With the Hull City away game an early kick off this Saturday (12.30pm) MKM stadium the Swans have the usual slim selections to choose from. With Swans head coach, Luke Williams looking unlikely to dip into a form player from the U21 squad it’s very much as you were. By slim we pretty much mean what he had last week.
There are some positive signs with Josh Ginnelly still training after two weeks and Sam Parker also back at Fairwood, but he has a number of weeks before he is considered fit to play in the first team. Andrew Fisher is back and fit but again as we have reported last month we believe the club will seek a loan for him come January. Williams stated today that he will be keeping with the current squad set up regards his goalkeepers and doesn’t want to upset that at this time. When asked on Fisher’s availability and him coming into the match day squad Williams stated, "Possibly not, I don’t think there is any reason to change immediately” So, no room for Andy at the moment. That tells us that back up keeper, Jon McLaughlin who has a contract for the next ten days or so will be offered an extension very shortly. He also confirmed that Kristian Pedersen’s rehabilitation from a hamstring injury remains a lengthy absence for the player.
Bar that the Swans will have a competitive side to choose from this Saturday.
What is clear in Williams mind is his sides ‘fear of achieving their potential’ As many have noticed for some months the Swans can’t manage victories either when ahead at home or when they require one goal. The Preston North End home game at the Swansea.com, the only league game where the Swans have won by more than the odd goal all season. And that was a struggle for the Swans to take advantage of a very poor and rudderless Preston side.
On Luke’s comments of late he believes he is one hundred percent correct in his squad assessments.”Even at my school I can work out the maths we need to do better. We have enough quality, but our quality is only really obvious and difficult to play against when we have the mentality to match it. We can go toe to toe with teams. But there’s a two goal swing, we need to be able to score one more goal to draw those games, or we need to concede one less to draw. We’ve performed pretty well, but when we have come unstuck we’ve come away from those principles that got us in a good position in the first place”
Alleluia to that Luke.
However, it’s a big swing now that is needed to get out of this strangled mindset and into a killer belief. To date that really does mean Swansea City should be far higher in the table. Yes, Luke is blaming the players, and he is right, they are either not good enough or need shifting asap. "There are subtle differences that make a huge difference. Against less capable teams those things won’t be as obvious to me but against the best they test you, those things become glaringly obvious. If I don’t keep pushing them it’s unfair and I’m not doing my job properly”
Well, on the pitch he needs more from club captain, Matt Grimes (below) to achieve that.
On Hull City Luke believes that his side should go there confident enough to give them a really tough game. "It’s an opportunity to try and perform at a really good level that has been successful for us. Performing in a certain way. Let’s see between now and then we can be consistent in our performances and then improve our performances against a team that sits in the table above us”
The commitment and desire with the right mentality is now in question, "Now it’s an opportunity to see how do they cope with expectation. It will become from within individuals and as a group. So, let’s see how they deal with that. Every player must be ready, my job is to try to make sure they are ready in many different ways, and get repetitions to practice” That is an interesting comment with some fans believing that is creating a more prescriptive way of playing.
The Swans may expect to take something from this game but new head coach at Hull, Rubén Sellés will take charge of his first home game proper on Saturday and will most certainly bring to the table a team who want to impress and put things right from a position of danger in the league. They may well see this as a possible win, and Luke Williams is right, his team have to be completely prepared and able to learn from the mistakes they continually make. That applies specifically when winning a game or ensuring they keep ahead as the four away wins this season have all been by 1-2. And in all of those games the Swans have presented the opposition with clear chances to get a point when they should have been out of sight.
Transfer news next.