Carlos Carvalhal Admits His Gamble Backfired as He Takes Blame for Brighton Thrashing

Swansea manager Carlos Carvalhal conceded that his tactical roll of the dice didn't pay off as the in-form Swans suffered an unexpectedly crushing 4-1 defeat at Brighton on Saturday.

Carvalhal had tasted defeat only once since his appointment at the Liberty Stadium in December, but Brighton doubled that tally with a scintillating attacking performance that left Swansea's defence nonplussed.

And Carvalhal said that he was to blame for making the wrong tactical changes at the wrong times. He changed Swansea's shape with the score at 1-0, but it only created a more open game from which Brighton benefitted.

“We made some mistakes that we don’t usually make today,” Carvalhal told Swansea's official website. “When we were losing 1-0 I thought we must move things around because we were not happy.

“We put Andre Ayew on in the first half on to try to help us. [Nathan] Dyer is more of a winger while Andre is more of an attacker, so we put him on near Jordan Ayew to try to make us more of a threat."

Carvalhal brought on striker Tammy Abraham for midfielder Tom Carroll midway through the second-half with the score still at 1-0 to Brighton. Within ten minutes, it was 3-0, although it was Abraham whose shot deflected in off Lewis Dunk for Swansea's consolation.

“I must be a critic of myself,” Carvalhal said, reflecting on this substitution. “I took the risk and maybe I could have waited until later to put Tammy on.

“But if you take a risk as a manager and it comes off, you are a genius. If it doesn’t happen – this is football."

Swansea will attempt to bounce back from this defeat when they host Sheffield Wednesday in their FA Cup fifth round replay on Tuesday, before hosting West Ham in the Premier League next Saturday.