Phil SumblerThe opening day of the football season is the day where new dawns appear, optimism is high and it’s a chance to see just what the work of the close season has done for the side that, for many, you left behind in May.
For us that May date was just eight weeks ago and a summer of turmoil saw the manager depart, a new one arrive less than a week before the season started and very few players coming into the club to replace a host that left, most of them loan signings so there could be little excuse as to being unprepared for that.
That summer of turmoil was evident today for the Swans who opened their campaign with a defeat at Ewood Park although there were signs within the game itself that the style that Russell Martin wants to impose on his side was starting even in these early days to play itself through to the pitch.
What else though was evident was the lack of depth in the squad and there simply has to be a busy month ahead for the Swans in the transfer market or the toils of a long Championship season will take its toll during the course of the next nine months and give us long periods of struggle.
Defeat today should not really be a surprise.ย The pre-match poll on the site told us it what the majority of Swans fans were expecting and it could have been worse because, for all the Swans dominated the possession, it was the home side that had the best of the chances and could easily have run out victors by a bigger margin then they eventually achieved.
There was no place in the squad today for one of the summer signings, Joel Piroe, amongst a host of rumours as to why he wasn’t there with the wide assumption being he had been sent home yesterday by Russell Martin and not considered for selection.ย We await the news of that at the time of writing.
It is always interesting to watch the shape of a side under a new manager and it was clear from the early stages that the Swans will build from the back far more than they have done in recent years.ย It can be a risky philosophy but from the early evidence today we do have players capable of doing that and, given time, then we could reap the dividends of a return to this kind of football.
Another signing – Jamie Paterson – just 24 hours after he put pen to paper got the Swans first goal of the season when he pulled a goal back shortly after a horrendous error from Steven Benda at the start of the second half handed Rovers a penalty that they gladly despatched to double the lead that Gallagher had given them in the first half.
The Swans were not a team of panic despite the deficit and patiently tried to carve opportunities out for an equaliser but it was always the home side who were looking the most dangerous and likely to score and several times more they threatened Benda’s goal but were not able to add to their advantage.
There is little doubt that Blackburn deserved the three points that they picked up today but at the same time Russell Martin should not be disappointed with the performance of his side who clearly are starting to work in the way that he wants them to.ย Where he will be concerned, and he will have been able to see this all week, is in the depth of the squad.ย ย Reinforcements are needed at the Liberty and the new boss has already been hard at work this week to make some of those happen and more are expected to arrive before we face Sheffield United at the Liberty next Saturday in our opening home fixture of the season.
Certainly not the start that Martin would have wanted to kick start his Swansea career but one that he will draw the positives from and work on the areas that we can clearly see need work.
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