Phil SumblerAttention starts this week to turn to the Swans opening league encounter of the campaign when we head to Lancashire on Saturday for an away fixture at Blackburn Rovers.
It seems that we have spent several weeks speculating first on the future of our manager and then the hunt for his replacement which finally finished yesterday afternoon with the confirmation of the appointment of Russell Martin.
It has certainly been an unwelcome distraction for the Swans but not necessarily in the fact that it happened but the timing of it happening with the solution reached just six days before the season starts.
Blackburn on the other hand have had a relatively quiet summer but Tony Mowbray is looking for potential new arrivals ahead of the new season. One of those is reported to be Southampton striker Michael Obafemi – ironically a target for Steve Cooper as well – who has seen a £6m price tag placed on his head by Southampton. That may well be out of the price range of Blackburn but it is clear that Mowbray is hoping for new additions to his squad this week and he talks about variety in his squad to allow him different ways to play the game.
Speaking after his side’s 2-2 draw with Bolton on Saturday, Mowbray told the club’s official website “Football teams have to be adaptable and at this moment we are looking at formations with the players that we’ve got. Throughout pre-season, we’ve had a pretty poor selection of options and again today, we had two young centre-backs playing either side of the only fit and available senior centre-half.
“I’m hoping if we can strengthen up before the window shuts we can have better options to be able to play different ways, with different types of players.
“We probably need some more eliminators – people who have got individual talent, who can beat people with a trick or a burst of pace – because we’ve got a lot of really honest hard-working lads, which is a real positive of course, but sometimes the game dictates that you need individual talent to make a difference.
“Let’s see what this week brings with regards to potential signings and if not, we’ll prepare and be ready to play Swansea next Saturday.
“We have to have the ability to know which game suits which formation and we have to have the players available to try and win football matches as we go along.
“We have to be adaptable enough to play both formations and to play more than just those two shapes. We have to be adaptable to play two strikers, rather than three. When (Bradley) Dack comes back, we have to find a way of playing him in his best position, in his number 10 role.”
