Swansea City’s hopes of securing an automatic promotion spot in the Championship this season took a huge blow on Tuesday night as they were thrashed 3-0 by Bournemouth.
A spectacular goal from Philip Billing opened the scoring before an unfortunate own goal from Joel Latibeaudiere doubled the hosts’ lead just before half time.
Arnaut Danjuma then sealed a comfortable win for the Cherries by smashing a shot past Freddie Woodman to make it 3-0 late on, with Steve Cooper’s side rarely threatening.
To make matters worse, Watford were comfortable winners at Rotherham, meaning the Swans are now three points behind the Hornets, although they do still have a game in hand on them.
One man who particularly disappointed with his performance at the Cherry Red Records Stadium was right wing-back, Connor Roberts.
The Welsh international has been one of Swansea’s best performers so far this season but he was well below-par on Tuesday night, which will surely frustrate Cooper given the importance of the match.
Was Roberts poor vs Bournemouth?
Yes
No
As per SofaScore, the 25-year-old would pick up a poor 6.3 rating for his performance, with only Ryan Bennett (6.2) Latibeaudiere (6.1), Woodman (6.0) and Jamal Lowe (6.0) rated lower.
Danjuma, who was playing on the left-wing, caused Roberts plenty of problems throughout the game, as he played five key passes and got a goal and an assist, resulting in an impressive 8.6 rating.
The Swansea right-back has been excellent going forward this season, with four goals and five assists to his name in the Championship but he struggled to produce any real quality in good positions as only one of his five crosses was accurate, whilst only one of his five long balls would find a Swansea shirt.
He was also very wasteful with the ball, as only 39/52 of his passes found a teammate, resulting in a less than impressive 75% pass accuracy and he also lost possession a remarkable 26 times during his time on the pitch – more than any other player.
Roberts also struggled from a defensive perspective, as he made no tackles and just one interception in the 90 minutes, whilst he would win just two of the five duels he was involved in during the game, suggesting that Danjuma well and truly had the better of him.
Therefore, considering Cooper has relied upon Roberts to be a consistent performer in his side so far this season, it is very disappointing that he was so poor in such an important game for the Swans.