The Silver Lining in Bob Bradley's Loss at Swansea Managerial Debut

For American soccer fans who have been around for at least the past half-decade, it has been difficult to choose an EPL side. With US national team players going on a seemingly endless chain of loans—aside from the rare Geoff Camerons of the world—fans only needed a solid, non-transferrable connection to an EPL team to push them over the edge. And today, for many, Bob Bradley became that reason with his debut with Swansea.

While the result was less than desirable—a 2-3 loss to Arsenal—the match needs to be put in its proper context. First, there's the fact that third-from-the-bottom-of-the-table Swansea had just gone through a six-game streak without a win, and were facing a No. 2 Arsenal with world class talent. Not an easy game to start out on. Second, there's the fact that Bob Bradley hasn't even seen two Sundays with his side since being appointed manager on October 3rd, which is hardly a true test of his tenure.

So what can we derive from the Yank's managerial debut with Swansea? Well, we can certainly peek at what Bradley has to work with, and what went wrong with parts of the match.

First of all: Swansea's back four. What a horrible showing from Swansea's back four. The marking was erratic at best, and the center backs seemed to have an aversion to clearance. Just take a look at the first two goals (above and below).

I'm not sure if Swansea players were taught to prioritize keeping the ball in bounds over keeping them away from the other team, but there was some real timidity to rocket the ball out of play. The first goal, above—which saw Theo Walcott go ignored over some lazy ball-watching—had the opportunity to be snuffed out with a swift, hard kick. Instead, Swansea's center back Jordi Armat—just a dangerous couple of feet away from the net—felt too cozy with a soft connection to the ball, while one of England's fiercest attacking forces was gnawing on the back of his heels. Not a great look, as Walcott cherrypicks the goal from behind him.

Then, with the second goal, above, the defense literally collapsed off of a clever pivot of weight by Walcott that left his man sprawling face-first. This left the Arsenal forward surrounded by Swansea defenders, but on the wrong side of the ball. It also looked like Swansea keeper Łukasz Fabiański gave his man a push there for a second, which resulted in a not-so-great situation for everyone.

But even if Bob Bradley has to Frankenstein his defense at some point—be it during the January transfer window, or from subs, or just to whip them the hell into shape—he does have one thing going for him: a dynamic attacking force that can dig in after a deficit and turn things around.

You could see that ambition in Swansea's first goal, above, that put them within a goal's differential. The Icelandic Swansea midfielder Gylfi Sigurðsson recovered the ball in a dangerous spot, as Arsenal coughed up a turnover they had earned just seconds before, and hammered home a beautifully-placed goal from the top of the box. That's the kind of gritty fight that a manager loves to see.

And just when you thought that Bradley had rattled off some Hoosiers-like locker room speech to rally an equalizing war cry, the defensive marking choked again after the half, above. Ozil saw that his two men were content with trapping him loosely between them, raised his hand, and asked for a birthday present from across the field. (It was actually Ozil's birthday.) And what a lovely volley it was. Not a great look for Swansea's defense, yet again.

Swansea played a game of second lives today, as they managed a second goal, above, against Arsenal's three. In many ways, they owed their attacking prowess in the second half to winger Modou Barrow, who scissored up some deadly runs along the right flank to produce beautiful crosses like the assist above. It wasn't the first instance that Barrow provided some well-needed interstitial tissue on the counterattack. He had left several defenders in ruins with his time on the field. Unfortunately, Barrow left the game due to an injury, but there's no doubt that he will be a useful tool at Bradley's disposal.

Aside from Barrow, there was a good deal of promise in Swansea's overlapping runs up the field—some quick back-and-forth passing among the midfield to advance the ball quickly. One criticism Bradley faced as manager of the U.S. was that he became too reliant on the counterattack against better teams, and couldn't produce a possession-based offense. I can imagine that some recent USMNT/Swansea crossover fans are concerned that there will be a repeat. But it's hard to tell where Swansea's offensive is headed by using a team the caliber of Arsenal as a test sample.

While the rest of the game witnessed Swansea trying to fully use their one-man advantage—due to a red card on Arsenal for a flagrant tackle on Barrow with 20 minutes to go—they just couldn't finish on a series of deadly chances and set pieces. Arsenal had their own deadly chances, despite being down a man—and those were owed to Swansea's lacking defense, yet again.

So it seems that Bradley has a team of two halves on his hands—with a promising front half that is raring to compensate for the mistakes of the back half. If only he can just sew up the tears in the fabric of the back four and keep the offense motivated for reasons besides a comeback, then we just might have a cohesive team on our hands. Or at least one that could avoid relegation.