Rob Davies
Sheffield United head coach Paul Heckingbottom is a bit puzzled as to what to expect from the Swans tonight after studying the 1-0 win against QPR last weekend.
A more direct approach was clearly visible to all with the short and laboured goal kicks ditched in favour of some more direct passing which clearly surprised not just QPR but Heckingbottom too.
There had been significant amounts of criticism in the direction of Swans boss Russell Martin after a poor start to the season which had displayed all the negatives of the tactical approach that he has worked on for so long.
But the QPR game perhaps pointed to a change moving forward to a middle ground between the style that saw him recruited from MK Dons and the dinosaur football of yesteryear – see Sam Allardyce’s Bolton for case in point.
Heckingbottom said: “We came in and trained on Saturday instead. It was strange having no football on the Saturday, but it’s back to normal now. We trained this morning and are ready for Swansea.
“The only thing we’re uncertain about this week is from the last against they played against QPR they made one or two changes. 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, some of the goal kicks were long so that was totally different.
“That’s probably thrown us a little bit in terms of what Swansea it is going to be, because they won 1-0 and there were lots of positives about how they played. We know how we’re going to deal with it and what we want to do and I think regardless of whether they are a back four or three, they’ve got good footballers in the team and they’d foolish not to try and play through them and pass the ball, like I think the big strength of theirs is.
“I don’t think they’ll come away from what they want to be, the shape maybe slightly different, one or two instructions maybe slightly different but I think that’s the only thing that’s thrown us a little bit.”
