Jamie Paterson has been confirmed as unavailable for tomorrow nights game against in form Millwall at the swansea.com stadium. Paterson has struggled to find his form from early last season and of course the debacle of January when he wasn’t ‘available’ for Swansea selection.

The swans don’t have any real injury issues apart from that from Saturdays long trip to Blackpool. Ben Cabango came through his first league start of the season fairly well despite a few lapses in concentration as the game wore on. Alongside Harry Darling both looked exceptionally competent and confident, a defensive pairing adding quality to the Swansea City first eleven spine. With Andy Fisher in goal and in form Matt Grimes potentially starting with Joe Allen alongside him that spine is looking solid. Up front the swans have an extremely dangerous attacking line up in Michael Obafemi and Joel Piroe and you just get the feeling someone is going to take a real hiding in the very near future.

Russell Martin does need to find solutions to his wing back issues, he really isn’t getting full value from Matt Sorinola or Joel Latibeaudiere, both are working as hard as they can but we most certainly are not seeing wing back play with pace and aggression. If that can be addressed in the next few weeks then the swans will look a far better proposition for a top half finish this season.

If all fit and correct we won’t see much of a change to Saturdays starting line up with Martin really only having one dilemma. Jay Fulton or Joe Allen ? For us there is no dilemma. Joe offers a far more aggressive streak to the swans midfield as we saw with a massive challenge after coming on against Blackpool. That aggression and desire is exactly what the Swansea midfield needs tomorrow night.

Assistant coach Matt Gill this morning commented on the Blackpool win on Saturday “It’s always nice to get our first win underway, we would have liked it to be early on in the seaso, first couple of games maybe. We are three games in it’s nice to put in a good away performance”

On Oliver Ntcham Gill said. “Really pleased for Olivier, He has had a good pre season, he has worked immensely hard in training. The manager has mentioned it numerous times, we need the whole squad,that’s important going forward as well” We can expect Ntcham to be involved in tomorrow nights game, his contribution scoring the winner on the weekend was a massive confidence lift for him and the team.

After a fourteen hour round trip on the players coach, which confirms the management team are now preferring to travel separately, something which has surprised some supporters. For us there is no issue, travelling separately gives the decision makers good time to brief and debrief games and puts that excess time to good use. It’s nothing more than that. And common sense, to some of us any way.

Obviously tomorrow nights game will be tough. Gill said “They will be quite buoyant from Saturdays come back victory having been 2-0 down. I think the performance is always the most important, it’s down to us to show the energy again on Tuesday night as we did Saturday. We need to get the fan base behind us as well”

Matt Gill did confirm that no transfer plans are on the horizon. “Nothings changed. I’ll be on repeat like the manager, if it does that will be down to Josh ( recruiting ) and Julian ( CEO)” That’s an expected response, and will please swans fans that there remains no offers for Joel Piroe at least. Seeing Ben Cabango back was a boost and Gill agreed.” I thought Ben was great, brilliant to have him back, and then to play ninety minutes at Oxford and again on Saturday in that heat, it’s really nice to have him back”

Gill also intimated that there are defensive options in a back three or four whereby the addition of Cabango really boosts those formation opportunities. “It gives us more options going forwards, whether we play a back three or back four, or defensively, it really gives us some strength in depth” On the penalty on Saturday awarded by Swansea City refereeing nemesis Andy Woolmer, Gill was cagey but made it clear it wasn’t a penalty. “Obviously everyone has seen it with their own eyes, normally reports go in on a Monday morning. It will go in the report as normal. This week will be no different”

“We are really excited to be back home, to have two games, it’s an important week for us. The Blackburn result was disappointing, and we need to make sure we show that aggressiveness we showed on Saturday”

Swansea City take on Millwall tomorrow night with a 7.45pm kick off.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

Badlands added 16:00 - Aug 15 Only Fisher rated higher than Cabango in independent ratings. Cabango's return highlighted the gulf in quality he has in advance of the new CBs.
1

Swansea City Polls