Phil Sumbler
Swansea City return to action tomorrow when they travel to West Brom, two weeks since their last league outing and looking to build on the first ten game run of the season that sees us in 16th place in the league.
It starts a run of matches that will end with an extended break for the World Cup in November/December and will prove to be a huge test for Russell Martin with many of the early season front runners coming up as opponents over the next few weeks.
It is always debatable whether the international break arrives at a good time for any team and the Swans did seem to have hit a short period of better performances just before the enforced absence of league action. Or at least better performances than some of those seen in the early week of the season.
It will be those performances that Russell Martin will look to build on in the coming weeks and he will be looking to the likes of Ollie Cooper who has impressed in his performances with the team even if he does admit that this is a tough league to be consistent in.
“It is obviously a step up to Championship level, but I am enjoying testing myself,” he told the official website on Thursday.
“I am not sure there is any other way to say it; everyone in the Championship is an absolute unit!
“All players are athletic, powerful, quick. I am not saying the players in League Two don’t have those qualities, but the level of them is completely different.
“You look at the game against Sheffield United the other week, I was playing up against people like Sander Berge, Chris Basham, John Egan. These guys are massive, they are experienced, they have played in the Premier League and they rarely make mistakes.
“It is hard to force players at this level into mistakes but the big thing about how we play here at Swansea is that, if you get it right, you take that element out of the equation.”
Cooper will of course be in the plans of Martin for tomorrow’s clash at the Hawthorns where in the opposition dug out will be an under pressure Steve Bruce knowing that their expectations are higher than anything Martin has at Swansea but ultimately their failure to deliver will also be under greater scrutiny and – arguably – likely to be at a greater cost.
The Swans achieved a league double over the Baggies this season and a similar positive result for the Swans tomorrow could easily signal the end of Bruce’s time in the West Midlands with pressure growing on him prior to the international break.
The Swans have 11 games in a six week period between now and the World Cup that will take us almost to the halfway stage of the season. Russell Martin is known to not want to put points targets on periods of games but realistically a return of 18+ points is likely to be a good return and keep the Swans comfortably looking at mid table as we enter that break and all attention turns to Qatar.
That is a figure well within the grasp of the manager and his squad and the last few performances ahead of the international break should at least see us heading off today with a level of confidence and belief in where we are.
The true position of that confidence and belief will be evident at 3pm tomorrow.
Let’s go, we can do this.
Between now and the World Cup
