Ashley Williams hails new Swansea City harmony and spirit Ashley Williams feels Swansea City have forged a new togetherness under Michael Laudrup's evolution following a week of impressive performances. The Swans followed Wednesday's Capital One Cup win over Liverpool with a Premier League draw with Chelsea thanks to Pablo Hernandez's late equaliser. "The confidence, the togetherness - I think we've really come together as a team this week," said Williams, 28. "When a team comes from behind in games you can really see the team spirit." Laudrup made a dream start to his managerial reign at Swansea with a 5-0 win at Queens Park Rangers and a 3-0 home win over West Ham United. But three league defeats in a row in September halted the early momentum, leading to an admission of concern by Williams over the team's development. Laudrup's new Swansea signigs â¢Michu (Rayo Vallecano) â¢Pablo Hernandez (Valencia) â¢Chico Flores (Genoa) â¢Jonathan de Guzman (Villarreal) â¢Sung-Yeung Ki (Celtic) â¢Itay Shechter (Kaiserslautern) â¢Kyle Bartley (Arsenal) â¢Jamie Procter (Preston) Eight new signings were recruited by Laudrup as he set about his task of emulating Swansea's fine Premier League debut under Brendan Rodgers, who left to join Liverpool. Williams believes recent results, including a narrow defeat to champions Manchester City, have shown the new-look team is beginning to gel. "It's been a good week," said Williams, who looked back to his best against Chelsea after some uncharacteristic mistakes earlier in the season. "We didn't get anything at Man City but we performed well. We beat Liverpool in the cup and then we've got a draw against the European champions. "We never stopped, we consistently kept playing our game and we knew our chance would come. When it came it was a great finish from Pablo to take it." All eight of Laudrup's new additions are experiencing the Premier League for the first time. Six of them featured against Chelsea, with two ocombining two minutes from time to grab a draw as Itay Shechter set up Hernandez. Laudrup believes all are now getting to grips with the league's demands, but Williams says all the players, particularly those who thrived under Rodgers, are also adapting to the new manager's methods. "We've knuckled down," said the Wales captain. "We know what's required now. "We obviously know the gaffer a bit better and he knows us, and also the new signings that have come in. "We're working really hard at the minute and you can see the results out on the pitch." And what we've watched over the last week reinforces Ashley's statement , Mr Laudrup appears to have not only a good footballing brain but good man management skills with it
If you're not with us you're against us. Minds have been recalibrated. Laudrup is not going anywhere so time to get with the program.
Very welcome words from ash. Great to read those comments,as yankee correctly says,time to Get with the program and i Think its clear to see that they are. If everyone is pulling in the same direction then we can do well
Strong talk of another coach coming into the club as well, i see that as a positive move and something that can only improve us further !
A defence coach, I hope, although Ash is regaining his form and Chico is really starting to get it together.
The name i heard was John Jensen, former Arsenal player,famous for scoring one goal.. Its just a rumour though Ivor, but it seems to be doing the rounds quite alot lately. Laudrup did touch on it when he first started here,saying he would need time to asses things and then he would see if he needed any more help,makes total sense and is quite refreshing to see i have to say. A defence coach would be great and i can see how it would be a perfect system for Laudrup to thrive on,delegating certain disiplines that perhaps arnt his strong point (which he may well do already,im not sure) and concentrating on the overall picture and his own coaching strengths.
Hmmm yeah I can see that would be sensible, but the guys realy are starting look a lot stronger with every game
Im just glad ash is back to his best, not world class by any means but good enough when at his very best.....saints will be targeting us as a 3 pointer and will throw everything at us but we know that we have the players to go there and win that will put another nail in their coffin.....the more reading,qpr and saints lose the better it is for the rest of us....we must not let saints do a reading and score two quick goals and must race out of the gates and go for the jugular and put them under pressure.....we have not lost yet when we score first so lets get them early goals...
Your having a laugh Dai! We should be the ones targeting this as a 3 pointer. If we play against them like we have the past 3 games, I for one fully expect us to hammer them quite easy
valley why am i having a laugh???? you can bet that the saints manager will have us penciled in as a target for 3 points because we are Swansea and not one of the big teams, but that does not mean that laudrup will have them penciled in as an away win target....I don't understand your gripe.....I cant see us going anywhere this season and doing a qpr that even shocked the swans faithful......Its going to be a tough match where the saints will be desperate for points and wont roll over for us.....
I'm with Dai on this. A tough game that will see Southampton battle and scrap for everything. We don't like that and we will have to get stuck in to win the right to play. If we do, our extra class and experience should be enough. But it won't be easy!!
Valley- What is wrong with that comment ?? you bet your ass saints will be looking for 3pts off us ! we are Swansea not ****ing Man utd and where you may think we should hammer everyone in the lower half of the table,History tells us that these are the teams we struggle against! Southampton look alot like Norwich to me and we all know how we tend to do against them! Their fans will be expecting a win, i fancy us to sneak it but its gonna be a battle! i hopr your right and we do hammer them
Who was Swansea manager when Ashley Williams signed? I could find out but can't be bothered. Was it Martinez or before that?
Whats the slap head for? being a great player doesn't make a good tactician or provide man management skills,
Just having a titter. Like saying when Frankensteins monster first moves ol' Franky screams '' He's ALIVE '' , never mind, you had to be there ...... I made my sensible reply earlier but then couldn't resist, no insult intended please log in to view this image
