We welcome back Trystan Bending this Friday evening. He very astutely dissects Michael Duff and his Swans career to date. Patience is not only a virtue it’s key for any football manager.

It’s fair to say Michael Duff’s first few months at Swansea have been nothing short of drama. After six games in charge the Swans found themselves 20th, winless in the league. A loss to Cardiff certainly added pressure to everyone at the club. Swansea fans refusing to stay patient were quick to build a case that Michael Duff was the wrong man for the job. It certainly wasn’t a minority who felt this way either. Duff would have been questioning if he could do anything right after provoking Swansea fans with words that would only aggravate fans even more. Long term injuries to Nathan Wood and Josh Ginnelly also invited temper at the owners, since the summer interest in Wood essentially threw away £10 million pounds.

It would always be hard for Duff to bounce back immediately following the dreadful defeat to Cardiff in the South Wales Derby. QPR away would be his next game in charge. An early goal from Ginnelly saw the Swans go 1-0 up, rather controversially. Fans were not impressed with this game, the football was poor and it lead to a repeat of last year, where the Swans conceded in the 90th minute to draw the game 1-1. A point against QPR, who are one of the Championship’s weaker sides, evidently showed no signs of improvement.

Up next was the game against Sheffield Wednesday, in which the media and fans were eager to pounce on the idea that this could be Michael Duffs last game in charge. With the building, Duff made a major change by switching to a back 4 from a back 5. This would see the team set up as a 4-2-3-1. The Swans earned a 3-0 victory. However this was the game in which Duff lost both Wood and Ginnelly to long term injuries. Man of the match in this game was Kristian Pedersen who showed his versatility, putting in an outstanding performance at left back. With a clean sheet Swansea City centre back Ben Cabango said “We’ve set the bar with a 3-0 win and a clean sheet to build on it”.

Millwall with all due respect to Sheffield Wednesday would stand as a bigger test for Michael Duff and his team. With the success from the switch in formation in the last game Duff stuck with his formation but made changes to the back line and up top. Duff's philosophy would be ever present in this game. Jamal Lowe, Matt Grimes and a first goal for Mykolaiv Kukharevych earned the Swans a comfortable 3-0 win away at the Den.

Following on from this the Swans faced Norwich, who sat in a play-off position. An unchanged team for Duff led to an early lead through a man in form, Jamal Lowe. Just as confidence was cascading through the team, Norwich scored against the run of play. However tt ended 2-1 to Swans, with Bashir Humphreys finding the back of the net late on. Credit to Michael Duff who made four substitutions, all of which had a positive effect on the game.

So, what has changed?

Micheal Duff was keen to say before the Millwall game that the players are a tight group who have been working hard each day to make things right, creating a feeling that the squad possesses togetherness. I can’t help but think that the deadline day signing Jamal Lowe is a character who has played a part in building togetherness, with such great form and his energetic personality around the place. Duff, who originally played Lowe as a number 9, has changed Lowe into a left winger in recent games, which Lowe looks to be thoroughly enjoying, scoring 3 goals in 3 games. Jamal Lowe, could prove to be the best deadline day singing that we made, if he continues his form.

Perhaps the heartbeat of this Swansea city team, Matt Grimes, looked noticeably isolated in the back 5 formation. At times he would be left very deep on the ball almost as an extra centre back. Fans were quick to question how Grimes was going to fit into Duff’s system and potentially for the first time in his Swansea career a small minority would give him some criticism. The change in shape has benefited everyone but noticeably Matt Grimes has been given more freedom to play to his ball playing abilities.

Michael Duff has been compared to Russell Martin a fair few times this season. One problem Martin had last year was how slow we were to play out from the back, consequently leading to a lot of mistakes. Duff in an interview said that he aims to play possession football, but knowing when to clear our lines at the back, perhaps a dig at previous manager Russel Martin. It’s clear that Duff and his team have worked immensely hard to fix the problems at the back. It hasn’t been perfect but it’s great to see a new outlook on the defence. There has been potential MOTM’S from everyone in the back line, for all 3 of our previous wins, two of the man of the matches being Pedersen and Bashir Humphreys. Both players would usually identify themselves as centre halves. However both displays have been from the left back position. Credit must go to Watson and Coleman for bringing in versatile players, who have the quality to play anywhere across the back line. Ben Cabango and Harry Darling both look incredibly confident at centre back and will be hoping to keep their place. Not only defending very well, but both showing they have the ability to play direct football and switch the field of play, creating another route from defence to attack.

Carl Rushworth was given a very good report from Brighton fans when he arrived at SA1. With the troubles we faced last year in the keeper position it’s great to see the young man in such great form. A keeper who has great distribution, he has certainly aided Duffs tactics. The shot stopping has been incredibly impressive at times, he’s certainly earned a huge amount of appreciation from the Jack Army.

Jamie Paterson who appeared bound to leave in the summer, has perhaps revived his Swansea city career and won the fans back. Swansea City posted on their social media pages “Jamie Paterson appreciation post’ after the Norwich City game and rightly so. The midfielder has showed us what he can do time and time again but has struggled for consistency. Pato playing in midfield has showed how creative he can be with a lovely assist for Jerry Yates against Millwall, and moments of magic in the Norwich game. The 31-year-old has not only been impressive on the ball, but it looks as if Duff may have drilled in to Pato what he can do when he presses the ball down. His work rate has been outstanding. He’ll be hoping for consecutive starts against Plymouth, and he deserves it.

“We’ve not arrived yet just because we’ve won a couple of games”. Credit must go to Michael Duff who has remained loyal to his philosophy and words. He deserves more respect as a manager and man. As much as fans were quick to jump on his back for the bad results, we should be getting behind Duff and his team following these positive results. It’s not been the perfect start by any means, but hopefully we can carry our momentum and earn another three points against Plymouth Argyle, who are also in good form.

Every professionally run website is an historical time stamp. If you want your work endorsed on the biggest Swans fans site then contact us here at the Indy - Swansea.Independent1@gmail.com

Photographs Open Source

Swansea City Polls