Today’s game at home to Queens Park Rangers is actually between two of the better sides in form in the Championship. Both sides have performed above their seasonal average of late and recent form is a far better gauge than results in November as an example.
The R’s have lifted themselves out of the relegation zone (for now) and like the Swans have impressed of late. It’s only the shockingly poor effort against Bristol City away which has blotted the Swans copybook.
The league table tells a far different story, the accumulative effect of the season, mismanagement, poor decision making and a loss of faith tells the Swans story. QPR have a relatively new manager in Martí Cifuentes who took over at the end of October. He has a nigh on thirty five percent win rate at Loftus Road. Before he moved to west London it was fifty two percent over eighteen months at Hammarby IF. However, the R’s have won nine, lost nine and drawn eight since Martí took over. The Championship from fifteenth down reflects seven games to go with a few twists and turns to come we are sure.
QPR beat Birmingham City on Friday with Cifuentes commenting post match, "What a game. I'm very glad for the supporters and the players because it was difficult, as we predicted. But especially because we got three clear chances in the first half and to go in 0-0 is not easy. If you miss chances then your opponent will punish you, that is the rule of football and that is what happened, so the courage to get the quick draw and then to keep going to win I think shows the massive mentality these guys have. I'm so happy for him. He has worked very hard, he had a period where he didn't play because we had a lot of good players and even then he was training and competing well, it was difficult to make a lot of changes to a team that was collecting points. Probably he had been dreaming before as a kid to score a goal like this and I'm very happy for him."
The Swans disappointed on Friday, and not because of the scoreline (1-1) but for what fans saw of the performance. Ronald was most certainly off pace having been bullied in the opening twenty minutes. The energy was lacking for sure and as we reported previously, standing on the ball and stationary after seven minutes was extremely annoying. That complete lack of tempo from the off became the Swans story of the game. Jamal Lowe became the club’s top scorer this season when he levelled at Hillsborough - and most certainly must be ahead of everyone else if a more central role is preferred by head coach, Luke Williams.
What cannot be questioned is that today’s game has a handful of tickets remaining, and the support the Swans receive home and away during what has been an unproductive and pretty poor season. In fact the worst for some time. Many club owners mistake the support of the club for support of them, that just isn’t the case. The true fans of the game realise this. Any club owner or Chairman can surround themselves with nodding dogs, but the truth is in many circumstances that’s a false environment.
The Swans have been working hard on the fitness of Ben Cabango and Liam Walsh. The latter could find himself involved today. The mystery surrounding Mykola Kukharevych continues, a nigh on two million pound signing from Troyes in the summer who has seen little action this season. This campaign will more than likely end with Sam Parker and Josh Ginnelly still seeking full fitness, so they are out, and the same could be said for the impressive Kyle Naughton. Azeem Abdulai is back in the frame and being introduced slowly as we saw at Sheffield Wednesday with his inclusion on the bench.
The loanees are seeing less and less action with Bashir Humphreys on loan from Chelsea last playing against Leeds United at the Swansea.com six weeks ago. Harrison Ashby was deemed the next big thing when he transferred from West Ham to Newcastle United, but he has been dogged by injury. He has been included in the starting eleven just twelve times this season with his last appearance coming against Leicester City, again at home at the end of January. Charlie Patino (above) from Arsenal seems to be getting the odd appearance with minutes to run in games, and this is now clearly down to an appearance agreement with his parent club. An indicator is his thirty six minutes on the pitch as a substitute over the last six games. He has only started thirteen games this season but the press he has been getting via links to Juventus this summer are most certainly from his agent and indeed Arsenal FC. Charlie Sagoe Jr, another Arsenal loanee has seen just twenty five minutes of football since he arrived at Swansea at the end of January. That’s ten games, and he hasn’t been included in the last five matches for the Swans. The real success has been Brighton’s Carl Rushworth who has kept goal for the Swans throughout the season with many plaudits. The news regards him staying, going or whatever changes week to week, and that just goes to show how poor the communication can be at times at the club. We know he is in favour of another season, and that Sporting Director Paul Watson has a verbal agreement with Brighton and we reported that. As soon as we did the club went in reverse, funny to watch.
So, that’s where we are going in to today’s game personnel wise.
We have to give a nod in the direction of the club regards transfers in, money has been spent, not a lot has proven positive but every transfer is a gamble, Jerry Yates as an example. Looking at transfers out compared to those coming in regards new players, loans and permanent signings money has been spent. Around twenty five percent of the money coming in (simple maths we know) has been spent, it just hasn’t worked that well overall.
We expect a similar starting line up today, maybe a start for Joe Allen to at least give the side some positivity and more creation moving forwards. As stated Jamal Lowe should be pushing for a start too. More later as we move towards kick off today at the Swansea.com (3pm)