Paul Clement: Swansea City boss criticises his players

Swansea City head coach Paul Clement delivered a withering assessment of his side after their defeat by Newcastle.

Jamaal Lascelles headed the only goal of Sunday's uninspiring encounter at the Liberty Stadium after 75 minutes.

The Swans have now lost their opening two home league games of the season for the first time since 1985.

"Very frustrating. I'm finding it difficult to understand why I saw what I saw. I'm very disappointed with the way that we played," said Clement.

"Although the margin of defeat is very small, ultimately decided by a set-play, for me the difference in the two teams in the performance was much greater than that. I thought they were better than us.

"I said to the players in the dressing room, there's all the make-believe stuff, what's written on the paper and how we think it's going to go, and then there's the reality of what actually happens in the game.

"I think we missed an opportunity there, I really do. They're a good, well organised side but we should have done better, there's no question about that."

Newcastle had not won away from home in the Premier League since 2015 and Sunday's disjointed affair seemed destined to end goalless until Lascelles headed in after 76 minutes.

Swansea lacked creativity in attack and mustered only a couple of chances, the best of which saw Tammy Abraham round visiting goalkeeper Rob Elliot before seeing his shot brilliantly blocked on the line by Lascelles.

Clement had given a first start to Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches, who had arrived on a season-long loan from Bayern Munich with a big reputation and high expectations.

However, the 20-year-old failed to make much of an impression as his occasional show of flair was undermined by wayward passing, with the stats showing he was dispossessed 23 times in the match.

"He did some good things, he did some things that were not so good," said Clement.

"There was a lot of expectation around him, which is normal, and he is a player that will get better and better with us, the more he gets to know team-mates and system and the more he understands the culture. He was okay."

Although Clement was relatively charitable in his assessment of Sanches - with whom he had worked during his time as assistant manager at Bayern - the Swansea boss was stinging in his criticism of his team as a whole.

"We made too many mistakes, we gave the ball away too often. Even right up to the end, where we did continue to push, we couldn't get a decent ball into the box," he added.

"That wasn't good enough but our shape didn't cause them enough problems. We got the overload in midfield but we never got control of the game. Some of the basics we never got right, just that competitiveness."