The Match
Swansea have won five of their last six Premier League games, and will be about as confident as we have been since our arrival at football's top table. What's more, after recent good memories in this competition The Monk will be keen to do better than last year, where we fell at the first hurdle in our attempt to retain our first ever major trophy. There'll definitely be a raft of changes in terms of how the team lines up, but we'll still have every intention of winning this game. Of that you can be sure.
Rotherham are currently enjoying life after gaining their second consecutive promotion, and find themselves sitting proudly in mid-table in the Championship - not bad for a team who didn't have a stadium for four years, and only moved into their new purpose-built home two seasons ago. Like ourselves they have benefited from a philanthropic local (Chairman Tony Stewart), who most definitely has the club's best interests at heart, but whether that'll be any help against the Swans is debatable. This'll be a stress-free night where fans of the Millers can relax, enjoy themselves, and take stock of how far they've come in such a short space of time. Sound familiar?
If anyone wants to read about Rotherham's dramatic rise check out this excellent piece on the BBC from earlier this summer: link
Prior Form (Most recent at top)
| Premier League | Swansea | 1-0 | Burnley |
| Premier League | Man Utd | 1-2 | Swansea |
| Friendly | Swansea | 0-3 | Villarreal |
| Friendly | Reading | 1-3 | Swansea |
| Friendly | Bournemouth | 3-1 | Swansea |
| Championship | Millwall | 0-1 | Rotherham Utd |
| Championship | Rotherham | 0-2 | Watford |
| Championship | Rotherham | 1-0 | Wolves |
| League Cup | Rotherham | 1-0 | Fleetwood Town |
| Championship | Derby County | 1-0 | Rotherham Utd |
Team News
Swansea look set to ring the changes. The Monk looks likely to include summer signings Federico Fernandez & Jefferson Montero from the start, while recent loan acquisition Tom Carroll could come in following his move from Spurs. Rory Donnelly remains sidelined, while Leon Britton is out for longer than first feared after it was revealed he's got a hairline fracture of the knee. Emnes remains out, but otherwise Monk has lots of options to choose from. It's more than possible some youth products will get a chance - Josh Sheehan & Alex Bray both missed the U21 game last night so I'd wager both will feature tonight, and I'm looking forward to seeing young jacks getting a chance in competitive games.
For Rotherham, Steve Evans has said he will make changes for this game and it is likely that Scott Loach will come in for Adam Collin and Richard Brindley could also start. There could also be places for John Swift, on loan from Chelsea with Matt Derbyshire and Jordan Bowery pairing up front. Richard Wood, who came off the subs bench for the injured Joe Skarz at Millwall and Michael Tidser could also play some part in the game. Febian Brandy could also make his first appearance in a Millers shirt after coming back from injury. Rob Milsom, Frazer Richardson and Paul Green are all out with injuries.
Completely guessed lineups
Statistics & Trivia
- Swansea have failed to win any of their last three home games against Rotherham (D2, L1).
- Rotherham have lost just one of their last seven games against the Swans in all competitions.
- Swansea's only major trophy is their League Cup triumph in 2013, when they beat Bradford 5-0 at Wembley.
- Swansea's last five League Cup matches have featured just one or neither side scoring.
- The Swans have earned two victories from their opening two Premier League fixtures.
- Rotherham's last League Cup victory over a Premier League side was in September 1992, when they beat Everton 1-0 before losing the second leg 3-0. They have lost six and drawn one of seven games against top-flight opposition since then.
- Rotherham were the League Cup runners-up in 1961, losing to Aston Villa - who also beat them at this stage last season.
- Four of their five matches this season have ended 1-0 (W3, L1).
- Swansea have scored first in 45% of their last 20 home games.
- In their last 20 home games, Swansea have scored the first goal 9 times and conceded the first goal 10 times.
- In their last 20 home games against teams positioned below them in the table, Swansea have scored the first goal 12 times and conceded the first goal 5 times.
- Rotherham have scored first in 70% of their last 20 away games.
- In their last 20 away games, Rotherham have scored the first goal 14 times and conceded the first goal 5 times.
- In their last 20 away games against teams positioned above them in the table, Rotherham have scored the first goal 6 times and conceded the first goal 14 times.
Straight from the horse's mouth
Garry Monk is taking the Capital One Cup seriously:
"Of course I want to do well in this competition. It's been a great cup for us. I want us to do well again and when you've won two league games in a row you want to keep that momentum going, and this is the next game for us.
"A cup run gives everyone confidence and we don't want to give anything up easily.
"We want to fight for everything — every cup game and every league game."
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Swansea-City-boss-Garry-Monk-hungry-Capital-Cup/story-22819357-detail/story.html?#ixzz3BV2bdLhk
Rotherham boss Steve Evans knows (partially) what to expect from Garry Monk::
"It`s going to be tough and I've no doubt that Garry Monk will make changes but, on the other hand, he`ll want the continuity after two great wins. Gary Monk is someone who, not long ago, was playing against my teams and he still looks young, fit and agile and the lads in his dressing room love him. I think he will be a very good top flight manager.
http://www.rotherham.vitalfootball.co.uk/matchprere.asp?a=368302#ixzz3BUqKIfeB
Analysis
There was a time when I was envious of Rotherham's lofty Championship status. How times have changed! We head into this match as firm favourites, despite almost undoubtedly going with a changed team, and realistically it's hard to argue with that.
For Rotherham ex-Crawley boss Steve Evans isn't afraid of pulling any punches, and he's also looking to rotate. We're likely to see ex-Swans loanee Febian Brandy, who recently signed for Rotherham, and beyond that I don't know much about their side. Matt Derbyshire I've seen over the years and if you give him space and time he'll be a threat, while I always thought Scott Loach wasn't a terrible 'keeper. Whether we'll see these players is anyone's guess, mind. The only other player whose name I recognise is Richard Wood, and that's only from Football Manager (and having a friend with the same name) so I'm really not reading anything into that.
I firmly expect Josh Sheehan & Alex Bray to feature - the latter looked tidy enough against Villarreal and Sheehan has been knocking on the door of the first-team for a while. This is the perfect opportunity to give them a start and we'll probably see other full debutants too - Fernandez is in line to start and I'd imagine Jeff will get a run out too, given he's only featured from the bench so far. We could also see Tremmel's first start of the season, while it remains to be seen what we do at fullback.
Whoever starts, it'll be a strong team. I'd argue the strongest "second team" we've ever put out. While we should afford Rotherham all the respect they deserve, we should be winning games of this nature now and the longer we stay in the Premier League, improving the overall calibre of the squad, the more we'll progress past the opening stages of the League & FA Cups. There's a reason big teams do well in these competitions - it's the ability to rotate without significantly weakening your team.
As for tonight, I'm pretty confident. We should win, but beyond that my lack of knowledge regarding our opponents and the topsy-turvy nature of cup football means it's pointless over-analysing things. A night to sit back, enjoy the cheap ticket prices, and learn a thing or two about some of our fringe players.
Sounds good to me!