Tonight’s game at Oakwell between Barnsley and Swansea City has a number of warnings attached to it for Russell Martin. Not least it’s Poya Asbaghi’s first game as tykes manager, and we all know what can happen there.

Have no doubt about it a new manager coming in to a club does give the players a considerable boost. This season Steve Cooper has seen a dramatic turn around in his new clubs fortunes since he took over. The new manager effect usually kicks in when the season has already started and results are viewed as poor. Barnsley recently sacked Markus Schopp after a matter of months and the Wall Street Journal ‘Moneyball’ article seems a long time ago. That connection came as a result of Barnsley reaching last seasons play offs with the youngest squad in the league, and indeed one of the smallest budgets.

Owner Chien Lee has now been at the club for four years and albeit his investment hasn’t always been what tykes fans have wanted to see his appointment of Valérien Ishmael, and his leaving for West Brom did bring in some decent compensation in the summer. Consistency at manager level has been an issue for the last three years with eleven managers ( including four caretakers ) being lost in that period. That’s pretty alarming for any Barnsley fan. Now with Iranian born Asbaghi at the helm surely now some form of patience and grace needs to be applied ?

Apart from the new manager impact Barnsley are bottom of the form table, very much bottom as well. The goals have dried up and they can’t buy a win or any consistent form. That alone on a cold night in Yorkshire should concern Russell Martin. This is indeed a banana skin for the swans, no complacency whatsoever should be the main swans feature in this game. The Barnsley players will be keen to impress, and will see this as a real opportunity to turn their fortunes round.

We all know if the swans play as we know they can then the result should go with the away team. However their away form is of some concern, only two away wins this season with a few games seeing the swans fall apart, especially at Bournemouth and Preston, and those games will be in the back of Martin’s mind. Yes, in recent weeks the form has improved, but the away wins were not that convincing to many who saw those games at Bristol City and Coventry. However, the result at Coventry was impressive in stages. It was an improvement.

If Swansea City are to be taken seriously this season then tonight’s game is crucial to prove that point. For us any win is credit in the bank this season, and we should never forget that many see this as transition and time for Russell Martin to get things in place.

The swans are seventh in the form table going in to this weeks round of matches over six games, and Barnsley are very much at the bottom. With the new manager in place at Oakwell, and the swans up and down away record this season it seems this is very much a banana skin game for Swansea City. Recent visits to Barnsley have been very positive, we just hope that remains the case.

Team news as we get it today.

You can watch the game on the Sky Sports Red Button 🔴 Kick off is at 7.45pm UK time.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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