Phil Sumbler
The Swans will take on the toughest league challenge this evening with a trip to Leicester to take on a side that is surely destined for Premier League football next season.
The Foxes have led the way at the top of the table for most of this season and with sixty-six points on the board already know that it would take an almighty implosion to prevent them making an immediate return to the top flight following their relegation last season.
It has long since been said this season that Leicester are a Premier League side playing in the Championship and it has pretty much been proven to be that way as they have swept aside most of the sides in front of them this season opening up a decent gap at the top of the league.
This is simply a game where almost anyone you ask would predict a home win which is why this is a kind of free hit for Luke Williams. He is not expected to get anything out of the game so he is unlikely to be too harshly criticised should the Swans lose. However, after the meek way in which his side surrendered against both Southampton and Bournemouth in the first half we have every right to expect some more effort and passion from whatever side that Williams picks for this game.
The second half against Southampton gave us some hope for the future but frankly there was nothing that we could take as a positive from the FA Cup debacle at Bournemouth but it does mean that there will be changes after so many failed to impress last Thursday night.
Carl Rushworth – staying for the season – will return in goal and another loanee, Charlie Patino, is also seemingly set to see out his loan spell here and could well be in a midfield that is also likely to include both Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton with Williams mindful of the attacking threat of Leicester, especially at home.
The transfer speculation over Jerry Yates could mean that he sits out this fixture which, combined with the absence of Jamal Lowe, could give a change for Big Myk up front but he is most likely to start the game on the bench with speculation still strong that he could be moved on before the window closes on Thursday night.
Harry Darling surely has to come in for Nathan Wood who has come in for much criticism over the past couple of games and with Josh Key still absent it is likely to see Harrison Ashby retain his spot despite his poor performances in the same two games.
Josh Tymon will travel with the squad after missing out on the Bournemouth game with something “exciting” in his personal life whilst Ben Cabango is back in training for the Swans but is unlikely to feature in the game – “It is brilliant to see him back on the pitch but he is unlikely to be read for tomorrow,” said Williams in his press conference.
Leicester have their own distractions this week with speculation rife that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is set for a move away with a £30m valuation placed on his head by the Foxes. Arsenal, Brentford and Brighton are all keen with Brighton already having made a bid but it falls way short of the valuation above.
Dewsbury-Hall was left out of the Leicester squad for their weekend FA Cup win over Birmingham but manager Enzo Maresca insists it was not to do with the speculation as he said “The reason why he was not in the squad was because we gave him, Harry Winks, and Jannik a rest for Tuesday’s game.
“This is a question for the club, not for me. We have talked about the transfer window for sure, but it’s not a question for me.
“At the end, we need some balance. We’ll see. Anyway, I’m not saying anything because Kiernan is our player. In the moment that something happens, I will tell my thoughts about it.”
There is always some level of frustration amongst managers when games are played in the build up to the closure of the window and rumour mills work quickly to read things into players absences from certain games. Who knows if that means this is a good time to play Leicester or not but given their league position I would doubt if there is ever a good time to play them this season!
As referenced above this though is somewhat of a free hit for Luke Williams but the key thing for me in the fixture is that we need to put in a good performance and the result is probably a side show beside that. Plymouth at home is a game we can expect to win, anything we can do this evening is just an added bonus.
JackArmy.net Prediction – Leicester City 3 Swansea City 0
