Spanish forward could finally return from a protracted injury layoff
Since seemingly injuring himself against Cardiff in November it's been a hard slog to get back to fitness for Michu. At first he was out for just a few games, but after missing four games he only managed ninety minutes against Hull and seventy-four against Norwich before he again had to receive treatment on persistent knee and ankle problems. It seems he'd been playing through injury for a while, and we've seen with Ashley Williams in the past that as much as we love the idea of a player wanting to play through injury, it's possibly not in the best interests of the club in the long term, given how likely it is that doing so could exacerbate the existing injury.
For his part, Michu has retweeted a post from the official Swansea Twitter feed showing him in training, and Garry Monk seemed fairly positive when asked about the possibility of the Spaniard featuring on the weekend:
"I would say at this stage that Michu has a chance. He trained both days over the weekend and then had a rest on Monday, but he will be working from now on, and if he trains well over the next few days, he has definitely got a chance of being involved. He won't be starting I wouldn't have thought, but you never know.
"We will have to see how he is in training. In this situation, a lot of it comes down to how the player feel as well. He said the pain he has been feeling has gone now, but we have to make sure we don't rush him.
"I will speak to Michu over the next few days and we will go from there."
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Swansea-City-boss-Garry-Monk-optimistic-Michu/story-20791180-detail/story.html#ixzz2vds9Bu3z
.@Michuoviedo ready to give #Swans a major boost ahead of weekend clash with @WBAFCofficial >> http://t.co/Pw5zaNOhnw pic.twitter.com/eAj7N49Zrl
— Swansea City FC (@SwansOfficial) March 10, 2014
I very much doubt that he'd come straight back into the team, but I'm really excited about the potential partnership of Michu & Bony. If we can get those two working together on top of playing crisp passing football there won't be many teams who can live with us, and for Monk the challenge is now trying to fit all his best players into an eleven man side whilst still ensuring his side can produce the passing football which has served us (and will continue to serve us) in such good stead.
I think part of the problem we've had in recent times is the team had become too attacking-midfielder-centric, as it were. Since Jason Scotland we haven't had a striker who, in my opinion, was as good in his role within our system as everyone else in the team. Danny Graham did very well for a spell, and I think given more time he could have worked even better, but obviously we didn't get to find out - in the meantime though we firstly signed Gylfi Sigurdsson, before Michu came in and occupied roughly the same role in the team.
I'm not against a goalscoring attacking midfielder - far from it! I feel though that at times it became harder for our centre-forward to be involved in build-up play, as so often the ball didn't get past the attacking midfielder. Graham's goals dropped off after Gylfi came in, and obviously last season Michu was our main outlet, so when Bony came in I think it was completely natural it took us a while to figure out how to use him. We haven't operated with an effective "sticking point" that far up the field in a long time, and now that it's finally starting to work it'd be a shame if we reverted to isolating the striker.
That's why it's crucial when Michu is bedded back into the team he pays close attention to how Monk is setting the team up. There were things that clearly weren't working for most of the season (as well as things that were, granted), but if Michu can figure out how to play off Bony we will have absolutely no problem scoring goals for the foreseeable future.
Fingers crossed Michu is back sooner rather than later, as he's an excellent option and with Bony currently without a worthy understudy if the Ivorian was to get injured Michu would undoubtedly deputise in his absence. You can bet your house on him doing a better job than Vazquez, that's for sure.