Michael O’Neill will send his Stoke City side out against the Swans this evening expecting them to come up against a very different Swansea City to the one that he took three points from earlier in the season.
That was a midweek fixture when Stoke left the Swansea.com stadium with the spoils on one of the more disappointing of the Swansea performances this season, a performance that you suspect is high on the agenda to correct on Tuesday night.
The Swans are, of course, on the back of the weekend win over Blackburn that released some of the pressure that was starting to build after a poor run of form and there should be no reason why we cannot go to Stoke looking for an away win to build on that even further.
Stoke boss Michael O’Neill recognises the work that Russell Martin has undertaken since that midweek game earlier in the season and spoke in his press conference yesterday afternoon about the possession game adopted by a Russell Martin side.
“They’re a team that had a new manager at the start of the season and there is a difference in their style of play. A team very focused on possession of the ball as their possession statistics are continually very high,” said O’Neill
“We’re going to have to take control of the ball ourselves because if we don’t we will struggle to get it back. We were very good without the ball at Swansea and won the game. The objective here is the same
“They will be further developed than they were earlier in the season as Russell was not long in the job and hadn’t had chance to impose himself on the squad.
“It will be a tough game, they had a very good result against Blackburn and it’s a game that we know we are capable of winning. We have to make sure our home form is back to where it was at the start of the season.”
The boss addressed the media earlier this afternoon ahead of tomorrow's clash with Swansea City 🎙#SCFC 🔴⚪️
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) February 7, 2022