Norwich City are the next visitors to the Swansea.Com and it all kicks off at 7.45pm this Wednesday. The bonus of these games for fans finding it difficult to make it to the match itself is that this fixture is on the Sky Sports Red button. How very decent of them.

So, what about this game ?

It’s been three games now without a loss, a draw at QPR the week before last that really should have been a win followed by a decent 3-0 home victory against Sheffield Wednesday. Oddly enough the victory on Saturday against Millwall, again 3-0, was far easier than first thought before the match. Millwall didn’t seem able to manage with the Swans passing game that returned for the opening twenty minutes and led to the penalty which set the Swans on their way. That type of confidence on the ball and the desire to be positive is very much the requirement come Wednesday evening, Swansea City look far more comfortable taking the game to the opposition than trying to defend a lead or manage the match in a way that can lead to errors. It has to be said had Carl Rushworth not been on form on Saturday in the Swans goal that result would have been far different.

Norwich City had a good start to the season beating Hull City 2-1 before that ridiculous 4-4 draw at Southampton. However that second game gave an insight in to the Canaries quality and ability to score goals at a tough venue. Following that they defeated Millwall 3-1 at home and hammered Huddersfield Town 4-0 away. Bar the Saints game a fairly easy start to their campaign if there is such a thing in the Championship. The wheels came off at Rotherham where they lost 2-1 but they recovered to beat Stoke 1-0 after the international break. From there the Canaries suffered two losses and shipped eight goals. First off losing to early promotion contenders Leicester City 2-0 and then falling apart 6-2 at Plymouth. On the weekend Norwich beat Birmingham City fairly convincingly at Carrow Road.

All this means the Canaries sit in seventh place in the Championship.

That’s just seven points ahead of the Swans with nine games played. There are marked differences between the sides on the field, and indeed off it. Norwich have scored six more goals than the Swans this season but have conceded four more. The Canaries have a goal difference of plus three to the Swans plus one. It seems our visitors on Wednesday leak goals but can also score. That should be the first concern for Swans head coach Michael Duff. Having only conceded one goal in the last three games with two clean sheets this is where the game will be won or lost.

At the back.

There have been injuries at the Swans, but only really Nathan Wood of any significance in defence. Harry Darling and Ben Cabango seem to be finding some form of relationship between each other with Josh Key on their right one of the first names on the team sheet. It’s at left back where Swansea have looked disorganised ( we assume Duff will go with a four at the back again to start ) Kristian Pedersen is out after a very decent showing against Sheffield Wednesday. That leaves Bashir Humphreys or Josh Tymon as left back choices. If Duff goes with Tymon that tells us he is yet to know what his favoured back four looks like, Humphreys played at Millwall and at QPR, and it has to be said he looked exposed at times in both games.

That defensive solidity will win or lose this game. An exposed Humphreys will see the Swans defence easily breached, for us Tymon should get the nod. Despite his limited time on the pitch so far he does have some ability to get forwards as well. We haven’t seen that from Humphreys to date, albeit his two games have been away from home. When we look at the differences between the two sides it’s obvious that Norwich prefer a quicker build up to attack the opposition whereas the Swans are still in the slow and intricate bracket. It shouldn’t surprise you to see Southampton in that area as well.

Recent performances aside there is an increase in confidence and that should see the Swans as dominant as we have seen them all season in this fixture. They will be determined to win this game and close the gap on those above them. Being in the more slow and intricate section of that graph isn’t to be seen as demeaning, but what it does tell us is there are most certainly big differences between the two sides. If the pace of a move could be increased even moderately then there would obviously be more of an attacking threat.

The main threat for the Canaries seems to come from twenty year old Jonathan Rowe. He has six goals this season from sixteen shots. His conversion rate is thirty eight percent. Basically when he gets a shot on target he generally scores.

Norwich City have a very decent support as well, they fluctuate between twenty five and twenty six thousand at home where the Swans are on just over seventeen thousand on average this season. The Canaries uptake on tickets for this game considering the distance and the fact the game is televised is described as moderate.

All told it’s a buoyant feeling going in to this game. There’s much to take from the previous two victories for sure. Of course, what we now need to see is a more crafted and smoother performance, that’s down to Michael Duff. If as he says ‘we are nowhere near where we need to be’ is accurate, and anyone watching the Swans will agree - then this needs to be no less than we saw on Saturday. And if progress is they key then surely more of the same is needed with more pace and effort when moving the ball forwards.

Norwich City are fallible, they can become ragged when put under pressure and boss David Wagner mentioned this in his post match talk after beating Birmingham City. "The Plymouth defeat showed what can happen when you lose your structure in a game. It is not a match I like talking about. It was good that we put it to bed. I couldn't be happier with the way we played today. We looked in control, we defended well, and we created our moments. We scored two excellent goals and after that our game management was really good. There is no doubt we got what we deserved - there was a lot of focus out there, a lot of effort and most importantly we won. The players learned their lessons from the previous league game. There have been two good performances since then, at Fulham in the cup as well as this."

Swansea City v Norwich City kicks off at 7.45pm on Wednesday evening. Tickets are still available and the game is LIVE on the Sky Sports Red button

Catch up with the the fans view of the game here.
⚽️ Norwich Match Day Thread

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⚽️ Dark Spirits

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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