The first home game of the season for Swansea City at the Swansea.Com stadium goes ahead on Saturday night at 8pm. It’s a LIVE game on SKY and the capped attendance should mean no more than 16,000 Swansea City fans can attend the game.

As expected Liam Walsh is injured for this one as is Korey Smith, with Connor Roberts a long term casualty from the Euros. The swans are expected to name new signing Flynn Downes in the squad and regardless of any other transfer movement he will be the only new face brought in on time for this match. Joel Latibeaudiere who has found a liking for the wing back role could find himself in the central back three again, with Ryan Bennett and Ben Cabango. Kyle Naughton should return with Jake Bidwell. Swans fans are keen to see Joel Piroe start with Jamal Lowe, and one from Kyle Joseph and Morgan Whittaker. Liam Cullen will likely be named on the bench.

It’s clear that Russell Martin is expecting more signings to come in after his recent press conference, as we have stated already any that do won’t make Saturdays game. Ethan Laird from Manchester United is still ongoing now the loan fee has been reduced to zero, and the swans covering his nigh on 5k a week wages. The hold up we are now told was a recall clause which has been settled.

There is no indication on who will be coming in to fill the number nine jersey that is still vacant, however remember we were told it would be a player that would fill the jersey admirably, unfortunately we don’t have any information on who or when. There’s still two weeks to go until the transfer window closes remember. We genuinely believe players will be coming in and leaving, there still seems a lot more business to come.

Olly McBurnie returns to his old club but has made it very clear there will be no niceties during the game, that’s good because the swans don’t need any at all. Rhian Brewster who played a part at the club on loan from January 2020 is also expected to play. The blades lost their opening game of the season last week at home to Birmingham City 1-0, and struggled to a 1-0 win at home to Carlisle in the league Cup on Tuesday night.

Blades new manager Slavisa Jokanovic states it’s early days for him and his newly relegated side but looks forward to the game in Swansea with clarity. “ We played the cup game which is good for us to be in the next round. Swansea are an experienced Championship team who started like us. They pushed for the point but we are focused and we'll try to do the same things. We are under more pressure after our performance and this is an opportunity to win the game” The jury is well out on the new manager after last Saturdays home defeat and the performance against Carlisle.

Russell Martin is buoyed by the Tuesday night performance against Reading, the 3-0 win displayed some great football as he embarks on his swans career with his first home league game.” A tough game. You look at the quality in their squad, I don't think they’ve lost too many since relegation. It’s going to be an occasion I think our players are looking forward to and hopefully a loud and atmospheric stadium. We will attack every game trying to do it our way and trying to be a team that dictates how the game goes. We’ll just have to see where we’re at. Hopefully we’ll keep getting better. I’ve been so impressed with their willingness to listen and to adapt. It gives us the most positivity and hope that we can take them to where we want to get to, the fact that they’re so open to trying things. They’ve had enough evidence on the pitch that they can really enjoy themselves, come out of a game feeling really positive. But we have a long road ahead and it’s a steep learning curve because we haven’t had much time. We need to try and maximise every bit of time we have the players”

The game kicks off at the Swansea.Com stadium on Saturday August 14th 2021 at 8pm UK time

Photographs licensed from Reuters & Open Source

Swansea City Polls