Swansea City are comfortably in the play offs with two games to go and there are concerns regards Steve Cooper’s team selection today. We reproduce the video interview for you to watch in its entirety and look at his comments in this pre match preview. And of course Rooney’s belief his team that are facing relegation will dominate the game, and the swans won’t be able to contain them.
Here is the pre match interview
Steve Cooper is determined to finish as strongly as possible and seems to be extremely confident going in to the final games of the season, and then the play offs. "We’re only focused on ourselves. Never once do we worry about the opposition’s situation, regardless of the time of the season,” said Cooper.
"There’s two games to play, we want to win both games and play well. We want to get the best out of it. It’s our prerogative what team I decide to pick, and the game plan. Just like it’s everyone else’s with what they do with their team. But we are going out there to win, that’s always our idea. You see in this league that so often things can happen that you do not expect. You have to respect every team’s plan and journey that they’re on. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. That can happen because it’s a competitive league. Very rarely is there a massive difference in games, even if it’s a team in good form against a team in bad form. That goes with league positions as well.”
"We’ve already got seven more points than what we had last season, with two games left to play. "We want to try and add to that in the games coming up, starting with Derby at the Liberty. It’s been a tough season playing against teams with bigger budgets and squads, but we’ve kept competing and that’s credit to these players. It’s an ambition and objective for the club to get back to the Premier League. It was always going to be very tough this year, but we’re going for it. Anything is possible.”
"We’re only focused on ourselves. Never once do we worry about the opposition’s situation, regardless of the time of the season. There’s two games to play, we want to win both games and play well. We want to get the best out of it. It’s our prerogative what team I decide to pick, and the game plan. Just like it’s everyone else’s with what they do with their team. But we are going out there to win, that’s always our idea.
"You see in this league that so often things can happen that you do not expect. You have to respect every team’s plan and journey that they’re on. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. That can happen because it’s a competitive league. Very rarely is there a massive difference in games, even if it’s a team in good form against a team in bad form. That goes with league positions as well.”
Morgan Whittaker: "It will be nice to see some of the Derby lads, but I know I have a job to do for Swansea City and it’s all about getting three points for us,” he said. I was fortunate to work with a lot of good people, and I learnt a lot working under people like Frank Lampard, Philip Cocu and Wayne Rooney. But we have a lot of work to do and a lot to look forward to. We have the play-offs to look forward to, and we want to build up some momentum before then, so these next two games are important for us. "There wasn’t much to consider, to be honest. I wanted to get out on loan and I needed a fresh start. Swansea came in, and with what the club and the city possesses, it was a no brainer,” he said.
"It was a case of when we could get it done, not whether we should get it done. For football and family reasons, it was a great move and it ticked all the boxes. "I also knew Mike Marsh from our time in the England youth set up, so it wasn’t a completely new environment for me. I must say, the players and staff made it so easy to settle in, and although I’ve not played in front of the fans, they’ve been really, really nice with their messages.”
Looks like Morgan will get a chance today to prove a few things.
Wayne Rooney : "It’s a pressure situation, we are not in good form in terms of results and we have two games to try and turn it around. "We know what we have to do, there is pressure on the teams chasing us too, but our sole focus is on our game on Saturday. "Games are running out, the other teams have to pick up points to go above us, so we have to keep pushing to get the win, and a win on Saturday would be huge for us. It’s our full focus and we are looking to get the preparations right for Swansea.
"The focus is on winning in any way there is. It’s about result at this stage of the season. "Swansea are not in the best of form, also, and we have to go there with the belief we can win.We know, if we play our game against them, they will struggle to contain us.”
Swansea City v Derby County kicks off at 3pm UK time today, LIVE on SKY Sports