Michael Duff reported a good week with his squad and has enjoyed his time working without interruption with his players. And now he looks ahead to tomorrow nights game v Sunderland (KO 3pm)
Despite questions about Charlie Patino, the Swans head coach did manage to guide his answers round to the job in hand and not an on loan player who either plays or he doesn’t. Patino has little impact on the Swans long term. We need to focus on this issue come January.
On Sunderland Duff said. "They are a really, really good team, young, really good quality in wide areas in Clarke and Roberts. They can hurt you in lots of different ways. Good experienced manager, yeah, it will be a tough game. They have high energy and good quality. We are back at home we’ve had two disappointing results, I think one disappointing performance. If we can get on the front foot which we always try and do and we can use the ball a bit better than we did against Watford I think we can cause our own problems as well”
On the performance side. "You want a Leicester style performance but with a win. We didn’t play great against Watford and probably should have won. We know we are going to have to be at our best, play our way, use the ball better than we did against Watford. Against Blackburn we should have been three or four up after about an hour”
"I don’t talk about where we will finish, this is not me trying to evade the question, I’ve said this ever since I’ve been a manager. I think it’s great that the players have that ambition ( getting to the play offs ) but it’s day to day. If yiu look too far in to the future you will trip over what’s right in front of you. So, it’s no good talking about the play offs and things because if we get beat by Sunderland people will start looking the other way because that the nature of the Championship. From my point of view it’s day to day, game to game, pop your head up after ten or eleven games and see where we are at, right, how can we improve, what can we get better at, let’s chip away at that. Pop your head up again rather than reaching for the stars”
Josh Key will be another few weeks which is disappointing for him but Harrison Ashby is ready and available. Josh has trained this week and was hopeful but now it seems he needs more convalescence before returning. Mykola Kukharevych ( above ) is unlikely to see first team action again until the middle of December, and that’s a conservative shout on his knee injury. Duff on his Ukrainian striker. " It’s a bit of a weird one, he had a shot in training felt something, didn’t report it straight away and the next day he says it’s a bit stiff” That’s a big disappointment for Mykola, and he just adds to the injury issues at Swansea. Joe Allen in the managers words is a ‘long way’ from being fit. Ben Cabango is fit.
More as the day progresses.