Phil Sumbler
A two week international break can do many things to a team but for Luke Williams and his Swans it probably came at the perfect time on the back of over four hours without a goal and a pretty dismal performance last time at home when Wycombe dumped us out of the Carabao Cup.
The Swans have the perfect chance to bury that performance this afternoon when Norwich arrive in SA1 for the fifth league game of the season and Williams will send his side out looking for just a second league win – four points being our tally from the opening four games of the season.
We went into the international break on the back of a better second half performance against West Brom but it was still not enough to secure us a first away win of the campaign but we need to look to put that behind us this afternoon against a Norwich side who have managed just one more point from their four games to date.
The Swans had plenty of absentees in the last two weeks due to international duty but the squad is back together now ahead of the game and with news that Liam Cullen – who had to leave the Wales squad through injury – is fit ad should be available for selection.
Many managers see the first break of the season as a good chance to take stock and assess progress to date. That progress is not just determined by the results seen in the opening weeks but the results of the transfer window that traditionally will only have been closed a few days before that break commences. Luke Williams is no different and he addressed this ahead of the game “Repetitions and conditioning have been a focus, particularly for those players who arrived a little later in the window, as we look to help everyone get up to speed and used to playing with each other.”
Despite the defeat at West Brom game, Williams was determined to build on what he said were the positives from the game as his side returns to league action “But now all attentions turn to the Championship and we will be looking to build on some of the positives from our performance last time out at West Brom, whilst improving on some of the parts of that game that were disappointing for us.
“As I said after that game, we were far too passive in that opening half. We played within ourselves and without the sort of energy and intensity required to compete in this division.
“When we showed more of those qualities in the second half, we started to ask some questions of opponents who finished in the play-off places last season.”
In the Canaries camp they did have some team news, addressed by head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup: “Kenny McLean seems like he’s okay, we assessed him this morning. I think he’ll play on Saturday. Josh Sargent felt something in his ankle and I think the decision was for him to go home and not to take any risks. He will be in training tomorrow and in contention.
“Ben Chrisene pulled out of the England squad. That was a conversation between him and the FA to take care of a small injury. He’s fine.
“Onel Hernández will be in the building tomorrow, but he’s fine. Amankwah Forson too, who didn’t play any games. We can expect Jacob Sørensen to be back in training a little bit next week. Christian Fassnacht is on schedule and Ashley Barnes had a set-back and will be a further couple weeks from here.”
One of the points of interest to note this afternoon will be the size of the crowd. The first home game of the season against Preston drew a much lower crowd than maybe many would expect but then we had Cardiff which will always move close to a capacity crowd for the fixture. We are now in the run of – if you like – normal Championship fixtures and the crowd will start to be determined by the quality of the performance. And on that front the team certainly owe us at home after the pathetic exit against Wycombe.
JackArmy.net Predicts: Swansea City 2-0 Norwich City
