Welcome to the Indy match day morning as we travel to Stoke City for an early kick off (12:30pm) in the EFL Championship. We’ve got the latest team news this morning on the game and comment from both camps.
The hosts Stoke City have been a bit down on their luck of late falling into the lower echelons of the league on recent form, yes, below the Swans. Those two wins against Oxford United and Portsmouth alleviating somewhat the concerns that Swans fans had about relegation are in the past. But as we have stated the test today is against a far better side with a far higher league position overall. Click below for all the news so far.
⚽️ Swans today
Lawrence Vigouroux; Ethan Galbraith, Ben Cabango (captain), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon; Marko Stamenic, Goncalo Franco, Liam Cullen; Ronald, Jisung Eom, Žan Vipotnik.
Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Josh Key, Jay Fulton, Melker Widell, Malick Yalcouye, Ishe Samuels-Smith, Kaelan Casey, Zeidane Inoussa, Adam Idah.
⚽️ Pre match 1
⚽️ Pre match 2
Reflecting on Stoke’s last game an away loss to Ipswich Mark Robins said, "There are a lot of similarities between their patterns and ours, which was interesting for us to see. I think that the difference was the quality of the finish from Philogene after minute two. That was something I was frustrated with. I think we were well in the game, we created some good moments for ourselves and we let ourselves down with our final pass, final decision, the speed of the chance we took... I look back to Junho's chance and he takes a touch when there's no time to take a touch. He has to hit it first time”
Robins has seen his side win just one out of their last six games and last weekend they were battered away at Sheffield United 4-0. Some of their games they have lost by the odd goal at Ipswich, home to Hull City, Coventry and away at Leicester which is slightly reassuring for the Potters. Stating the obvious to some extent Robins believes this is a very tricky run out of form. "We're going through a really, really tough patch at the moment. After the start we've made this is a patch where you knew it could come but you hope it didn't and you can keep picking up the points and we haven't done that. But we're in a good position to attack that top six - this is the lowest we've been this season and it doesn't feel good. It feels much much better when you're in that top two."
After the Potters encouraging start to this season Robins isn’t that happy at this moment in time. "We spoke this summer about finishing higher than fourteenth would be a success. We've had a great start and everyone - including me - is saying 'why not?' [promotion] and it's still why not? - we have got so many games to play. Hopefully this will be our blip, because performances have been pretty good."
Some are looking towards the absence of Lewis Baker who has been given a lifeline by Robins in the Potteries. Scoring ten from thirty one games the midfielder has been out since November 8th and won’t feature today. Many are stating that since he has been injured that Stoke City haven't been the same and past results tend to confirm this. On Baker, Robins made it his first managerial move recalling him from Blackburn in January. Remember that goal from the half way line against the Swans in the corresponding fixture last season ? That was Lewis Baker. Mark Robins : "It’s a drive, he’s just got a drive. It was one of the first things I did when I took over in January was to bring him back from Blackburn. It was pivotal in us staying up. He scored against Swansea here from the half-way line. When you look at goals they show that are scored from the half-way I don’t see it, which is an absolute joke because it was one of the best I’ve seen."
Not to worry Mark. Here’s another look at that goal which contributed to a 3-1 loss for the Swans the last time these sides met.
A lovely goal.
It’s nice to report that the Swans will have a full squad to choose from today and again we aren’t expecting major changes bar Zān Vipotnik who could possibly come in for Adam Idah. The defence has looked far more in control with Ethan Galbraith at right back but his presence in a total midfield role does take away from his impact there. However, Marko Stamenic has been on top form and seeing him in there with Gonçalo Franco and a more advanced Melker Widell has looked a lot better. Of course the introduction of Malick Yalcouyé against Portsmouth who then provided the assist for Liam Cullen to win the game must be on for a start at some point ?
Let’s be honest if his lack of game time continues he might not be at Swansea come January.
If you’re reading this on your way to Staffordshire today we wish you a very safe journey , have a great day.
Mark Robins talks on the Swans game below.
Vitor Matos pre match.