Suited and booted, Bob Bradley at least looked the part this week after opting for a wardrobe change, yet the transformation on the pitch under the new manager will have to wait after Swansea City’s winless run stretched to eight matches. There were positives for the American to take, notably the performance of Modou Barrow and the sight of Alfie Mawson playing so well on his Premier League debut, yet the harsh reality is that this was two points dropped.
Without a victory since the opening day, Swansea remain in the relegation zone, second from bottom and with a tricky run of fixtures to come, starting with a trip to Stoke on Monday week. A win in Bradley’s first home game in charge would have lifted some of the gloom and it so nearly arrived during a second half when Barrow tormented Watford with his pace and trickery, Gylfi Sigurdsson hit the upright and Heurelho Gomes denied Mike Van der Hoorn from point-blank range.
It was that sort of day for Swansea at the end of a very difficult week, during which the club’s supporters’ trust voiced their unhappiness that Huw Cooze, their elected director on the board, was not notified by the owners of the decision to replace Francesco Guidolin with Bradley.
In the match programme, Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan, who bought a majority stake in Swansea in the summer, apologised for their actions. “Not informing him sooner as to our ultimate choice was an error on our part and for which we take full responsibility,” they wrote.
Bradley, in fairness, received a warm ovation from the Swansea fans before the match. He also showed that he is not afraid to ruffle a few feathers among the players when he made five chances to the team, including dropping both centre-backs, Jordi Amat and Federico Fernández.
Whether Bradley can find firepower in this team, however, is another matter, with the lack of confidence in front of goal brutally exposed.
“We have to trust the fact that if we work the right way, if our football gets better, if we compete better, if we do all these little things to improve, the points will come,” he said.
“I’m disappointed. As we were going through the second half, there were a number of occasions where I thought: ‘Here it is.’ But when it doesn’t come, I don’t want to forget the things that for me were very positive.”
Mawson’s display was among them. Signed from Barnsley in the summer, the 22-year-old acquitted himself well alongside Van der Hoorn, who had arguably the best chance of the game when he stabbed Sigurdsson’s free-kick towards goal only for Gomes to block with his legs. Sigurdsson later shot tamely into the arms of the Watford keeper and swept a 20-yard effort on to the foot of the post – both opportunities arriving following excellent work from the lively Barrow.
Watford, who are ninth in the table and on a decent run of form, seemed content to play on the counterattack, especially after the interval, and threatened only sporadically. Valon Behrami was aggrieved that Paul Tierney, the referee, failed to point to the spot when he went down under a challenge from Kyle Naughton – it looked more like a tangle of legs – and the substitute Nordin Amrabat snatched at a half-chance after breaking through in the inside-left channel.
As for Bradley, at least his attire was an improvement on the all-black outfit he wore at Arsenal. “I have to wait to see the reviews tomorrow,” he said, smiling. “I’m still trying to figure what out works over here.”
