Rob Davies
Swansea City take on Nathan Jones’ Luton Town at the Swansea.com Stadium hoping to avenge the memories of Tuesday night’s painful collapse against Millwall.
Luton are yet to win this season and the alarm bells are beginning to ring for Jones and the fans after reaching the play-offs last campaign although were the Hatters to win today it would take them above the Swans.
They have drawn two and lost two of their four games and were knocked out 3-2 by Newport County in the Carabao Cup – they’ve also only scored once in the league so far this season in a 1-1 draw at Burnley.
Russell Martin will see this as a big opportunity to heal some of the pain felt in injury time Tuesday and should have the majority of his first team squad available for selection.
Team News
Joel Latibeaudiere is set to be out for at least four months after suffering a shoulder dislocation on Tuesday so the Swans are in desperate need of wing back reinforcements.
It was a need before Latibeaudiere’s injury but now it leaves the team perilously short on the right side with Matty Sorinola set to deputise – a left sided player by trade.
Ben Cabango is pushing for a start although one would expect that Martin would keep the same back three that did well up until the substitutions which clearly disjointed the team.
Jamie Paterson could also be available for selection after shaking off his injury so a place on the bench – away from any stray balls this time – is most likely with Olivier Ntcham continuing on the left.
Joe Allen will surely retain his place in the heart of midfield alongside Matt Grimes and the same with Joel Piroe and Michael Obafemi up front.
As for Luton they have spent big by their standards this summer recruiting Carlton Morris and Cauley Woodrow from relegated Barnsley with both likely to start along with last season’s top scorer Elijah Adebayo.
Dion Pereira, Henri Lansbury – who is surely owed a warm reception for his hideous challenge on Ryan Manning last season – and Harry Cornick are all struggling for fitness whilst Fred Onyedinma, Pelle Ruddock-Mpanzu, Alfie Doughty and Luke Berry are all unavailable.
Predicted line-ups
Swansea (3-4-3)
Fisher
Wood – Naughton – Darling
Sorinola – Allen – Grimes – Manning
Piroe – Obafemi – Ntcham
Luton (3-4-3)
Horvath
Burke – Bradley – Potts
Osho – Campbell – Bree – Bell
Morris – Adebayo – Woodrow
The Managers’ comments
Russell Martin: “We know that it is inexcusable to relinquish a two-goal lead like that in stoppage time of a game where we have been the better side.
“Myself and my coaching staff take responsibility for that because we are ultimately responsible for the team’s mentality.
“We simply have to be better in those situations, we are not far away from being a really good side who can impact this division, but we need to deal with those moments of difficulty a lot better and I’m confident we will.”
Nathan Jones: “We have to be better in all that we do and wherever we go and we’ve got some decisions to make, but we’re not panicking yet.
“We’re not panicking, there’s a long way to go, but we have to turn this around, as it’s a tough month.
“We’ve got a lot of journeys, got some big teams, Sheffield United, and we probably should have more points than we have.
“We’ve been better, against Birmingham, Burnley and even Preston on the weekend, we probably deserved more from those games, but we haven’t got them.”
Planet Swans prediction:
Swansea City 2-1 Luton Town
(We’ve got to get one right eventually…)
remember Luton won hare twice. They dont become a bad team overnight after a playoff finish last season.
Overconfidence could be the swans downfall.