Swansea City head coach Alan Sheehan has a conundrum for tomorrow afternoons game at the swansea.com. He has mentioned that certain players have to be accommodated rest wise, especially with Inoussa playing consistently, but he looked isolated in the away win at Blackburn on Tuesday evening.
Zân Vipotnik failed to score in the Blackburn game but his form has been so good he will be hard to ignore before joining the Slovenian squad for their World Cup Qualifiers away in Kosovo and then home to Switzerland. Games which we expect him to feature in. His overall game has been so good of late, not withstanding his goals scored he is having a great season. Inoussa was pretty much cancelled out as stated but surely we will see him at some point tomorrow ?
Talking yesterday Sheehan said, "Recovery is key after the long trip on Tuesday night. There's a lot of bumps and bruises, some fatigue. After the other night we had a lot of tired bodies, but we have to pick a team that's ready to go in the best way for Leicester City. There will potentially be changes for Saturday. We have a very competitive squad, so we'll have to see how training is and where we go from there."
Liam Cullen (above with Sheehan) is another player looking for selection, he came on with Adam Idah on Tuesday and they both combined superbly to create the winning goal. Idah exceptionally composed as he looked up and found his target well. There was an issue with Josh Tymon before the same game but some last minute treatment ensured he played and we are yet to see the full potential of Samuels-Smith at left/wing back and he will surely now be looking to be given a chance ? Josh Tymon has signed a new contract this week until 2029 and keeper Lawrence Vigouroux has again been in outstanding form this season. He has also extended his contract until 2028.
That is great news for Swans fans as both of these players are instrumental to having a good season.
On Tymon, Sheehan has stated, "Josh has been a consistent performer during my time in charge of the team, and we are delighted to tie him down to a longer-term contract. He is a quality attacking full-back, who is consistent in how he works. He shows up every day and is a player we know we can rely on. We are very pleased he will be part of our squad as we continue to move forward as a group." On Vigouroux, "He is a massive part of what we want to do as a group, and we are very happy to know he is going to be with us during the coming years." Head of goalkeeping Martyn Margetson said: "Lawrence has been outstanding for us on and off the field, and he absolutely deserves this new contract” This is superb news for Swans fans and to see players being delivered new contracts at the right time by the club instead of losing the plot as they did with Harry Darling and Ben Cabango last season.
The last time the teams met at the swansea.com there was controversy as the Swans went down 1-3. That was in October 2023.
Tomorrow’s opponents, Leicester City still have a battle ahead with regards to their lack of compliance with Premier League and EFL rules. According to the Telegraph, Leicester are alleged to have breached profitability and sustainability rules for the 2023-24 season, when the club were in the Championship. They were also charged with failing to provide their annual accounts to the Premier League before the December 31st deadline. There was an additional charge after failing an "obligation to provide full, complete and prompt assistance to the Premier League. Leicester have made combined losses of more than £200m across the rolling three-year period ending June 30, 2024. PSR regulations permit a maximum loss of £81m over that period, with adjustments for deductions.
The Foxes could easily see a big points reduction after their hearing which should be by the end of the year. John Percy also explained in the same report. As a result, Leicester have only spent around £2m on transfers this year – on defender Woyo Coulibaly, who joined in January but has not appeared for the club since a 4-0 defeat at Brentford on February 21. Leicester did raise more than £40m over the summer, with no money spent on incoming transfers. Their highest earner, Wilfred Ndidi, moved to Besiktas for £8m while they moved Conor Coady’s £70,000-a-week wages off the books with the former England international joining Wrexham. Mads Hermansen (£15m to West Ham), Kasey McAteer (£12m to Ipswich) and James Justin (£8m to Leeds) completed the major sales.
That aside Foxes boss, Marti Cifuentes seems to be having to defend his teams lack of goals this season. "The first problem would be if we are not creating chances,” Cifuentes said. "That would be a problem. We can get much better on this, but definitely we are creating enough chances to score. The second problem would be if we were not scoring at all. That would be a huge problem. But that’s not the case either. We need to score more goals, that’s the reality, but who scores is not that important. I understand that everybody wants a striker who can score 35 goals in a season, but it’s not that easy, for Leicester or for any club in the world”
The Swans have been well investigated by the Leicester coaching team, "What we try to do is analyse how they train, who we play against, whether we’re playing against a high or a low block, whether we’re playing against a back five or a back four” That seems to be common place for Cifuentes, so it looks very much like a battle of wits will commence tomorrow afternoon at the swansea.com.
Predictions are everywhere but it seems this could be the team that lines up against the Swans in a (4-3-3): Stolarczyk; Ricardo, Faes, Vestergaard, Kristiansen; Winks, James, De Cordova-Reid; Fatawu, Daka, Monga.
More on the build up to this game tomorrow morning.