Carlos Carvalhal congratulated his players for putting up a road block to stop Liverpool from cruising to victory at the Liberty Stadium.
Carvalhal compared Jürgen Klopp’s team to a Formula One car after the Premier League’s bottom club pulled off one of the biggest shocks of the season so far.
The Portuguese, who replaced Paul Clement as manager last month, claimed his team were “still in hospital, but out of the emergency ward” thanks to a tactically astute and disciplined performance from his players.
As soon as Swansea lost possession, they switched from a back three to a back five and Nathan Dyer dropped back from his forward position to stifle Liverpool’s midfield.
“When we studied Liverpool and started preparation for the game, I spoke to my players and said, ‘Liverpool are a very strong team. They are like a Formula One car, but a Formula One car in 4 o’clock London traffic is like any other car, it is difficult to get speed,’” Carvalhal said. “I told them we must put the Formula One car in the London traffic and not open the roads like they do in Formula One because if they have the space like they do in Formula One, we will lose 3-0 or 4-0.
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“My players did the plan absolutely right.”
Carvalhal’s team are three points from safety and the former Sheffield Wednesday manager says he is starting to disprove the doubters who questioned his appointment.
“After the Watford game, two people out of every 100 said we had a chance [of staying up],” he said. “Now maybe 20 out of 100 are looking in a different way.
“We are breathing, we are not in the emergency ward. We are in hospital but we are not in emergency, we can accept visits now. We are still not in a good position though. We have a lot of work to do, but the players’ confidence is more high.”
Klopp’s frustrations at his team’s poor finishing boiled over in the second half when he shouted at a Swansea fan who was abusing him from the stand.
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“He was shouting at me all the time,” Klopp said.
“Sorry, I reacted one time, I remind myself I am a human being and not a professional manager who takes that all the time and they can say whatever they want.
“I just had one moment where I thought, ‘Now, that’s enough.’
“It’s my fault as well, I shouldn’t have reacted. But I didn’t say anything bad, only that I showed I wasn’t too happy by what he was saying all the time.”