Swansea City’s record signing had another frustrating afternoon at the liberty stadium against the visiting black cats, but the signs are there that he may start repaying that 3.5m price tag any game soon.
At times against Wigan the previous week he seemed a little lost on the pitch and let his head drop in the second half when he failed to impose himself on the game, however there was no sign of that yesterday, with tireless running and intelligent work off the ball he remained a threat throughout the entire game.
With 6 attempts on goal (3 on target) he will be bitterly disappointed not to have grabbed the Swans first goal of the Premier League campaign, however when compared to his performance in the previous game where he only mustered 2 attempts (1 on target) it shows that he is heading in the right direction. A player who scored 24 goals in the Championship last season will not continue to miss chance after chance, and the signs were there that once he finds his scoring boots in Swansea, he will get in the scoring positions often enough to regularly hit the back of the net.
It wasn’t just in the penalty box where he improved though, his work rate and general play was markedly better. Graham linked the play 27 times against Sunderland compared to 14 times against Wigan, He also competed in 13 50/50 challenges as opposed to just 3 the week before.
His performance also compares favourably to that of the highly rated Sunderland front man Asamoah Gyan, Danny Graham had twice as many shots, completed more passes and made more tackles than the £13 million man from Ghana.
It seems that the Liberty stadium crowd were fully behind Danny Graham yesterday and appreciated the effort put in by the former Watford striker. I did not hear a single fan criticise him when he missed chances and when he gets that first goal I get the impression that the roar will lift the roof off the east stand. So we need to keep faith in Graham and I am convinced he will start banging the goals in for Brendan Rodgers Black & White Army any time soon.
