Swansea City got their first away win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday.
The three points sees Alan Sheehan’s side rise to 7th in the Championship table and are still yet to concede a goal from open play after 4 league matches.
We’ll take a look at the key tactical battles in this content, using a combination of match screenshots and some useful timestamps in the full match coverage that you can watch on YouTube.
How Swansea City set-up
As we’ve seen in every game so far, the Swans set up in a 4-3-3 shape with Stamenic as the single pivot behind two number 8’s in Galbraith and Franco. Inoussa and Ronald as wingers with Vipotnik leading the line.
The first half was a relatively quiet affair with Swansea dominating possession but without creating any clear cut chances. The home side offered little threat either. Sheehan’s side needed to up the pace after the break to unlock space in the final third to create higher quality opportunities.
Sheehan’s side had much better luck down their left flank with Tymon and Inoussa in particular making key passes in the first 45.
Swansea’s different type of patient passing
Swansea were far too one dimensional in their progressional play in the first half – although there were some signs of attacking intent down the left.
The centre backs looked to play forward to the wingers or full backs and our best hope was to win the aerial duel, or gain a throw-in to gain some territory.
As we’ve seen in previous games this season, Sheehan’s tactical shape means that we lack a presence in the centre of midfield because he asks his two 8’s to push forward.
It’ll be interesting to see how this copes against the better sides in the division when the Swans lose possession and have to cover in transition. This did happen on a few occasions in the game but Sheffield Wednesday lacked the quality to cause any threat on the counter.
Sheehan’s change of tactics with his full-backs
One key tactical change we’ve seen from Sheehan compared to his predecessors is his use of the full-backs.
Before Sheehan, both Key and Tymon were both given the freedom at the same time to push forward into the final third.
The clip below is towards the end of the game but it’s a good example of showing how the two full-backs have far better positional discipline. They never push forward at the same time. Tymon or Key drop back when the ball is on the opposite side of the pitch to theirs.
Later on, at around 91:23 on the match clock, you’ll see Tymon given license to race forward to offer a free option to Eom on the left.
However, under Sheehan, the full back on the opposite side of the pitch to where the ball is will hold back and move into a central midfield position to offer defensive cover.
If the ball does shift across, that then gives him license to move back across in his attacking full-back role.
Swansea’s better success when playing through the middle
Swansea have shown greater success going forward when they can pick out passes through the centre.
Sheehan’s Swans are still patient in possession but in a different way.
If you click play on the YouTube video below, the full match should start playing at the moment when Swansea begin one of these patient plays from the back.
Burgess is in no rush to make a pass and he doesn’t just want to pass for the sake of passing. The intent and clear instruction from the bench is to look forward and relunctantly he has to go sideways to Cabango.
Galbraith drops back in support and space opens up for Tymon to receive and the ball can be played down the side for Inoussa. Galbraith then makes an untracked run into space in the box but he can’t find the target with a shot.
There’s another example if you click below. The home side’s press is poor. They sit off Burgess and Vipotnik can drop deep, just inside his own half to play a one-two with the centre-back. The striker has enough time and space to turn and play forwards to Galbraith who does an excellent job to shift the ball over to space on the right. Notice how Key can start to push forward once that ball comes across to his side.
Whilst under Williams and Martin they’d continue to pass inside their own defensive third, Sheehan sees that as a pointless exercise.
Instead, his centre-backs are waiting for the right pass. They want to find a longer, vertical pass – to break through an opposition line. Sometimes this relies on the striker dropping deep to receive from a centre-back.
Far too often though, they have to settle for a forward, chipped pass to a winger or full-back. As soon as the 8’s realise this pass is happening, they move forward to add support as an inside option to the player receiving the ball – or they’re well positioned to try and win the second ball.
Swansea City did increase the tempo in the second half and they looked for those spaces through the middle to pass into. It’s how they opened the scoring.
Following a goal-kick and the teams in a narrow shape, Sheffield Wednesday fail to settle the ball down and Ben Cabango takes the opportunity to pass through to Vipotnik.
His first-time flick to Galbraith provides an overload down the left.
Inoussa is in support, Vipotnik continues his forward run. The winger plays the ball through and the striker finishes with his weaker foot.
That's a better view of it pic.twitter.com/QdaIFASjOs
— Winging It Jack (@WingingItJack) August 30, 2025
Swansea guarantee the 3 points with a second goal
Sheehan faces criticism from some Swansea supporters for prioritising substance over style—though a few argue there’s little of either on display.
But the second goal was one that was built from the back – showing a combination of forward passing from the defensive third, individual quality and link-up play.
You can watch the full sequence below as the ball is played back to the goalkeeper.
Critical to Sheehan’s system so far is winning these chipped long balls to wide areas (or winning a throw-in at least). Eom manages to flick the ball inside to Galbraith who returns the ball to Eom who makes a forward run.
The South Korean does well to move the ball back inside. Galbraith then picks out Vipotnik, he feints a shot, feeds the ball into the feet of Ronald – the Brazilian takes a touch before curling an exquisite shot into the bottom right corner.
We would like to thank WingingItJack for sharing his tactical analysis of last weekend’s win at Sheffield Wednesday. You can visit and read more tactical analysis by visiting the website here
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