Russell Martin has given the entire Swansea City squad three days off after their dismal performance against Preston at Deepdale on Saturday. It coincides nicely with the closure of Fairwood for Covid cleaning, plus it also gives him and the swans hierarchy time to assess the chaotic transfer window ahead.
Although totally unimpressed by the swans performance on Saturday Martin has gone ahead with his plans to give all the players a three day break from football and the intense nature of the Championship. It is very clear for us all to see that Martin and his team have seriously underestimated the task at hand over the last four weeks. Granted it is a very short time to make such drastic changes to a teams mindset and style, but in some ways it has proven to be a huge task, and one we think Martin has totally miscalculated.
The swans boss clearly felt he had some explaining to do after his side were totally out muscled in Lancashire. Plus the questions on the non appearance of Morgan Whittaker were bound to surface. Martin explained the situation "When Morgs does what he did the other night, there's a temptation, but you also have to take into account the team we're playing against and loads of different stuff. "He would have got on the pitch today, but having had to bring Joel off, it meant that he didn't come on” Referencing Latibeaudiere getting injured early on it seems Morgan became surplus to any substitutions.
Speaking on the next few days Russell Martin remained positive. It’s a massive break. The one thing I can promise is we'll be better in two weeks. There's no doubt about that. We'll work really hard," he said. "They looked fitter than us, stronger us. They picked up a lot of second balls. We just didn't compete well enough. The guys are tired. "I said to the guys, I'm really grateful for what they've given us for four weeks. "I think the team has an identity already and a way of trying to do things, but we just haven't had time to get fit and time to work properly” That comment Is more worthy of reflection. It seems now the Swansea squad, irrespective of the time of the season isn’t fit enough. And they need to ‘work properly’ Hopefully after three days off they will return to Fairwood refreshed and ready to put in a bit more effort than we witnessed at Preston.
Of course Russell Martin is right, a squad taking in new things and working differently and then trying to manage the pandemic, testing, new protocols, new ideas, formations and roles will be challenging. We hope that the players reflect on their current situation with only one win from five games, and a draw, and look a bit closer at the badge they hold so passionately in press briefings. The talking at some point has to stop.
The Fairwood closure means a three day break for the swans players
However he is right, for us he remains an exciting alternative to the other media misinformed managers mentioned during the Steve Cooper debacle of last month, and that’s the best news for us. He is keen, enthusiastic and honest. He doesn’t hide and tells it how it is, that’s what we want to hear, even if the performances are not what we want to see. Martin remains positive "We have a choice, we can feel sorry for ourselves and start questioning everything or we can use it to make sure we come back and improve, and use it to energise us for the work that we're going to put in over the next two weeks."
Well let’s see how that goes then, Hull City and Millwall are up next at home, swans fans will want to wins that’s for sure, no pressure Russell, but the talking has to stop some time.