NIGHTMARE MATCH

After suffering one of the heaviest defeats in his managerial career, the Swansea manager Michael Laudrup has come out and apologised to the fans after the 5-0 thrashing of the hands of Liverpool at Anfield.

Laudrup elected to field a weakened team against Liverpool in the fifth round of the FA Cup, and they were duly punished for taking the five-time European champions lightly. Laudrup made these changes in the hope of keeping his players fresh ahead of the League cup final against Bradford City in a few days time. Swansea will be taking part in a major cup final after a long time.

The seven changes made by the manager for this match had an adverse reaction, as they could not handle the attacking threat from Liverpool. Laudrup has said that his team got slaughtered by an extremely offensive Liverpool team, which contained the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Steven Gerrard, and Luis Suarez. He has pointed out to the previous games when he has made several changes, but his team have always delivered. He hopes that this is a nightmare that soon gets forgotten. Swansea will be the overwhelming favourites to lift the League cup, as they will be facing Bradford City who are in the League One.

"It was a nightmare, we got slaughtered and it was awful. It could have been seven or eight-nil. We just have to say sorry to the fans who travelled. I am responsible as I pick the team. We made changes but that is no excuse. It is difficult to explain. Over the last two or three months we have made changes, I made seven against Fulham over Christmas, but we have always been competitive apart from a couple of bad games in September," said Laudrup. Swansea have managed just one win in the last five matches.