It did come as a bit of a surprise on Saturday when Ben Hamer was named in the starting eleven against Hull City. What was more of a surprise was that Steven Benda who had been given the jersey for the first five league games wasn’t given more opportunity to develop within the new Russell Martin ‘total football’ philosophy.
For all the reasons we know as football fans we do see decisions most weeks by managers that more than surprise the clubs followers. A manager such as Russell Martin who has a very distinct managerial style, all inclusive in discussions with his squad, he is also open and honest when explaining his decisions. Hamer, now 33 has a lot of match experience and said recently that he wanted to learn more about Martin's possession-based game his manger demands. "With time I will get better at it," Hamer said. "And hopefully the team will feel more confident with me in goal." Hamer started well on Saturday, he hardly had anything to do until the final seconds when he pulled off a magnificent save from a rare Hull attack.
Ben Hamer is determined to take his chance this season
Hamer has a lot of experience to draw upon as he once again remains defiant he will do everything to retain the number one spot in goal for the swans. "Even when Leicester won the Premier League, we didn't really play free-flowing football - there was a lot of counter-attack," Hamer said. "When I went to Huddersfield, Carlos Corberan was a very, very good coach. He demanded that the keeper played out, fixing strikers and taking one of the opposition out of the game. "I was used to it last year. I played a lot of in the first six months. "But once you don't play for a while you start to forget it. It's a little bit different to how Huddersfield were playing for sure. I am learning again."
Hamer was out with Covid for a short while as well "I have found training really tough coming back. Where usually I breeze through sessions, I am blowing quite a bit. I think for the lads out on the pitch it's even harder because they are covering 10-11 kilometres.
"Once they get that fitness, I think we'll be a very good side." That’s the key for Hamer, the increased efforts to increase squad fitness which in turn increases the players ability to stay alert and take on even more information. We will see tonight as it’s certain Ben Hamer will once again be selected for the game against Millwall.
Tickets are still available for tonight’s game.