Birmingham 1 - 2 Swansea - The Wilfried Bony show!

Ivorian predator again shows his worth with two-goal rescue mission at St Andrews

Another rainy day, and by all accounts another outing which threatened to be another damp squib of an afternoon for Swansea fans. Thankfully, we seem able (for the time being at least) to rely on the goalscoring prowess of one Wilfried Bony, who's now got six in his last five games. Not bad for a player who "doesn't run enough".

It's been much commented that Ash had a bit of a tirade in the first half when he felt performance levels weren't good enough, apparently telling Alvaro (loudly) that they needed more from him, but Bony's introduction in the second half thankfully paved the way for two goals in two minutes, and all of a sudden we're in the next round of the FA Cup.

I think the less said the better about that match other than Bony's fantastic finishing, but I would like to give two players a mention. Firstly, Roland Lamah was involved in both of Bony's goals, but if you watch the first goal closely it appears to be Jordi Amat who took the ball on and drove at the defence. Given he's taken a somewhat reluctant bit of criticism for his midfield displays (with fans acknowledging it's not really his fault if he's not cut out for a midfield role), it was good to see him taking the ball on into a dangerous position, and retaining possession whilst creating an attacking opportunity which ultimately led to a goal.

I'll leave it at that for now, but keep your eyes peeled for a Fulham preview upcoming later today, and before that there'll be blogs looking at the latest transfer news as well as the all new Swansea City podcast - TheJackCast. Exciting times!

Birmingham 3 - 1 Swansea - Back to earth with a Brum-p

Lee Clark's Blues prove too much for Swansea's second string

Well, that was rubbish wasn't it? Pre-match, Lee Clark's effusive comments about the Swans seemed, to me, of the type that would normally unsettle his charges, however he obviously knows better as tonight Birmingham rode off into the distance after a much improved second half performance which saw them claim the win, and advancement into the next round. 

Laudrup made ten changes to the side which drubbed Crystal Palace on the weekend, and by all accounts it showed. There'll probably be limited highlights on the League Cup show later, but it seems profligate finishing in the first half cost the Swans dear. Bony then Pozuelo hit the woodwork in quick succession, while apparently Roland Lamah also missed a gilt-edged opportunity when Doyle saved with his legs.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it's possible that with no game-time so far this season, starting Garry Monk was a big risk. I'm as big a fan as anyone, but Birmingham away in the League Cup is a high-tempo affair, and with pace not being one of Garry's strong-points he was always going to be up against it. Strange as it may sound, it's likely he'd be much more suited to a European match against St Gallen or the Russian team I can't remember, as you'd imagine we'd have a bit more time on the ball and wouldn't be pressed so high up the pitch. 

Birmingham went with two up top, and once they'd weathered the first half Swansea storm they quickly found their feet in the second half, with two goals in four minutes. Centre-back Dan Burn headed in after Swansea couldn't clear a corner, before Matt Green and Tom Adeyemi made sure of things. Wilfried Bony got a late consolation, but it didn't really matter. Out of the League Cup at the first possible opportunity...well at least it'll help the fixture list with European advancement a distinct possibility thanks to the humbling of Valencia. 

Positives? Err...no-one got injured? It seems that we ran the first half and missed a good number of opportunities before taking our foot off the gas in the second half. Against Palace we could have scored more, and it's important the squad learns to take chances whenever they occur. No mercy, no surrender! As I've not seen the match this is all mostly speculation, but one plus point is that the players who come back into the squad for this weekend's match with Arsenal will be looking to restore the pomp and swagger we'd started to become used to. 

I'll try to find some extended highlights to either put a fuller report up or link to, so until then I'll refrain from commenting further. That is, apart from to point out once again that we're still in the Europa League.

You never know...

Birmingham City v Swansea City match preview, team news, statistics & analysis

The Match

Birmingham come into this matchup buoyed by the goalscoring exploits of loanee Jesse Lingard, who scored four goals on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday on the weekend. That win was much-needed, as prior to that the Blues had taken only four points from their first seven league games, and must surely have been low on confidence. They'll have to find inspiration for this one from elsewhere though, as Lingard and on-loan Swansea defender Kyle Bartley are both unavailable due to the conditions of their loan deals.

Swansea are likely to be about as confident as they have been since their promotion to the Premiership back in 2011. Scintillating performances against Valencia and Palace have left both the team and their fans confident of success against any opponent, so the chance to start off their cup defence against a team in a lower division, and who are struggling for form, should be welcomed with relish. It's likely Laudrup will rotate his squad heavily so it'll also be a chance for fringe players to stake their claim for a place in the first team.

Prior Form (Most recent at top)

Team News

Birmingham will be, as mentioned, without Kyle Bartley and Jesse Lingard for this fixture, while David Murphy is likely to be rested after only returning from a long term injury lay-off on the weekend.

Swansea should have Neil Taylor back from injury after recovering from a badly bruised thigh, but Ashley Williams is liable to rested after seemingly aggravating an ankle injury against Palace. Pablo Hernandez remains out with a hamstring injury.

Completely guessed lineups

Statistics & Trivia

• Despite their lowly league status, Birmingham have actually conceded less goals per game so far this season, with 1.38 compared to Swansea's 1.4.
• The Swans have won five of their last seven away games in the League Cup, losing the other two.
• Swansea are unbeaten in four matches (in all competitions).
• Birmingham's first and second round matches both went to extra time, with the 2nd round match against Yeovil needing penalties to decide it.
• Birmingham won the League Cup in 2011, and have won five of their last seven in this competition against PL opposition.
• The Swans have won only once in their last seven games against Birmingham.
• Conversely, we're unbeaten at St Andrew's in three. Go figure. 
• The Swans have averaged 1.4 goals this season, compared to Birmingham's 1.0. 

Straight from the horse's mouth

Birmingham manager Lee Clark is philosophical about his sides chances, admitting it's a big ask to get

"We've got a tough game on Wednesday. In my opinion, it's the hardest tie outside of the (Premier League's) top six for various reasons. Swansea's a club on the up, not just the team as it's been a club on the rise for many years. They are the holders of the competition and they're sweeping everybody aside at this moment in time in no matter what competition they play. 

"I was at West Brom and Swansea won that game comfortably. They went to Valencia, not an easy place, and won that game comfortably and then they did the same at Crystal Palace over the weekend. They will make changes but I think their squad is that strong and the philosophy of how they want to play never changes that we know it's going to be a tough game." 

Read more at http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20130923-the-preview-blues-v-swansea-city-1072697.aspx?#moetES1lOxTeJTIs.99 

Swansea 'keeper Gerhard Tremmel is keen to embark on another cup adventure:

“This is the start of the journey for us. Hopefully we will be in the next round of the draw on Wednesday night. It’s a dangerous game because they are a Championship team who are targeting a scalp from the Premier League. But we know what this cup is all about and what it’s like to win it. Lifting the cup at Wembley was an amazing experience. No-one can take those memories away from us. 

“Those memories have made me hungry to get another trophy. Yes, I have won the first one of my career but now I want more. I want the feeling of lifting a trophy again in front of a big crowd because that was an amazing experience – one I will never forget.” 

Read more at http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20130923-the-preview-blues-v-swansea-city-1072697.aspx?#moetES1lOxTeJTIs.99 

Analysis

Since bodging the image together for predicted lineups (on Paint, I might add - I'm classy like that) I've learned that Birmingham goalkeeper Colin Doyle is likely to replace Randolph in goal. What that means to the Swans...I've got to be honest I've not much of an idea. I feel bad that I've lost touch with the Championship given our three year stay, but in truth I found myself surprised to see Birmingham struggling down towards the foot of the table. We've lent them a player and all!

If you read the full article linked in the quotes above, Lee Clark is clearly trying to get his team playing some football, but he doesn't appear to be having that much success at the moment. In fairness to Brum, their losses have come against teams you'd expect to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, so it's possibly harsh to judge too much by their league standing, however it can't have done their confidence levels much good.

The danger with trying to play any kind of passing football against the Swans is you're likely to get butchered unless you're better than us at it. Clark has acknowledged we're superior in this regard and has also spoken of the need to get in our faces, but given he's trying to instil a footballing philosophy at the club it's probably not something which will come as first-nature any more (doing the whole "they don't like it up 'em" thing), and my gut instinct is we should be able to told on to the ball very well. If that's the case, we could well see another in what's been an excellent run of results, and it would serve as a nice confidence-booster heading into this weekend's clash with Arsenal.

We could see quite a deal of squad rotation, and it's also possible Rory Donnelly will get a run out. I've got a growing soft-spot for Donnelly and hopefully he'll get a goal the next time he gets a chance, as for a young striker there's nothing better than a goal to boost your self-belief. Fingers crossed. Elsewhere, Leon Britton could start after only seeing 20 minutes off the bench against Palace, and Alejandro Pozuelo could also be in for a start.

In defence I'd really like to see Garry Monk get a game. He doesn't appear to be anywhere near the first team at the moment and games like this are perfect for him - he's still more than capable at this level and will let no-one down, of that you can be sure. With Neil Taylor and Dwight Tiendalli likely to feature, along with (you'd imagine) Jordi Amat, his organisational skills and leadership qualities will be more than useful if we're to keep a clean sheet.

Last but not least, let's hope Gerhard gets a game. The guy was outstanding, and I mean outstanding, last season and I feel it's such a shame he didn't come to the Swans five or six years ago - if he did I think Vorm would have to worry about his place a lot more but as it is, his place as no1 stopper is assured. That being said, Tremmel will be keen to show what he can do and if given a chance he'll be looking to put in a calm, composed showing and to show that he can distribute the ball effectively.

Much like the Palace game, I'm pretty confident heading into this one. Let's be fair, if ever a Swansea fan was going to be confident, it'd be right now, so I'm predicting a Swansea win, with a clean sheet to boot. More of the same please, lads!

Jazz Richards attracting attention of three Championship clubs

Young Swansea full-back being chased by Huddersfield, Millwall & Birmingham

You have to feel for Jazz. After, to me, performing quite well on numerous occasions he's been called upon he still finds himself down the pecking order at the Liberty, but in honesty you can't really argue given Dwight Tiendalli has signed back on and Angel Rangel continues to enjoy almost a guaranteed place in the first team. Both the aforementioned full-backs have done everything that's been asked of them in the Premiership and despite Swansea youth product Richards impressing in various cameos it seems he's going to have to go back out on loan to try and gain some first-team football this season.

While this could be considered harsh in that until a few weeks ago we were all expecting Jazz to be the regular backup to Rangel, now that Dwight Tiendalli has decided he wants to be here after all you'd struggle to convince anyone that at present Jazz is the more dependable option. That's not a slight on Jazz though - that's based purely on Tiendalli's performances last season.

With Kyle Bartley already on loan to Birmingham it could well be that Richards fancies linking up with his Swansea teammate, and with Lee Clark in charge he should at least get to play some decent football. Bartley was signed specifically because he can defend and pass the ball - put Jazz alongside him and you've got yourselves an efficient Swansalona right side of defence. Not a bad proposition for any team in the 2nd tier of British football.

I can't say I know too much about Huddersfield or Millwall other than ex-Swansea boss Kenny Jackett had done a sterling job at the latter club over the last few years, but now that he's departed ex-Man City/West Ham man Steve Lomas is in charge, while ex-Barnsley & Coventry boss Mark Robins is in charge at Huddersfield. Mark Robins always tries to get his sides playing decent football, so that's two of the three teams mentioned who play a good style which would probably benefit Jazz. I wonder what kind of football Lomas likes his sides to play...

Hopefully Richards can get a good amount of gametime this season as it would no doubt aid his development. With opportunities likely to be in extremely short supply in SA1, it seems his best shout is a loan move, and I think it'll be good for him. Wherever you end up, good luck Jazz.