On the eve of Swansea City’s game at the New Den, Millwall, Russell Martin feels his side are showing the right mentality but need a win before the derby game against Cardiff City. With just two games to go before the international break, away tomorrow at Millwall and then home to Bristol City on Sunday - the Swans by all accounts are displaying the right mindset over the past two games.
Russell Martin is scraping around for plaudits for his players after a decent second half away at Luton and then a first half on Saturday saw his side go in at 1-0 up. Both games were lost as have four of the last five with just one point picked up at home to Rotherham United. That’s one point from a possible fifteen. Before that it was one win in four, the three points coming against Blackpool, one draw at QPR and two losses.
Over the past nine league games the Swans have won one, drawn two and lost six. The goals against column doesn’t look too healthy either with eighteen goals conceded in those nine games. An average of two a game. Pretty much relegation form since Steve Benda was injured at QPR. Since the return from the World Cup the Swans have played fifteen games with forty five points on offer. From those fifteen games nine have been lost, three have been drawn and there have been three wins. On the plus side the three wins earned against Watford, Sunderland and Blackpool coupled with the three draws have resulted in twelve points from the forty five available.
That’s also relegation form.
The defence is the issue and managing games at crucial stages seems an impossibility for this Swansea side. Questions are continually being asked as to why Russell Martin is still employed as head coach, and the response which the vast majority know is finance. The majority owners just don’t see the value in paying to sack Russell Martin and remove his coaching staff at this point in the season. Plus, the usual step up we see when a manager leaves a club, in this case it would be Matt Gill won’t happen. If Martin goes, Gill goes, that’s the deal, and it’s almost certain that a few others would also leave. That’s a big financial outlay from owners who promised certain player recruitment in January, and then did nothing to encourage any Swans fan they had any thoughts of doing so.
And of course we still don’t know what plans, if any, there are for Russell Martin’s future come the summer. This has resulted in a number of season tickets not being renewed and more supporters staying away from home games. What Russell Martin has is a clear vision for his squad, a clear way to play and a distinct ethos in how that will happen. The issue as many now see is he doesn’t have the players capable of doing that, and anyone who disagrees should look at the last fifteen games and try and come up with an argument to prove otherwise.
Whatever team the head coach selects tomorrow evening there will be little faith they can match themselves against a Millwall side that has shown some very impressive form this season. Not only in their league position but the spirit they display when needed to take points from games. We explored that yesterday.
You can read that assessment here –> âš½ï¸ Millwall explored
Martin’s latest comments may appear slightly baffling set against his teams results, the worst run we have seen for some seasons. "Mentality-wise I've really liked what I've seen from the lads in the last two games," he said. There's a bit of zip back, some energy and confidence. There was a big difference between the teams in terms of physical capability," he said following Saturday's defeat. That's something we've highlighted but not been able to bring in to help us. So we have to find different ways to manage games, which we haven't quite done yet."
It’s no good referring back to January, it didn’t happen and Martin himself has stated on several occasions it’s pointless doing so. However, he continues to hold some contempt for what occurred in the last transfer window. That attitude will rub off on his players and won’t help going into games like this latest one at Millwall. Of course there’s always hope any game can be won, but the Swans recent track record doesn’t point to that happening soon. It’s obvious ( as it stands ) that Martin feels confident in his position as head coach and doesn’t seriously fear the sack, as we have already discussed.
So we go in to tomorrows game with a pretty flat feeling and resignation that this game will more than likely go the same way as the other nine over the last fifteen games. I suppose all we have to fall back on is the old adage ‘ Anything can happen in the championship and anyone can beat anyone’ However, I don’t know about you but that’s not really that comforting when I look back at those last fifteen games, two of which were won against ten men.
Still, that one win away at Sunderland in January is something to cling on to since those heady days when in one week in October last year Swansea City beat West Bromwich Albion and Watford away. The last away wins, five months ago. We can but hope.
Millwall v Swansea City kicks off tomorrow evening at 7.45pm at the New Den