6-2 drubbing of Tranmere in the FA Cup shows Swansea have strength in depth
Against Tranmere this weekend Swansea fielded an almost completely changed side from their 1-1 draw with QPR, yet we were still able to secure a landslide victory. It's been a long, long time since I've seen us change the squad so drastically whilst not forfeiting a cutting edge, so I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the players who performed well, as - inkeeping with Monk's policy of players retaining a starting berth if they play well - they may find themselves in the starting lineup for our next match, a home fixture against West Ham next Saturday.
Bafetimbi Gomis
Ok, so I know he was always going to start against West Ham anyway, but he still had by far his best match in a Swans shirt. He had a pass completion rate of 92% which, for a striker, is absolutely amazing and what's more he also found the back of the net twice, as well as having another effort ruled out for offside. His creativity was, I thought, his biggest asset, and with a run in the team hopefully he can give Monk a real decision to make when (if) Bony returns from the African Cup of Nations.
Jay Fulton
After a nervy start, I thought Fulton acquitted himself excellently. With Shelvey suspended for another three games and Ki off to the Asian Cup, the door to the first team is most definitely open and he'll be hopeful of making a few more starts in the near future.
Tom Carroll
Similar to Fulton, but without the nervy start. With Emnes & Fulton alongside him Carroll's role as a cultured, cool head in the centre of the field was of massive benefit to the team, and the more I see of him the more I like him. If he's available at a reasonable price, and talk of his move being made permanent is true, I'm all in favour of that.
Modou Barrow
Pace. If you possess that one attribute, and you're also able to take a decent touch, you have enough to scare most defenders. Barrow clearly has more than that in his locker though, and after shaking off a nasty looking challenge early on his pace out wide bothered the Tranmere defence no end. He's obviously still a very raw talent, but he got his first goal for the club today and I have a feeling he may score quite a few more for us in the future.
Best of the rest
In truth, aside from Tremmel I thought most of the team did pretty well, which is no mean feat given that particular eleven won't have played together as a team previously. Bartley was probably the pick of our two centre-backs, but it's very pleasing to say that I honestly believe we now have four centre-backs worthy of a first-team place - form dependent. Keeping them all happy, that'll be the key.
In midfield Emnes looked tidy, while Dyer had a confident outing as captain. At full-back Tiendalli had a decent game to be fair, while Jazz still looked a little way off his best. I still maintain there's a right-back of the standard we need somewhere in there, but he needs to have a bit more confidence in his game and provide a link with attack more often.
All in all, this is the most positive outing I've seen from our second string in quite a while. The Swans' long term vision is to have a playing philosophy instilled whereby players become interchangeable without massively damaging the overall quality of the side, and for the first time tonight we got a glimpse of that. Keep it up, lads.