Ever since his arrival and first televised interview in the Premier League, Bob Bradley appeared to be under pressure. Many people were happy to speak out about his use of American terminology to describe specific situations or aspects of a football match and this did not help the former USA international manager to settle into his job at Swansea.
There was a belief that Bradley was doomed to fail purely because he was American and the English football public did not like the way he spoke in interviews. However, having been sacked by Swansea it becomes clear there was more to it than the patronising. Much more.
The fact Swansea have sacked Bradley without having a man lined up to come in and take over the job, sums up the poor job he did during his short time at the Liberty Stadium. Yes, there were many outside influences against him and the fact he was appointed without the approval of the Swansea Supporters Trust, placed him in a very difficult position from the start. The only way he was going to win them over was by producing good football and most importantly, positive results. Neither of those things happened.
Trends show Bradley averaged 0.72 points per match during his eleven games in charge and unfortunately, this is relegation form. If the club had continued that way to the end of the season, they would have finished on 26 points, which would guarantee relegation. Yes, Bradley has never managed in the Premier League before but that is not a valid argument when it comes to why he ultimately failed. It was poor tactical decision making, such as the matches against Manchester United and Crystal Palace, which saw people question his ability to manage the club and this was nothing to do with experience of managing in the Premier League.
With the pressure on, Bradley desperately needed a win against West Ham on Boxing Day but Swansea slumped to a 4-1 home defeat. West Ham had previously won only once away from home this season, which puts the result into perspective. The club could not afford to wait for another home defeat at the hands of Bournemouth, before making their decision. With two away matches coming up, followed by games against Arsenal and Liverpool, now was the time to act and the first job the new manager will have, is to shore up Swansea’s defence. They have conceded 19 goals in their last six Premier League games, at an average of 3.16 per game and the amazing thing is, they kept one clean sheet in those six matches. Even if Swansea had scored 2 goals in each of those six games, they still would have lost five of them.
It’s clear the new manager must get back to basics and start with the defence, before working on the rest of the team. Swansea cannot afford to keep conceding goals at their current rate and that’s the main reason why Bob Bradley has been shown the door.