Swansea City v West Brom Preview Aug 29, 2014 jallison - Talksport West Brom travel to Wales this weekend to face one of the few teams left in the league with a 100% record in Swansea City. The Welsh club have enjoyed a good start to life under the permanent stewardship of Gary Monk with 3 wins in their 3 competitive matches â against Manchester United and Burnley in the league, and Rotherham in the League Cup. Everyone associated with Swansea will be encouraged by the start by Garry Monk after the rebuilding of the squad over the summer to rid the club of the problems that plagued the final stages of Michael Laudrupâs tenure. West Brom surprised many with the appointment of Alan Irvine in the summer and the Baggies have started satisfactorily without setting the world alight. A problem to fans will be the fact they have drawn every match so far this season and last seasonâs inability to turn draws into wins â an incredible 15 in total â was a major reason why West Brom struggled. With upcoming matches against Everton, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United though a win this weekend can set an more optimistic tone for the following month. Key Players Gylfi Sigurdsson Returning to Swansea after he spent a successful loan spell there a few years ago, Sigurdsson has enjoyed a good start to the season. Operating in the number 10 role rather than out wide like he did at Spurs due to fierce competition, Sigurdsson has been involved in every goal scored by the Swans so far â assisting 2 and scoring one himself. Creating 4 chances in the opening 2 matches, Sigurdsson will need to be at his creative best against a West Brom defence that looked defensively solid at Southampton last week. Youssouf Mulumbu The West Brom midfielder has been a success ever since he moved to the Midlands a few seasons ago, that looks set to continue this campaign. West Bromâs stalemate away to Southampton was an encouraging defensive performance for the Baggies after their weaknesses on the road last season, and Mulumbu played a big part in that. Over the 2 matches this season, the Congo international has made 12 tackles and 10 interceptions already â the latter will be important against Swansea to prevent the slick passing style of the Welsh club penetrating West Bromâs backline down the centre. Interesting Statistics - Swansea have won 5 out of the last 8 meetings between the two clubs and scored the opening goal on 6 occassions. - Wilfred Bony has scored 10 goals in the last 20 league matches â 7 more than any other player (Nathan Dyer with 3) for either club. - West Brom havenât won a match in the Premier League since 26th April â a run of 5 matches without a win. Team News Swansea have no new injury concerns, but Leon Britton and Marvin Emnes are still long term absentees. Sebastien Pocognoli is a doubt for West Brom after failing to train on Thursday, but Alan Irvine can hand debuts to new signings Silvestre Varela and and Georgios Samaras. Prediction Despite being unbeaten so far West Brom are yet to win a match and this looks set to continue against a Swansea side that are getting better and better with each match. Swansea 1 West Brom 0
Oh to repeat that wonderful 1st half performance against the baggies. I am going for an optimistic 3-1 win and surely Wilf will open his account on Saturday. Boing Boing!!
3-0 to the Swans and so keeping our Champions League qualifying spot. Spurs and Chelsea could drop points, so it could be us and city as the two teams left with 100% records. 100% Premier League record, beat United at Old Trafford, through to next round of League Cup. Monk is useless. Get rid of him.
Fab Tiendalli , Fernandez , Williams , Taylor Dyer , Ki , Routledge, Siggy , Montero Bony . Tiendalli needs to play for a stretch of games , something hes never been allowed. Shelvey and Siggy should platoon, to push each other for the position I just want to see Dyer , Routledge and Montero all start a game together, Routledge could offer a bit of cleverness in the center of midfield as Dyer and Montero patrol the outside . if we can just take 3 more points from this very winnable game, it will build confidence for the next few difficult games . Strangely confident for the 3 points , 3 -1 Swans with a possibility of going # 1... Come on Swans !!!
Hard to predict this... after the euphoria of Old Trafford and a decent first half against Burnley, it was down to Earth with a bump in the second half and memories of last season's second half slumps. Saying that, I expect a Swans win, probably by one goal but a couple would be nice. We have to show some improvement so that Garry fills us all with confidence and blissful harmony envelops the Swansea board
I predict we will win and get to 9 points. In addition, Liverpool will win at Spurs, Everton v Chelsea will be draw and Stoke will pull off a surprise win at Man City. Leaving us top of the pile. P.S. Away for the weekend. I've put my season tickets up on this new ticket exchange site so others can have the seats (for one game only, of course).
Great match thread - Terror. I was feeling very optimistic for the United and Burnley matches; but after last week's second half not so optimistic this week. I expect a win - at home if you don't expect a win we're in sick shape. However, I am not confident about which Swans' "side" will show up - the first half side or the second half side. I'd like to see Jazz at left back. Not fussed about Fernandez starting in place of Amat - I think Amat should keep his place unless Fernandez is clearly the better player. I haven't seen him play yet so I have no idea how they compare. As for Shelvey ..... if Carroll is ready to play I'm happy to see him start in place Shelvey. Same with Fulton - if he's ready I could also go with him. Shelvey needs to get his head straightened out and be more focused and disciplined with himself on the field - if he can do that he can be terrific, but he plays a role in which we cannot carry a player trying to get it together. Montero ... let's see him start with Routs.
I agree with you Yankee I thought Shelvey played like a tw-t v Burnley and as you say he needs stop giving free kicks away and play like we know he can. I would give Carroll / Fernandez a start and lets see what they can do,Also put Montero on to start yes a tough game Im going to say swans 2 1
We need to get those first half goals as a cushion for our second half performance if recent games are anything to go on. I think this is the first indicator of where we are this season. Is the win win against Manu as good as we would like to believe? And we rode our luck v Burnley.
I think it'll be the same starting line up as the other 2 league games, with Monk telling Shelvey to pull his finger out or be replaced at HT by Carroll. No way would I give Tiendalli a start over Angel (or over anyone else for that matter), and Jazz is way short of the level needed for the PL. Fernandez isn't going to displace Amat yet either, Amat has done well so far (I'm as surprised how well he's played, in fact). So the same starting line up as the last two games please, Garry...
Fab Rangel Amat Williams Jazz Dyer Siggy Carroll Ki Routledge Bony I'd be instructing Gylfi to do a bit more defending than last Saturday too. Jazz did more in the Rotherham game than just defend and pass the ball backwards, on that performance he earned the right to a start even if it isn't in his favoured position. With Carroll tucked in ahead of the CBs he can give the space and time needed to relieve sustained pressure so we don't spend all the second half defending. Unfortunate for Fernadez but, although he did OK on Tuesday, he looked short of fitness. I'd keep Amat with Fernandez coming in at 50 - 60 minutes. Same with Montero - getting used to English League. Routs and Dyer know the score and do more around the park. Hard call on Bartley but he's not going to push Ash off top spot just yet.
This is what marks us out from our little cousins down the road (and has kept us in the league IMO). Had they won two games in a row they'd be filling the internet with boasts about winning the league
I think the Baggies will be tough to break down but we should score. I also think we'll concede - not sure why - maybe because West Brom seem to be draw specialists at the moment. 1-1 for me.
IIMO I can't see what Amats done wrong not to start , why disrupt the back 4 who we're under pressure last Saturday but because of the lack of protection form the midfield .Montero yes deserves a with start , worked hard put in some decent balls into their box also he does track back defensively ,although he formed a decent understanding with Jazz who played well himself but won't replace Taylor I believe .
We must not get too confident as we have had a easy run so far. We beat a man utd side in disarray as have been proven by the saints and mk doms and even though we won 2-1 the dons game have put it in respective...Next we were at home against a team that is tipped to go straight back down and we won 1-0 which is all you really need and then on to a cup match again at home against lower league opposition where again we were expected to win and we did with another 1-0 victory....Up next are WBA and again we have home advantage and are expected to win.....My point is that we have not had a good challenge away from home yet and have been fortunate with our games so far....Of course im chuffed with how things have gone but i also realize that we have been at an advantage who we have played so far so until we start producing results away from home against good opposition then i cant decide how good we really are this season.
The Manu team we played was not the same as MK Dons played, and has no perspective on our game on Saturday Dai, are you on Drugs or what? West Brom is a game we surely must target 3 points from, and I'm going for a Swansea win again, especially since the Baggies have never won an away Premier league footy game in August, I'm going for a 2-1 win to us again, and hopefully Bony can get on the score sheet, and Monk will field the same team as against Manu and Burnley!...............
I think it's unfair to say that we beat Man U because they are in disarray. They had a much better pre-season than us and every man and his dog was tipping them for great things. I think they would have beaten most teams, and maybe it's losing to us that caused them to lose some confidence. They beat some very good teams pre-season, so it was a fantastic result for us. The team MK Dons played was a totally different team to the one we played. You just can't compare the two matches. We only beat Burnley 1-0, but just because they are tipped to go straight back down doesn't mean every team will beat them 5-0. Teams that come up usually put in a really big effort in the first few matches, so it was a good win for us. Same with Rotherham. We used different players and still beat them. One one goal conceded in 3 matches and 3 wins. What more do you want?
A win today would be fantastic, but considering how we lost to WBA at home last season, would you take a solid 1-1 draw now?
