Phil Sumbler
Luke Williams sends his side out to face Rotherham United at the dot com today looking for consistency from the team which is something he believes is essential as he looks for an identity for his team.
Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over Stoke was a big step up in performance from the previous three games but – as Williams himself admitted last weekend – the bar hadn’t been set very high since the win over Cardiff.
The lack of consistency has been something that has caused the Swans issues for most of the past three years with runs of form or individual performances showing the fans what the players are capable of but equally it has been mixed in with some of the most tedious performances that we have been witness to in the last twenty years.
Until that consistency arrives there will always be more criticism than praise for the side and even today with the visit of the rock bottom Millers nobody is really certain what type of performance will be seen from the Swans. The high intensity and passion/commitment that we have seen against Cardiff and Stoke is what is needed and much less of the static walking football that was seen in the three games in between.
Williams is in agreement with this and has clearly challenged his players to show the consistency that he is demanding as he talked about in his pre-match press conference.
“That’s the big challenge this weekend, to back up that midweek performance and result,” he said.
“It was a similar performance to Cardiff in terms of intensity, energy and aggression.
“We managed to play some decent football, although we know there is a lot of work to do, and we had a clean sheet. We now have to make something similar to start gaining trust.
“If we can perform like that much more frequently we will start to create an identity, and that’s part of the challenge for us in this fixture.
“If you are consistent in the Championship, chances are you will have a good season.
“That needs to be something we really start to understand and build over the back end of this season, so we can start the next one strong.
“I want to establish some things that become our identity and are non-negotiable.
“You have to have basic stuff in place now that protects us against ups and downs, and leads to a more consistent level of performance.
“People may say it is foolish to try and build something in a difficult moment, but I am not sure how you solve your problems without trying to get better.”
