It’s going to be a rowdy fixture on Sunday. A game which has increased in intensity over recent years. There’s no doubt there will be commitment from Swansea City which we didn’t see at all on Tuesday night at Stoke, but will it be enough ?

There is a saying that practice makes perfect, but of course if you practice imperfectly you will never reach your goal. You can have all the practice in the world, but if it’s just repeating the same mistakes with the same tools at your disposal then there is absolutely no point whatsoever. It’s possible that Russell Martin knows this already, but his store room is basically empty, and this is why Jay Fulton and even Yan Dhanda are getting a look in, the latter albeit on the bench on Tuesday.

The first area has to be the detail, now of course none of us have played professional football or managed a professional football team, but we have been watchers of the game for all the years we can recall. Four defensive midfielders of sorts deployed on the same pitch with a defensive mindset brought about Tuesdays defeat as much as anything else. It seemed the swans were preserving a 0-0 before going for a win in the second half. Well, that did work, albeit with numerous scares, not dissimilar to Saturday against Blackburn.

However you can only ride your luck for so long.

That luck ran out in the second half through poor judgement and a half time change that was still asleep when the first goal was scored. That’s the first area to work on, the lights have to be on all the time, you don’t need to be the best in the world to remain alert. These players are fit, they are athletes with nothing else to think about but their own ability and personal welfare. You can have little or no ability at all to understand Martin’s system, but you can make a difference by being involved and alert to situations as they play out in front of you.

People walk out in front of cars every day and are run over. Others are alert to danger and take a course of action that determines they are fit to navigate the next process they need to understand. It’s simplifying a basic rule of safety but it really does apply here. Most people walk out in front of oncoming traffic because they are not concentrating, clearly at any level.

That first area has to be a conscious attempt to remain, yes, conscious.

Secondly we do know Russell Martin has some let’s say ‘different’ ways of developing his players He entrusts a belief in experiential learning, that is you understand what happened, manage what you did, and then move forwards with an action plan to prevent any potential errors in the future. That’s simple human behaviour, most people don’t understand they are doing it, but they do, otherwise they would be either run over every day or dead.

Some of course never learn. In every behaviour it is the same. That is until they are put in to check. They are confronted, and either understand their behaviour is wrong, or continue until it’s clear they can’t or never will understand. Maybe then that’s the issue, Martin is entrusting a delivery style in training that some just don’t get ? For me this is why he has been on the receiving end of certain behaviours whilst trying to adapt and change a players mindset this season. The general response if anyone doesn’t understand the impact of their behaviour is aggression, disregard for the plan, and eventually a reaction which is negative. People will then look for allies to affirm their beliefs to disrupt the process.

That’s happened this season at Swansea. And it happens elsewhere too.

You can apply that to any situation where a person is insecure in themselves, or has only known their own agenda without being confronted before. When they are confronted we are in a minefield of potential disruption, bullying and recriminations from both sides. Think about that for a minute.

That the first area to look at this season is the way training is delivered mentally and understanding how people react. We all learn in different ways, and Martin when he educates in this way is opening a whole can of worms. He needs to see that as well as the player. It’s a tough one that.

What I saw on Tuesday was a confused attempt to remain true to a footballing ethic but with little plan to implement when it goes wrong. Or should we say an ability on the pitch to do so ? Possession is key in this Swansea side, without it you are always on the back foot. Players seemed to lose their way from the very start of the game, and anyone who watches football more closely will have seen that clearly. On Tuesday when the swans tried to regain possession it was hurried, lacked thought and relied too much in luck. The stray passes and lack of possession are testament to that.

That leads on to the obvious point of selection of personnel to do a job for you. The defensive set up at Stoke wasn’t flawed, but it involved players who were in a defensive mindset. The lack of any real opportunity in that game displayed a side without pace or an attacking flair to put pressure on the opposition. It was doomed to fail from the start, that is with the players Martin had at his disposal.

Olivier Ntcham, Jay Fulton, Korey Smith, Matt Grimes and Flynn Downes seemed restrained, with only an outlet in Michael Obafemi chances were never going to be turned in to a productive evening for Martin. Ntcham especially seems to be carrying some form of injury which is restricting his ability to assist an attack. When he does get forwards it is most certainly laboured.

His selections for Sunday need to reflect a desire to dominate the game, understand what teams will do ( especially Nigel Pearson ) to counteract your strategy. And then of course have that action plan in place to counteract Bristol City’s intentions. That last bit is the learning that comes out of the experience, an experience Martin has had already many times this season.

Others call it a plan B.

I have no doubt the swans manager has that plan B and works on it religiously, but then that falls back on what was said earlier. Is everyone understanding it ? Is the boss checking the learning here of his players ? And despite him saying so are the players actually buying in to it ? On Tuesday it was as clear as it ever has been before that nothing the side had worked on in the few days before the game was clicking. We are back again at practice makes perfect ? That is, no matter how perfectly you practice if it is done imperfectly it will never work.

Maybe that forms a part of Russell Martin’s own experiential learning.

With Ryan Bennet and more than likely Kyle Naughton out on Sunday, Martin has less to worry about. His selections become limited, Nathanael Ogbeta seems fifty fifty, an injury within the first ten minutes of his first training session means he is not looking good for the weekend. Then there is his fitness to consider. The swans manager has selection dilemmas but only where to put his square pegs in a game he really cannot afford to lose. His confidence rating will drop further if the swans do capitulate again. Especially amongst those who don’t see his overall plans paying off at any time, let alone next season.

A returning Ryan Manning will certainly add some bite, but where he wants that bite leads us back to the square peg question. I’m pretty certain Martin’s mindset will be firmly set on playing Jamie Paterson and Korey Smith for obvious reasons, so a returning Manning will add to a more positive game plan. The system struggles with both Joel Piroe and Michael Obafemi on the pitch at the same time, but my view is why not ? If the formation is adapted it could work. It’s no good having a chasing Obafemi isolated on his own up front with a restricted Ntcham trying to support him.

But hang on ! None of us are players, and none of us are managers at this level, we just say what we see, and use our experience to analyse what could be. That’s what we all do, even those who don’t see that clearly, it’s all about an opinion. Even though there are always those whose opinion is clouded by their own bias. That’s certain. The rest of us continue to hope and continue to watch. That’s what we do, we all love our teams for the same reasons, we want them to succeed. There’s no value in hoping the swans lose for short term gain in sacking a manager and staff who are clearly here for the long haul. It makes the whole seasons plan pointless as we have said before.

Russell Martin still has the support of the majority, and still has a clear vision on how he wants to get this Swansea City side back functioning in the way he wants. And all we can do, despite our discussions is hope he gets it right.

Artwork by Swansea Independent

Swansea City Polls