He’s not the most popular manager to bring a team to the Liberty this season, well, until ‘that fixture’ returns in a few weeks. Today Neil Warnock brings a resurgent Middlesbrough side to Swansea looking to attack, get as much out of the game as possible, and as we all know - by any means necessary.
Warnock has had a lot to say during the build up to this game, he knows three points will put pressure on the top six as he chips away at the lead other clubs have on him, and to say he isn’t holding back is an understatement. It’s true that in the December fixture at the Riverside he done a number on Steve Cooper. Tactically changing to a back three for the first time in nine weeks, so what will he have in store today for the swans ?
He said: "I think if you look at the top four, I don’t think they’re catchable. "I don’t think they’ll lose enough points to catch them with the games we’ve got. But the other two positions, there’s ourselves, Reading, Bournemouth, Cardiff and Barnsley who are going to be fighting over them. Barnsley at the moment look to be absolutely flying. We’ve got it all to do because we’ve got to win so many more games than them. But it won’t be for the lack of trying. There’s no pressure on us really, and we know we’ve got some good players, we just need things to go our way. In football, you just never know.”
So Warnock is concentrating outside the top four to an extent, but that will most certainly not be the case in reality. On the swans he did give a little appreciation as to the clubs achievements this season. "They’re a good side with a good group of players," Warnock said. We’ve nothing to lose. We’ll not be going down to Swansea to shut up shop. "We’ve just got to hope our strikers can cause them problems and hope our defenders can cope with the strikers they’ve got. We know the threat Ayew will cause because he’s a brilliant player.He’s out of contract at the end of the season but his attitude has been great. He’s not moaned about being in the Championship, he’s just got on with it. He’s horrible to play against and I love that me. I think he’s brilliant. I’m sure he won’t, but if he does find himself short of options he’ll always be welcome to come up here. We’ll have to have one of those GoFundMe raising things to pay his wages!”
Warnock never slow in coming forwards, as usual
Warnock also had an opinion on Swansea City’s match winning penalty on Wednesday night at Stoke. Clearly believing it wasn’t an infringement. Warnock said of the incident: "As we saw the other night in their game against Stoke, you need, we’ll call it luck. I don’t know what to call it without getting into trouble really. "They won the game in the 94th minute with a penalty after Kyle Naughton went down. I blame Kevin Blackwell. He gave Kyle his debut [at Sheffield United], so he must have taught him how to go down! I was quite embarrassed when I saw it, and I will mention it to Kyle when I see him. But to lose a game like that, I think Michael O’Neill did ever so well not getting fined.”
Swansea City take on Middlesbrough today with a 3pm UK time kick off and it’s LIVE on Sky Sports football.
What do you think of Warnock ? Good, bad or indifferent ?