and delivered too early, when another pass might have allowed us to get into a better crossing position. The real value of that sort of target man comes from understanding where the first contact is likely to fall, how the players around him react and which types of delivery make his size most difficult for defenders.
Perhaps the strangest thing about our start is the split between home and away results. Two points at Sincil Bank and nine on the road is not something many of us would have predicted, so finding that first home win is clearly the next challenge. I do not think there is a fundamental problem at home, though, because we are not being physically overwhelmed. You could argue we deserved three points against Blackburn, and maybe one yesterday, which would make the table look very different.
Eight matches into the season, the biggest question I had in August has probably been answered. We look like a Championship side, and while that does not mean there will not be difficult afternoons, we have already shown enough to know we can compete with some of the better teams in this division.
We now need to turn performances like this into a little more reward at home.
Up the Imps.
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