Roy Keane and Joleon Lescott slam John Swift after what he did for West Brom in FA Cup clash v Wolves
Joleon Lescott and Roy Keane have slammed West Brom midfielder John Swift for an incident during the Baggies’ FA Cup fourth-round defeat to Wolves.
The Baggies bowed out of the competition with a 2-0 defeat to their black country rivals on Sunday (28 January) with Pedro Neto’s left-footed strike late and Matheus Cunha’s second-half effort proving to be the difference between the two sides.
While the Portuguese winger earned plenty of praise for his effort, both Keane and Lescott were unimpressed with Swift’s attempted tackle, slamming him for a lack of fight and passion especially in such a big derby game.
Speaking on ITV1 (28 January, 12:38) Lescott said: “Swift must be aware that his only role in that defensive scenario is if Neto cuts inside, you know he’s going to try and cut inside because he favours that stronger foot.
“But here, you’re looking at him, none of them look like they’re in control. None of them look like they’re able to affect what Neto wants to do. When he cuts inside, Swift for some reason doesn’t halt his run. He’s trying to get on the same line as Townsend.”
Keane agreed saying: “We can look at Swift and say that’s not one of his strengths, but you’ve got to do better than that! We’re talking about the passion of a big derby game. You’ve got to do better.”
Have to do better
The opening goal was incredibly frustrating to watch from a West Brom point of view, with the corner under-hit so that it could be easily picked out by the away side who then broke with incredible pace up the field.
However, there were plenty of opportunities for the Baggies to find a way to stop the rapid counter, whether that be by pulling somebody down and taking the booking or just putting in a crunching tackle to find a way to bring the attack to the end.
Swift’s tackle was little more than a dangled foot that didn’t do anywhere near enough to win the ball. He did get a tiny touch that looked as though it may have been enough, but it quickly bobbled back to the feet of Neto.
As Keane suggested, it may not be the midfielder’s greatest skill, but in such a big fixture supporters would have hoped that Swift would have had the bite to put in a big tackle and win the ball with a last-ditch challenge.
In other West Brom news, Keane was quick to gush over the excellent recent form of Brandon Thomas-Asante
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