Swansea City 1 v 0 Watford
EFL Championship
Tuesday, 5th November 2024 Kick-off 20:00

Swansea City : Tymon out for Tuesday ? Joe Allen update and Watford pre-match
Sunday, 3rd Nov 2024 13:40 by Liam Walters & Keith Haynes

Swans head coach, Luke Williams was extremely relieved as he saw his side hang on to a lead which gained three valuable points at Oxford United yesterday. It could have been made a lot easier but his substitutions late on in the game was perilous decision making.

Bringing on Azeem Abdulai in another attempt to make him a winger, Kyle Naughton and Cyrus Christie all at once was poor. Naughton has his place at times in the side, but Christie, not ‘match fit’ looked like a rabbit in headlights. For the goal that Oxford scored he was nowhere. Those three replacements nearly lost the game and tainted what was a pleasing day for Swans fans. Totally unnecessary, and again an insight into what is a head coach learning on the job at the highest level he has ever worked at.

⚽️ Swans round up
Looking towards Tuesday night, Jay Fulton, Josh Tymon, Ollie Cooper, Eom, Sam Parker, Josh Ginnelly and Andrew Fisher (goalkeeper) are all out this time around. Eom being the biggest miss has still a lengthy period of time in rehab. Ollie could be out until February. That’s a great shame for him as he has established himself in Craig Bellamy’s Wales squad, and would have been looking forward to the next and final set of Nations League qualifiers. However, it is ‘needs must’ so Luke will have to rely upon what he has left. The back four (for want of another term) picks itself, Josh Key will need someone other than Tymon on the opposite flank. That’s a blow. Both have been very much first choices with Ben Cabango and Harry Darling (for now) Matt Grimes will always be the first name on the team sheet, closely followed by Franco. Joe Allen limped from the field of play at Oxford United, your guess is as good as ours there. The options then are Florian Bianchini, Myles Peart-Harris and Ronald, we are not even going to consider Azeem Abdulai there, it’s like playing with ten men. A more energetic midfield role suits him and we can see the difference in him when not being played out of position. Luke also has Aimar Govea who finally made it to the bench at Oxford. Zăn Vipotnik scored his second goal of the season at the Kassam Stadium and really should have had two, he has to be the choice up front.

Liam Cullen is a starting possibility behind Vipotnik (below)

The Slovenian international was delighted after his goal and the Swans winning. “This feels really good because we have had to wait for this win and for this feeling. It feels amazing to help the team with a goal, and we were able to continue from there. We got better as the game went on and I think we deserved the win. The goal means a lot to me, it has been some games since I scored and as a striker it is not good if you do not score and the team does not score. It’s my job to score. I hope I can move forward now with confidence, we train really hard working on our play and the finishing. I think we have deserved more from these last few games but I am happy we could get this win”

Josh Tymon has reached five yellow cards before the watershed of nineteen games, we are told he is out for Tuesday. That will be a big blow to Luke Williams not only in attack but defensively. He was booked for time wasting at Oxford, that being his fifth card of the season over thirteen games played. The very fact he rarely misses a game and is great going forwards, Luke will have to assess what he does. However, the fact remains that is more players unavailable.

Read our extensive match report U’s v Swans right here —> ⚽️ Game, Pics, Stats, Ratings, Pics

Watford are the visitors on Tuesday night to the Swansea.com. Up until yesterday they weren’t pulling up tree’s in the Championship away from home. They took Sheffield Wednesday apart yesterday winning 2-6 at Hillsborough, so we have a confident side visiting west Wales for this 8pm kick off.

Having said that head coach, thirty five year old Tom Cleverley has got them into fifth place in the Championship, and they are six points ahead of the Swans. If we take a look at the away league table. Watford away from home look poor. Despite their
win at Hillsborough, they had up to that point one win away.

There will be opportunities to expose the Hornets inability to win games away, However those six goals at Sheffield Wednesday will display to Watford they can be a lot better. We saw the Swans play Sheffield Wednesday and they looked pretty average, that is another game the Swans should have won. Clearly Swansea City are a better side than the Owls, but Watford is a big test. The danger man is Vakoun Bayo, he scored four goals at Sheffield Wednesday in thirty minutes. Luke take note.

We now have an update on Joe Allen (below) he will be receiving treatment up to this game, and Luke Williams will make a call on Tuesday morning.

Joe had a pretty decent game against Oxford, a more mature involvement for sure, but he steadied the ship at times making appropriate and accurate passes. We can only hope his fitness is at a level where he can play this Tuesday.