Swansea City are battle weary but ready for one final end of week push to be ready to face Sunderland tomorrow at the swansea.com stadium.The black cats have sold out their allocation, and despite another knock back with train services not running, like Swansea fans last week they are travelling in huge numbers.
Russell Martin’s key focus is the readiness and fitness of his squad. Speaking to one source this morning we have been told that there has been little or no full on physical training post the extremely decent Watford away win. It has been more of a case of rehabilitate the body, re-energise and review the physical state of players who have run their hearts out over the past two games for Swansea.
Russell Martin confirmed this morning that it has been a tough but satisfying week. "There are a few tired bodies, but we will make sure everyone is energised and ready to go,” said the Swans boss. The players have been incredible with their effort, and we have to be ready to go one more time, it’s as simple as that. We want to show the same energy and intensity as we have in the last two games, and the players should take huge belief from their performances and results”
The week has seen Swansea rocket into sixth place in the championship, and this game coming up will see top six consolidated if the swans take the points. It won’t be easy either, if Sunderland win they too could easily position themselves in to the play off spots. It’s a big game for that reason alone.
Captain Matt Grimes who was right up there as one of the players who turned the game for Swansea on Wednesday night is seriously enjoying life at the moment. "When you’re winning games, you just want them to come thick and fast. You want to just roll into the next one and maintain momentum. We’ll be full of confidence after the last one and hopefully we can get another three points under our belts on Saturday. It’s a quick turnaround. We got back in the early hours, and have just two days to recover and be ready to go again, so it’s relentless, but that’s what we’ve got to be if we want to succeed in this league.”
Let’s hope that confidence isn’t misdirected and becomes over confidence come 3pm tomorrow.
Russell Martin this morning
Swansea will welcome the week break before taking on Burnley at Turf Moor next Saturday, another clear top six clash if the swans can stay on form over this weekend. Martin’s preparation for tomorrow is interesting, they have the Watford game to review and examine and as he says "We need to get some key messages in, but being as light as possible physically, they should have taken huge belief from the last two performances”
On his team selections again the swans boss was coy but we could maybe see some different personnel in the side tomorrow. "Yeah, probably a bit of everything really, we came in yesterday and did a recovery session, mentally they need to recover from the game. Some people put in huge shifts, it’s a lot of conversations we have had already to see how certain players feel so we can put a team on the pitch” The training line ups earlier on in the week suggested Harry Darling and Luke Cundle as possible returnees.
That must be the main concern and we do know now that Joe Allen won’t feature and Jamie Paterson is still a good ten days away from a game for the swans. It may be a sad thing to say but the squad haven’t missed Paterson, and to an extent the supporters won’t or don’t seem to have either. Of those players Martin has available he has seen development and growth as the games have progressed this season. "The players belief has certainly grown, the mentality of the group has improved significantly, again that comes down to learning after the disappointments we have had this season. The way they managed the game on Wednesday was one of the best enjoyable and best things we took from the game, especially late on”
Managing expectations is something Martin does well in interviews "There will still be bumps and groans so so with expectations and all that stuff we have to keep this going as long as possible now. And that’s our biggest challenge now to maintain that to keep doing what has got them in to this really nice position after a really tough start. For us it’s really a frustration we are not higher up, the players have used that frustration to drive them in over the last few weeks for sure. One result either way and things can change dramatically in league positions”
With Joe Allen and Jamie Paterson out, and long term injury to Liam Walsh there isn’t an issue with real key players being out and affecting the results of games the swans are playing. And we include Liam Cullen in that. Olivier Ntcham is in fine form with two long range strikes in two games and really should be in the starting line up against Sunderland. In the case of a player like Ntcham it’s really a case of keeping on top of him and selecting him because of the fine firm he is in. On Ntcham Martin revealed. ”We are always really honest with the guys why they are not in the squad. When we left him out of the squad he was hurt, frustrated, disappointed, but you have to respect it, which he did, and his reaction was outstanding. He is desperate to be the best player he can be”
We will cover the opposition here on Swansea Independent during the run up to the game this weekend plus we have some interesting focus on a long term swans player who just never gave up. You know where to come for top quality swans news.