Russell Martin’s flexibility and persistence to tune his squad in to the best available formation has been praised by Harry Darling and Nathan Wood. Darling, the ex MK Dons player is enjoying the flexibility so much under the Swansea coaching system he believes it is all about to pay off.
The ability to switch defensive systems within a game has seen an upsurge in positive performances under Russell Martin since the return to championship fixtures after the World Cup. Obviously the three league losses in that period have been an issue, but those defeats to Burnley, Norwich and Reading have all been lost by the odd goal. It surely now tells a story that the side are building a momentum when you look at the wins against Watford and Sunderland along with the character displayed in the 3-3 draw away at Coventry. Okay, that’s only seven points from a possible eighteen, and about as mid table form as you can get but tomorrows game will be the real test for this current Swansea City side.
Centre half Harry Darling is impressed at the continued progress as well. "We've gone to this new formation recently which I feel has worked really well," he said ahead of this weekend's trip to face Queens Park Rangers. I think performances, for the majority, have been quite good. Sometimes the result hasn't quite gone our way. But I feel like we can start to turn that around now and turn good performances into results. You've seen from the performances, it's suiting us. Like the gaffer says, in the games, it doesn't really look too different, no matter what formation we play”
Defender Nathan Wood is of a similar attitude and also seems confident the swans can push on and show what they can at Loftus Road. "QPR are a good team. You can’t look too closely at form, because it’s about what happens on the day. They’re in a not-too-dissimilar position to us. I know we’ve got some good results lately but we still have to improve our form. They are a good team and it’s a tough place to go. I think the aim has to be to keep improving ourselves and keep winning games. We want to get into the play-off positions and stay there. I feel like that’s a target that kind of speaks for itself. We’ve shown what we can do against the top teams in this league, so it’s just about being more consistent and really establishing ourselves in those play-off places”
Nathan Wood & Harry Darling see positive times ahead
Regardless of certain negativity surrounding the manager and his lengthy process over the last eighteen months some seem to be frustrated with the sides consistency. We all recognise that, the players and the manager included. But the swans are where they are and are in close touching distance of the championship play offs. Tomorrow also see’s the swans go in to a mini break now they are out of the FA Cup. The Birmingham City home game on Saturday February 4th is the next fixture once tomorrows game concludes. It has to be that everyone will be looking positively at another excellent away performance from Swansea City.
Again the Jack Army will travel in huge numbers as they have all season, the away turn outs at Sunderland last week (more than many teams visiting the stadium of light this season) Reading, Coventry, and indeed at Bristol City in the FA Cup have been incredible. And we will see that again tomorrow afternoon. Nearly 2,500 travelling fans will fill the away end in west London. We will have our usual latest reports on the swans in the morning, and team news tomorrow as soon as we get it. Suffice to say Morgan Whittaker will be named in the squad, and many will be interested to see if that’s just playing games with Glasgow Rangers or a real statement of intent to get him on the pitch in a Swansea City shirt.
Let’s hope it’s the latter.
Queens Park Rangers v Swansea City kicks off at 3pm tomorrow afternoon at Loftus Road