Phil SumblerBarnsley are a team completely out of form at the moment. Nine defeats in the last ten matches and just one win in sixteen but Swansea City will be hoping that it will not be the new manager bounce that they face on Wednesday evening when they travel to Oakwell.
New Tykes manager Poya Asbaghi took charge of training for the first time on Monday looking to start the process that he hopes will lift Barnsley away from the bottom end of the table where only Derby – and their 21 point deduction – keeps them off the bottom of the table.
It is quite a fall from grace from a side who the Swans beat in last season’s play-off semi final and Asbaghi believes that Barnsley will be as good for his career as he hopes he will be for their safety.
Speaking on his first official day in charge Asbaghi said “Always before I take on new adventures, new challenges, the first question I ask myself is will this job develop me as a coach?
“If the answer is yes, I know it’s a job to take. When considering Barnsley, there were a lot of aspects I felt could develop me as a coach in terms of how the club works, how they think about football, how they work with young players.
“At the same time, when looking at Barnsley and the challenges the club had, I felt as much as the club can develop me, hopefully I can develop the team.
“There’s no secret that it’s a challenging situation. We’ve lost nine of the last 10 games, we have one victory in the last 16, and what can happen to a young squad in this situation is your confidence is not the highest.
“What I hope me together with the rest of the staff can bring is good clarity in what we need to do on the training pitch and good gameplans so the roles are more clear and hopefully with that you feel more confident in what to do.
“Just as much as your confidence can sometimes get lower when you don’t get the performances you want, you can just as much gain confidence pretty fast as a young player if you succeed.”
36-year-old Asbaghi began his coaching career as an assistant at Swedish third tier outfit Dalkurd FF, before taking over the helm two years later.
After a successful spell with the Uppsala-based club, he was appointed by Gefle IF in 2017 before a two-year stint with Swedish giants IFK Göteborg between 2018 and 2020.
He led Göteborg to Svenska Cupen glory in 2020 with a 2-1 victory over fierce rivals Malmö FF before leaving his position at IFK in September that year.
Asbaghi won six of his 10 games in charge of Sweden U21s and arrives in South Yorkshire having left the young Swedes top of UEFA U21 European Championship Qualifying Group F after seven fixtures
