Everton v Swansea - Preview, statistics, predicted lineups, prior form, team news & analysis

The Match

Live Coverage on ITV1 - Sunday 13:30

Everton enjoyed some extra time off this week thanks to the inclement weather, their scheduled match with Crystal Palace having to be called off due to health and safety concerns. Given the unpredictability of cup competitions, however, it's hard to say whether this will affect Martinez's (or Monk's) team selections this weekend. With Everton possibly giving a first start to striker Lacina Traore, the Swans won't particularly benefit from Romelu Lukaku's absence and with Martinez in the press this week claiming that the FA Cup is a competition we should savour, it's undoubtedly going to be a strong Everton side which takes to the field this Sunday.

Swansea claimed a credible point away at Stoke, and in truth it could (and possibly should) have been all three. Coming off a great derby win in Garry Monk's first game in charge, another great showing from the Swans has given supporters confidence that we're about to witness a swift return to "The Swansea Way", and that previous lacklustre performances may well be a thing of the past. Make no mistake though, Roberto Martinez will be looking to avenge Swansea's previous good results against his Wigan team, and will have his troops fired up for this one, so anything other than another top-notch display from Monk's is likely to be insufficient if we want to progress to the next round of the cup competition.

Prior Form (Most recent at top)

Team News

Provided by resident fitness guru @BenDinnery - make sure to follow him on Twitter for the latest injury news and views

Coming soon...

Completely guessed lineups

Statistics & Trivia

• Everton have won the FA Cup five times whilst Swansea have only managed two semi-final appearances - one in the 1925/26 and the other in 1963/64.
• The last time Swansea went further than the fifth round in the FA Cup was in 1963/64, only to get knocked out by Preston North End in the semi-final.
• Everton will be without their joint top-scorer in the competition, Nikica Jelavic (2), as he joined Hull in January to get more first team opportunities.
• Swansea striker Wilfried Bony will be given an opportunity to add to his tally in the FA Cup, having scored three goals in two games.
• These two sides have met once previously in the FA Cup, in Round 4 in 1954 when the Toffees won 3-0 at home
• Everton have lost just one of their last seven FA Cup games, winning five and drawing one.
• The Swans have won each of their last two FA Cup away games, beating Manchester United and then Birmingham  this term, both by a 2-1 scoreline.
• Roberto Martinez’s men have won both their FA Cup games this season by a 4-0 scoreline.
• The Swans have only ever progressed from the fifth round of the FA Cup on three occasions, in 1926, 1927 and in 1964.
• Since leaving Swansea in 2009, Roberto Martinez has met the Swans six times in all competitions with both Wigan and Everton, winning just two (including earlier this season with the Toffees), drawing one and losing three.
• Everton have won six of their last seven competitive matches at Goodison Park.
• Swansea City have won just two of their last 10 competitive away matches, but both of these have been FA Cup games (D3 L5).

Straight from the horse's mouth

Nathan Dyer has fond memories of his time under Roberto Martinez:

“I had a loan spell at Sheffield United that didn’t go too well and then I heard from Swansea. Roberto liked the way I played and thought I would fit in with the style of the team. I’m grateful he showed faith in me.

“I owe him a lot for what he’s done for my career, he set me on a good path, but it would be great to score against Everton and knock him out of the FA Cup.”

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Nathan-Dyer-hails-Roberto-Martinez-Swansea-City/story-20631475-detail/story.html#ixzz2tJd8devo

Roberto Martinez had lots of kind things to say about Garry Monk when questioned prior to this matchup:

“Garry Monk was my first big decision as a manager in terms of shaping a squad. I had to decide [whether] to give him a new contract and keep him at the club after a very difficult injury when he ruptured his cruciate ligament. 

“I built a new squad around him as I knew that he was the perfect captain and that he would keep that role for the future, knowing that we were going to bring many different foreigners and talents. It’s a nice twist and it will be a nice moment to be up against Garry.

"Garry had that leadership and that DNA of being able to control a group. I think being a captain at Swansea, where the club is so involved in the community, it prepares you. 

“He has had time in the last few months, with not playing any football, to have a look around from a distance and put his thoughts together and develop a good method of work.

“The Welsh derby can be as intense as it gets for a new manager coming into one of the south Wales clubs. It was a really good start and then they remained unbeaten against Stoke in another really difficult game. 

“It’s showing that this group are reacting well and are in a very good moment of the season, so we are going to expect a difficult and tough encounter.”

http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/2014/02/14/martinez-ready-for-monk-reunion?

Analysis

How to predict this game? It's unclear how much rotation is going to take place, but as much as I love Leon Britton I can't see him starting a third game in a week. That, for me, is the big talking point as without Leon we always look a slightly less cohesive unit. This match could prove to be the biggest indication so far of how much of a difference Garry Monk has made - on Jonathan De Guzman in particular.

Since Monk's appointment, we've looked much more like the team we've become used to seeing over the last few years, and early signs are positive. So far though, we've played a poor Cardiff team and a Stoke team who did nothing to impress me, so this is easily going to be Monk's biggest test so far. It'll be very, very interesting to see how we fare against an Everton team who have impressed for the majority of this season, but who have find the going tough of late, and Monk is no doubt relishing the challenge.

I'm short of time today so can't look too much into this game - that's your lot. I do think though that the big difference will be Leon Britton. If De Guzman and Canas put in a display Leon would be proud of, we could get something out of this. If they fall short, we'll likely get nothing.

One thing's for sure - we don't want to draw this game. A replay would potentially see us playing a Tuesday game the same week we'll play on the Thursday in the Europa League, as well as playing on the weekends before and after. That, we do not need.

So, gung ho then? Should be fun.

Garry Monk - "Sit down, Solskjaer!"

Monk returns fire after Cardiff boss Solskjaer criticised De Guzman's reaction to Craig Bellamy elbowing him in the head

In what is quite clearly an attempt to divert attention from a poor run of results, we've had new Cardiff boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer come out in the press criticising Jonathan De Guzman.  

"If that was me going down like that, I think my father would have told me off."     

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 

Grow up, is it? Whether or not Bellamy meant it (he did), there's contact and De Guzman had a right to go down. I don't like players going down easily, but arguing he was playacting there seems to me to be the act of a manager desperately clutching at straws, because he knows he's got a real fight on his hands to avoid relegation. Anything he can do to deflect fans thoughts away from poor performances on the field must surely be welcome, as one win and a draw in his first six league games is hardly the kind of form which will keep them up. Ok, they've played United and City in that run, but performances have been poor enough to warrant both concern in Canton and mirth in Mumbles.

It seemed the Swans were going to let his little swipe slide, but Garry Monk doesn't back down - especially when it's one of his own being criticised. One of the things he's clearly keen to do is get the squad back feeling like a close-knit unit - we've always derived great success from an "us and them" attitude and to be honest I'm glad to see Monk hitting back. De Guzman did nothing wrong, and the Swansea boss is right to stand up for his man. 

"Ole should look at his own players before he starts looking at mine. I saw Ole answering the question saying that my man Jon de Guzman made a meal of it. When you receive an elbow in the back of the head and you just go down normal, I don't think that's an over-reaction. 

"In the 35th minute in a corner for them [Cardiff] one of my players Wayne Routledge gets head butted and punched in the face by Kim [Bo-Kjung]. If anything I'd be more concerned about something like that than saying that one of my players is play-acting. 

"If you look at Wayne when he gets head-butted and punched in the face he stays on his feet and doesn't make a meal of it." Garry Monk 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26172344? 

Well in Garry! I can't say I noticed that incident during the match, but you can bet your house that he wouldn't bring it up if it didn't happen. Cardiff "have been asked to comment" on the incident, though by who the BBC haven't informed us. 

Solskjaer having a pop just says to me he's already feeling the pressure of being in charge of the madhouse up the M4. It must seem a long time since he announced his aim was to finish above the Swans...

On one final note, let's have a look at Ole "Always Stays On His Feet" Gunnar Solskjaer NOT making a meal of this challenge by Sol Campbell.

Sit down, Solskjaer.

Stoke 1 - 1 Swansea - God I hate Charlie Adam

If ever there was a "wet, windy Wednesday night in Stoke"...

Super Garry Monk! 

I was very tempted to make those three words the entire match review, given how enthused I am by the start Monk has made to his managerial career, but I might as well elaborate a tad seeing as how the performance again bore the hallmarks of positive change.

Pre-match, I'd prayed Leon Britton would be retained in the starting lineup with Canas coming in for De Guzman, and I got my wish. Monk clearly felt the game warranted what he considered his first choice lineup, and with this weekend's game being the FA Cup tie against Everton it appears the league has been prioritised - and rightly so. Elsewhere, Pablo came in for Emnes in an otherwise unchanged side. 

The early signs were great I thought. Pressing high up the field, good use of width - it came as a real sucker-punch when Stoke took the lead in the 15th minute as up until then the Swans had already stamped their authority on the match. The goal came, predictably, from a high ball near the Swansea area - Chico challenging Crouch and getting nowhere near it, but in truth you should be able to cover for a centre-back going for a header against the languid centre-forward. As it happened, Ben Davies had come a long way inside, missed a tackle, and this allowed Odemwingie a huge amount of time and space to rifle a shot across goal. The original shot cannoned off the post but our luck didn't hold - Crouch fired home via a deflection, and the Swans were now chasing the game. It's far from the first time Ben has been caught out of position for a goal this season, but he's so young and has so much improving to do I'm confident that soon he'll stamp that kind of thing out. 

You may have noticed Charlie Adam got a mention in the title. I've long felt Charlie Adam is such a waste of a footballer - he's obviously got bags of talent, but as long as he spends more of his time going around cynically hacking at people I'm going to have a problem with him. By the end of the first half he'd already taken Dyer out late as well as kicking out at Routledge after the ball had gone. This ultimately resulted in some handbags which saw both Adam & Ash pick up yellow cards (Adam's was for the challenge on Dyer), but the back and fore between the two continued for the rest of the match. As much as I love seeing Ash stick up for his teammates (nobody messes with his mate Nathan Dyer), I'd trade that in an instant if it meant Charlie Adam would stop being such a vindictive... football player.

So, the first half was played out much in the same manner as in the first 15 minutes. Swansea bossed possession, while Stoke seemed happy to play on the break. Nathan Dyer probably had Swansea's best chance of the half, but his shot went just too far across goal, while Arnautovic let fly from 35 yards and Vorm did well to parry it up and over the bar with the wind no doubt affecting the flight of the ball. 

The second half started in much the same manner as it did against Cardiff - the Swans came flying out of the traps and really took the game to Stoke. Perhaps it's a sign of Monk's influence on the team, but in fairness we've often performed better in the second half this season. Either way, we didn't have to wait long for our equaliser, and it came through a player who'd had his every touch booed throughout the match.

Chico Flores was the subject of pantomime abuse from the first to the last whistle, and it begs the question; why?! Solidarity with their hoofball compatriots West Ham & Andy Carroll? We can only assume so. Either way, that made it spectacularly brilliant when he glanced home Pablo's cross (after the Spaniard's corner had been half-cleared), and Chico looked like he thoroughly enjoyed his third goal of the season. 

I thought Canas (as much as I love him) did look a bit ring rusty, but I'm still sure that he gave a more disciplined midfield display alongside Leon than De Guzman would have. For his part, Leon put himself about a bit and when De Guzman replaced Pablo on 75 minutes I thought the Dutchman also made a positive impact. He drew a fine save from Stoke 'keeper Begovic with an outrageous effort from 30 odd yards, and even looked like he wanted to put himself about a bit. Well in, Jonny. 

Monk has said how, if he feels a player warrants dropping, he'll explain his reasoning, and I'm wondering if the new Swansea head coach had a few words with the Dutchman in the wake of the derby which Laudrup never felt necessary. Either way, he looked fired up and if he does that over ninety minutes he'll be a much improved player. He also benefited from playing in front of Leon & Canas - I feel this is a much more natural position for De Guzman as he's clearly an attacking midfielder who enjoys getting forward more than keeping things ticking over at the back.

Wilfried Bony spurned possibly the Swans best chance of the match, and a chance which would probably have proven to be the winner had it found the back of the net. Great play from the Swans released Dyer down the right, and his centre found Bony free in front of goal. The ball was slightly under the Ivorian's feet, and as much as I love his "daddy cool" persona I thought he did take a little too long to get his shot off - apparently waiting for Begovic to go to ground before trying to lift an effort over him side-footed. Begovic got a hand to it, but the ball was still heading in until Ryan Shawcross cleared well off the line. Bony's wait for an away PL goal goes on.

Overall, another positive performance from Garry Monk's Swansea City. We played with more desire, and more commitment to "The Swansea Way" than we've seen in any match other than the derby for a long time. If we keep this up, worries about drifting down towards the relegation zone will soon be a thing of the past, and Monk will continue to seriously enhance his credentials as a potential Swansea City manager. A point away at Stoke isn't to be sniffed at (they've now lost only one of their last ten home PL games), but with our next two domestic games coming against Roberto Martinez's Everton and Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool, our tika-taka credentials are likely to be tested somewhat more thoroughly in the coming weeks. 

No doubt Garry Monk is drooling at the prospect of locking horns with his old bosses, and who could blame him. Garry Monk's Barmy Army!

Stoke v Swansea - Preview, team news, predicted lineups, statistics, prior form & analysis

The Match

Stoke must have been wondering what happened to all the positivity that surrounded the first few weeks of their season, as they've become embroiled (along with many others) in this season's epic battle against relegation. Of late though, there have been a few rays of light at the Brittania Stadium and a credible draw at Southampton, preceded by a home win over Man Utd (although everyone seems to take points off United these days) mean they're likely to be in a confident mood when Garry Monk's Swansea City roll into town. Charlie Adam, as much as I hate him, has been on fire of late and Peter Odemwingie looks a tidy addition, so they'll no doubt be looking to get in the Swans faces early on and dictate the pace of the game.

Swansea will no doubt be massively buoyed by their fantastic derby win over Cardiff, and more important than the result for me was the way the team played - of late, I've worried the name of this website was becoming slightly ironic so I've got a lot to thank Garry Monk for. The way we played against our bitter rivals showed that Monk understands what's needed to get this Swansea team picking up results again, and if we can recreate the performance of Saturday away at Stoke we've every chance of securing a positive result.

Prior Form (Most recent at top)

Team News

Provided by resident fitness guru @BenDinnery - make sure to follow him on Twitter for the latest injury news and views

Stoke welcome back Marc Wilson who missed the draw at Southampton due to illness but Mark Hughes will hand a late fitness test to attacking players Mark Arnautovic (ankle) and winger Oussama Assaidi (hamstring). Andy Wilkinson (heel) and Matthew Etherington (calf) have recovered from their recent injury problems but are unlikely to be involved; both players are lacking match-fitness. Central defender Robert Huth is a definite absentee, the big German is recovering from knee surgery.

Swansea travel to the Britannia Stadium in high spirits following the South Wales’ derby victory and acting manager Garry Monk will be buoyed not only by the result but by the number of first team squad members returning to full fitness. Saturday marked the first appearance since December for goal-keeper Michel Vorm while Jose Canas managed a little over 20 minutes following his recent ankle injury; tomorrow should also see the inclusion of midfielder Jonjo Shelvey after recovering from an on-going hamstring problem. However Spaniard Michu is likely to miss out again having failed to train for a number of days last week while recent recruit Marvin Emnes is doubtful after a muscle problem at the weekend.

Completely guessed lineups

Statistics & Trivia

• Only Alan Shearer (46) and Dion Dublin (45) have scored more headed goals than Peter Crouch (42) in Premier League history.
• Charlie Adam has now scored two and assisted two in his last five Premier League appearances.
• Peter Crouch now has 85 Premier League goals, one more than each of Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Fernando Torres.
• Swansea have won back-to-back home games for the first time since March 2013
• All eight of Wilfried Bony's Premier League goals have come at the Liberty Stadium.
• Nathan Dyer has scored three times in his last six league games for the Swans.
• Stoke City have lost just one of their last nine Barclays Premier League home matches (W4 D4 L1).
• Swansea have lost six of their last nine Barclays Premier League away games (W1 D2 L6).
• Peter Crouch has scored three goals in his two previous Premier League appearances against Swansea at the Britannia Stadium.
• Swansea have scored just two goals in their last six Premier League away games, despite attempting 47 shots at goal in these six matches.
• 38% of Stoke City’s Premier League goals this season have come from outside the box (10 of 26) – a higher proportion than any other side.
• Swansea have the opportunity to win back to back Premier League games in their first two matches under Garry Monk – something that they did not manage to do under Michael Laudrup this season.

Straight from the horse's mouth

Garry Monk concedes Swansea haven't deserved anything from their prior trips to Stoke, but hopes to change that on Wednesday night:

"We haven't played well enough there in the past to deserve anything from the two games, but this is another game and a chance to put that record straight. That's something we will be aiming to do.

"Stoke will be pushing hard to get the three points as well, so we are under no illusions as to how hard it is going to be, but this is a chance to go up there and put in a performance we haven't put in there before."

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Garry-Monk-spells-Swansea-City-means-ahead-Stoke/story-20601429-detail/story.html#ixzz2t0e41PqY

Mark Hughes is thinking long term, but wants to replicate recent successes in order to get the result against the Swans::

"I want to be here for a significant amount of time, if I can, to build something really special. This year was always going to be difficult and a season of possible highs and lows, but we will get through it, and be better for it too. It's about making sure we take care of our business.

"I don't think I've experienced, as a player or as a manager, so many teams so close together. If we play like I know we are capable of playing [against Swansea], like we did against Manchester United and how we approached the game against Southampton, we will be fine.

"We want to push on to the top half of the table if we can." 

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11701/9159969?

Analysis

Well I'm feeling a bit more confident now than I was a week ago. After our capitulation against West Ham Swansea fans could have been forgiven for looking at this fixture with some degree of trepidation due to the direct tactics employed by both teams, however a much, much improved showing against Cardiff in the derby has left the Jack Army confident of a continued return to winning ways. Hopefully the squad are as confident as we are...

Against Cardiff we reverted to tactics not seen since Brendan Rodgers was in charge, and considering how well it worked it's unlikely we'll change much going into this one. Expect width from our wingers, for two central midfielders to sit and shield our back four, and for the Swans to press Stoke high up the field. In the reverse fixture we managed to go two goals down before that penalty decision gave Stoke a point in the last minute, but if we play like we did against Cardiff there's no way we'll find ourselves two goals behind.

One player sure to come in for a bit of stick is Peter Odemwingie, though we have to pay attention to him lest he make us regret our jeers. Briefly of Cardiff, he made a name for himself with all that QPR rubbish a while back and now has a reputation as a bit of a mercenary, however he scored a decent goal on the weekend and given time (and especially space) he'll deliver goals. Ash & Chico take note.

I'm undecided how much rotation we'll see at the Brittania, and a lot will depend on if Garry Monk chooses to rest players like Leon Britton, Angel Rangel & Ben Davies, or if he feels they're capable of playing to that standard twice in four days. I'd say Davies could safely be rested for Taylor, but the loss of Britton or Rangel would be costly. If Canas comes in and is told to explicitly "be Leon Britton" then we might just be ok, but the loss of the diminutive talisman would be massive - especially if "the wandering midfielder" De Guzman lines up in the midfield too. As for Rangel, I feel swapping Davies for Taylor doesn't diminish the quality of the side whereas swapping Rangel for Tiendalli...does.

Whoever lines up in midfield they'll be sure to have a tough time of it with Charlie Adam, Glenn Whelan & Jonathan Walters likely to be up against them. Play at anything less than 100% and we could well see a repeat of the result at the Liberty, but play like we did against Cardiff and Charlie Adam won't touch the ball. That's the aim, as we should be good enough to keep the ball away from this Stoke side, even if they have gone away from the hoofball antics championed by Pulis for so long.

The proof is in the pudding, but I'm remarkably confident about this game. The Swans are surely going to pick up an away result soon, and we've got an excellent opportunity to pick up three points here - three points which could lift us back up into tenth place but crucially, would leave us six points clear of the relegation zone.

That wouldn't be a bad start to life as a Premier League manager for Garry Monk, who - let's be honest - set the bar pretty damn high on the weekend!

Garry Monk shows why midfield width is king at Swansea City

Comprehensive win over Cardiff shows new Swansea boss Monk understands what is needed in SA1

There was a time not so long ago when Swansea fans went into every game confident in their team's ability to boss the centre of the park. Ever since Roberto Martinez came in and transformed the club's playing style we've had a succession of managers who use midfield dominance to control matches, but of late it's been painfully obvious that we simply weren't building anything constructive through the middle and teams had figured out how to nullify the threat posed by Michael Laudrup's Swansea City. I've ruminated often when it was I thought we last properly controlled a midfield, and before Saturday's win over Cardiff I'd have to say it was probably Newcastle at home almost a year ago. Worrying? Not any more.

What has been excruciatingly frustrating to most Swansea fans is that the changes to the style which were necessary were just so bleeding obvious. We've built our success on our ability to retain the ball, and key to this is having two central midfielders who work as a unit in front of the back four. Ok, one can wander forward occasionally but for a possession system to work properly your midfielders have to rely on each other and play their way out of trouble. 

In the past Mark Gower sat alongside Leon before Joey Allen broke into the team and made that spot his own, but since Joey's departure (and Laudrup's arrival) we've steadily gone away from a midfield with two deep midfielders, instead operating with one holding midfielder, one attacking midfielder and the third seemingly floating between the two. It might sound like I'm splitting hairs here but the difference is massive - especially when on occasion Leon hasn't been selected. Without the tika-taka protection offered by a midfield duo our defence has become more exposed, but the answer was staring us right in the face. Play Leon with a midfielder who has been explicitly told to hang around the Swansea number seven, and the rest will sort itself out!

De Guzman vs West Ham

De Guzman vs Cardiff

A good example of the immediate difference made by Garry Monk can be seen in Jonathan De Guzman's heatmap (heatmaps from the Daily Mail Matchzone). In Laudrup's last game in charge against West Ham, De Guzman had his usual wandery free role in the centre of the park and guess what? We lost. You can clearly see though that against Cardiff the Dutchman had been told to stick deeper and operate alongside Leon, and the difference was massive. Instantly, we'd returned to the football we hadn't seen since Brendan Rodgers. And not before time. 

Aside from the use of two holding midfielders, there was only really two other things Monk had to change in order to restore order in SA1. Well, three if you include geeing his team up but I suspect that was a foregone conclusion, so back to tactics for now. Under Laudrup. our wingers had become inside forwards and given the area they were running into often contained our centre forward, attacking midfielder, one of our central midfielders as well as possibly the "winger" on the other side it's no wonder they found the going tough - and that's before you factor in all the defenders marking the aforementioned players, or the fact that they only had to defend the central 60% of the pitch because we weren't using the touchlines effectively that far up the field.

So, what did Monk do? Easy - tell the wingers to play like wingers and get them hugging the touchline. Not only does this mean the opposition defence has to split itself wider from the outset, in doing so it creates space in the centre of the field - space we've long craved and put to good use against Cardiff. Look at the first Swans goal - Pablo had space in the centre as our wingers had stretched Cardiff, and that allowed the Spaniard to play a delicious ball inside the Cardiff full-back with Routledge careering around him on the outside. There is absolutely no way Routledge would have been in that position had Laudrup still been in charge, and it goes further than that. Our second goal? A cross from the wing from Routledge. The third? A free kick from out wide after Dyer had found space on the right flank. Width is key.

Ok, it's possible that given our recent style of play the impact these changes had has been exaggerated slightly given Cardiff may have been expecting us to set up differently, but if Monk continues in this vein we will be just fine. More than fine, in fact. The other noticeable difference in Saturday's performance when compared with any recent showing under Laudrup was how high we pressed the opposition. Cardiff didn't have time to play their way out and if I'm honest there were several occasions when I thought to myself "this is like watching Brendan Rodgers' Swansea team". 

To label Monk's success as such would however be a disservice. There were changes needed to how we were playing, and in my opinion Garry Monk got every single one of them spot on. He clearly knew what needed doing, and now he's got the opportunity to go and do it. If we play like we did against Cardiff at Stoke on Wednesday night, I'm very confident of a result, and I'm very, very interested to see how Garry Monk does for the remainder of the season. I've been saying for a while that perhaps what the Swans need is a head coach instead of a manager, given the unique way the club is set up and how heavily involved Huw is in the footballing side of things, and perhaps we've just stumbled upon the winning lottery ticket.

With Garry Monk in charge "for the foreseeable future", and on the evidence of Saturday's heroic win, I'm now more confident in the Swans' ability to produce results than I have been in about a year. Long live Garry Monk.

Garry Monk leads Swansea to biggest derby win of all time

Monk's managerial debut gets off to a flying start at the Liberty Stadium

Garry Monk was always going to be a tracksuit manager.
Photo: +adamnlloyd . 

Huw Jenkins might just be a genius. The buildup to yesterday's derby was the usual fervent rollercoaster of press interest, interviews and the like, but the main talking point was obviously Garry Monk being installed as head coach at the expense of Michael Laudrup. The club didn't make the decision lightly, and to those outside the club it possibly seemed a rash decision, however most Swansea fans seem to be in agreement that something needed to be done as it was starting to look like Laudrup didn't have the answers to the questions posed by competing on three fronts. 

Arise Sir Garry Monk. It's long been known to those at the club that Monk has aspirations of coaching and managing, but few (including Garry himself) would even have dreamed his managerial bow would go so well. Obviously the match could in theory have gone the other way - his appointment has been widely referred to as a risk given his lack of managerial experience, and losing the derby would have been a devastating way to start your managerial career. If that had happened I probably wouldn't be referring to Huw as a genius right about now, but hey - we won 3-0 so right now he's earned that accolade. Since Monk was appointed I haven't met a single Swansea fan who wasn't actually more confident about the derby, and that's why in the short term at the very least Garry Monk was the right appointment, and is the right man for the job.

Yesterday's performance was just fantastic, and a proud return to the football we know so well. Defeat was unthinkable, but in Monk the Swans had a catalyst (not a "Catist" as Jamie Redknapp infuriatingly repeated over and over again on Sky - honestly, how is he in a job?) who was always going to galvanise a group of players who were only really in need of a bit of a kick up the arse. Well, that and a tweak to the tactics. Gone were the inside wingers, and with Dyer & Routledge hugging the touchlines our central midfield once again had room to operate in - something that's been lacking in recent times. 

The team played with a commitment and an enthusiasm we haven't seen in a long, long time, and seemed to once again have confidence and belief in what they were doing on the field. Of late I got the sense that we were knocking it around the back hoping for someone to score a screamer, but from the first minute yesterday we pressed high up the field, harried Cardiff into making mistakes and imposed our football on Cardiff. Monk's post-match comments echoed what we saw on the field - noting that in recent times we've seemed to adapt our football based on who we were playing, as opposed to forcing the opposition to react to us. If yesterday was anything to go by, teams will have a hard time reacting to Garry Monk's Swansea City!

The win moves us up (remarkably) to tenth in the table, and puts a bit of much needed distance between ourselves and the relegation spots. As I write this, Fulham are beating Man Utd which makes things a bit more interesting if it stays as it is, but we'll still remain four points clear of the drop zone, and hopefully we can stretch that even further when we travel to Stoke on Wednesday evening. 

There's a long way to go yet, but early signs are excellent. The team played for Monk from the first whistle to the last, and if we can get anywhere near that level of performance for the remainder of the season we'll be just fine.

Swansea vs Cardiff - Team News

Provided by resident fitness guru @BenDinnery

For the full match preview click here

Tomorrow nights’ SkySports cameras head over to Swansea for the South Wales Derby in the early evening kick-off as The Jacks prepare for a showdown with fierce rivals Cardiff City. 

In reality this fixture probably comes a week or so too soon for Swansea as a number of key players approach full fitness but their injury situation has improved greatly within the last month with the return of influential midfielder Nathan Dyer, Jonathan de Guzman, Roland Lamah and Dwight Tiendalli. Saturday may see the return of Dutch goal-keeper Michel Vorm who has been absent from first team duties since mid-December with Spanish team-mates Jose Canas and Michu also pushing for a recall; although the latter is only expected to take a place on the bench after almost eight weeks out. The one major concern is midfielder Jonjo Shelvey who is doubtful due to an on-going hamstring issue.

For Cardiff City manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has the luxury of almost fully fit squad with club captain Mark Hudson (hamstring) and full-back Andrew Taylor (club) the only players expected to miss out. On-loan winger Wilfried Zaha should make his full debut after an impressive cameo against Norwich while it remains to be seen if the manager will keep faith in Peter Whittingham after his early withdrawal last weekend. New signing Kenwyne Jones could spearhead the Bluebirds attack with fellow January window recruit Fabio starting at right-back. Magnus Wolff Eikrem, Mats Moller Daehli and Jo Inge Berget are all expected to be amongst the substitutes.