Planet Swans ArchivesRoberto Martinez wants to turn the Liberty Stadium into a fortress as he prepares to defend his side’s lead at the top of the table – starting against Hartlepool tomorrow.
51 league games at the Liberty have yielded just 25 Swansea victories – a statistic that could harm their promotion chances if it is not improved upon at some stage this season. Many sides come to the Liberty, put ten men behind the ball and look to gain a point at best if they can making it very difficult for the Swans to break them down. And whilst some teams fail to work with that tactic, the statistic proves that more are successful than unsuccessful at frustrating the Swans.
But Roberto wants to turn the Liberty into an imposing place for visiting sides and wants more teams to leave empty handed. “We have a win-record of around 50 per cent at the Liberty and that’s quite poor,” Martinez said.
“If you want to be successful, your home record has to be your greatest strength as a club and we need to put that right.
“It’s not down to the players, it’s down to the club.
“As a club we need to learn that when teams come here they have nothing to lose.
“They have a fantastic environment to play in and they know that if they keep the home side quiet for an hour, conditions will then be in their favour. We need to change that environment. We need to make the Liberty really, really hostile.
“We need to make it a fortress and that’s the next challenge for us.
“When we go away we always play the same way and we create chances
“At home some teams put 11 bodies behind the ball and start the game looking for a draw.
“It’s negative but quite effective because it makes playing at home quite a hard task for us in that respect.
“We have got the quality to break these teams down but we have to make sure the last 15 minutes of the game are the hardest for them.
“We have to have patience and togetherness around the stadium to make it difficult for opposition teams.”
