It’s an early start for Swansea City fans today, no matter where you are travelling from. However, both sides will see this as a winnable game, especially the home side as Ruben Selles takes charge officially for his first home game.
We’ve had some build up to this game already.
Team news is n -
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Josh Tymon; Matt Grimes (captain), Jay Fulton, Liam Cullen; Myles Peart-Harris, Jisung Eom, Žan Vipotnik.
Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Gonçalo Franco, Florian Bianchini, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton, Nelson Abbey, Ronald, Azeem Abdulai.
⚽️ Luke Williams spells it out
⚽️ Swans fans get no reward from the EFL
You can also get our take on the upcoming January window today.
Ruben Selles : "But we should not forget one thing and that is that nobody is going to give us three points. We are not going to arrive at 12:30 on Saturday and get three points; we need to fight and play for the three points. Things are not going to be sorted out by magic. If we win the game and move out of the relegation zone, it will be us making that difference. That is a big part of it. We need to make things happen and not expect that it will just happen. We need to look after the things we can control. In terms of our approach, I need to be brave making decisions and the team needs to be braving making decisions. We can be protective at the very end of the game but not in minutes 60 or 55. We need to be able to play until the very end of the game. When you make a decision to not go and press, this is a decision that is affecting your behaviour. We need to be ourselves, even in the moments when we have more doubts."
That’s a clear insight as to the new Hull City strategy for this game. The Swans will have some time on the back foot but really have to avoid going ahead and changing their mindset as head coach, Luke Williams continues to mention. They have to fight harder and be more aware and creative. The second half last Saturday made the Swans look like the softest touches in the Championship. And despite going two up, the 2-3 loss was embarrassing for Luke Williams and he made that known.
Kasey Palmer who seems to pop up in a different Championship side each season is a doubt. Selles stated this week, "There's a suggestion there could be something more serious, that's why we need to be pretty sure what the next step is because sometimes you can carry on and play and sometimes you need time off, so that's why we are seeing a specialist."
If Palmer is unfit then Marvin Mehlem will most certainly take his place.
The Tigers were incredibly active in the January transfer window last season, bringing in Ivon Pandur, Ryan Giles, Abdulkadir Omur, Fabio Carvalho, Anass Zaroury, Noah Ohio and Billy Sharp as they looked to secure a play-off place, and some had speculated that they could do something similar next month in an attempt to climb away from the relegation zone. (Source FLW)
The Tigers haven’t won for thirteen games and have lost seven of the last eight fixtures.
The Swans are pretty much as you were from last week. Luke Williams has to be cautious in getting distracted by the media who are either looking for clues on new players or extending interviews. For us he is being pressurised too much to come up with answers or trip over what he says. However, recent reports of him scouring the world for talent is obviously rubbish, he isn’t doing that at all. There still remains a recruitment team and those with a vested interest in helping the Swans outside of the Swansea.com stadium. Headlines at times need to examined and not taken as read. Numerous websites only take the spoken word as fact and hardly ever dive into the context of what is actually being said. Basic journalistic qualities often lacking.
Luke though has commented on Thursday, "If a player is performing, on paper, at a very, very high level, then you look at what they've achieved, you can say 'OK, well this player's performing really well at a top club that are competing week in, week out under pressure'. That's a good sign. A player that is potentially performing very well, but there's no pressure and they're mid-table. I'm just giving you a scenario. We have to try to get a real good grasp of the player and what they're capable of doing."
The club knows exactly what the Swans head coach wants, and we expect four to come in throughout January, despite estimates lower. We shall see how that sourced information looks in five weeks time. Hull City v Swansea City is a 12.30pm kick off today at the MKM, with the game being screened on Sky Sports plus.
Team news to follow.
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⚽️ Hull v Swans