Ashley Williams says it's natural for everyone to raise their game to impress a new manager

The Swansea City defender is glad that the new manager is now in place after another summer of upheaval following the departure of Paulo Sousa two weeks ago.

Brendan Rodgers was finally appointed on Friday and watched his new team beat Yeovil 1-0 on Saturday before the real hard work starts today.

And Williams told the Western Mail “As soon as the new manager comes in, everyone naturally raises their game

“You have a new guy to impress. He probably knows us all anyway from his time at other clubs.

“But he is seeing you face-to-face for the first time and you want to make a good impression.

“I’m sure this week’s training will be a lot sharper. We need to start building towards the start of the season and show him we can be in his starting XI.

“It’s great to have the new manager in place now. It was important that we got him in as soon as possible because it probably went on a bit too long.

“That’s no-one’s fault, but it wasn’t ideal. Pasc and Curt did a great job, but we always knew they weren’t the manager.

“You need someone leading the boys. It’s good that we have finally got that.

“I don’t think Swansea could bring in a manager who wants to play in a really different way.

“We have got players that fit this style and it would be difficult to change it. From what the gaffer was saying, he clearly respects us as players and wants to carry on with what we are used to.

“It’s a really good appointment for us because he matches the club when it comes to his views on football. He likes to play attacking football and, from speaking to him on Saturday, you can see that he doesn’t want to change too much.

I definitely think he will take us forward,” the experienced defender declared.

“We made a little improvement last year on the previous season, even with the disappointment at the end, and now we need to push for the play-offs.

“I think, for every manager who comes in, it will maybe be a little bit easier. He can see where the team went wrong last year and hopefully we can go that extra step.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that improvement has to come in the goalscoring department. He has said he wants to sort that out, without taking away from our defence as a team, and I think we can get that blend.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t create enough last season, it was having the confidence to put the chances away. If we can get that I am sure we will be all right.”

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