Patience may be key to beating Swansea

The table may look promising at the moment, but it does not take much to undo the good work and Bournemouth will be aware that they cannot take their foot off the gas now. Swansea may be in the bottom three, but Bournemouth were also there only a few weeks ago and the tight nature of the table at this stage is a reminder that you have to be on your game to pick up points.

AFCB could get their first three clean sheets in a row in the
Premier League if they can keep Swansea from scoring today.

While Swansea have been in a slump, no team is relegated in November and the main factor for Swansea will be not to lose contact with the teams that sit just above them in the league and I'd include the Cherries in that equation. The mini league this season for Bournemouth could be in might contain not only the teams below them, but for the moment it is the teams like Swansea that pose most threat to Bournemouth's mid-table position. Closing the gap would give Paul Clement and his side a real lift that could put them on a good run in December, so the impact of a win at this time has not just a reward of three points but a psychological twist if you can put the knife in.

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Eddie Howe is respectful of every side in the league and if AFCB started to take Swansea's home form at face value they would not prepare well enough for the game. I don't expect Eddie Howe or AFCB to be complacent though, and if the team can work hard now, the games to come against Man Utd and Man City for example, will be more enjoyable to go into. Eddie Howe does not want to be looking over his shoulder come 1 January and so he needs real focus for this game as Swansea and Paul Clement will have tried everything they can think of this week in training to find a solution to their problems of scoring. 

It may be that AFCB will be best to not be too open early on in this game but let the pressure for a home win build on Swansea's players. As long as the Swans don't get off to a flyer the anxiety of things not going their way will build as they see this game as a good chance to get out of the bottom three. Patience worked against Huddersfield and Bournemouth might again need to contain the opposition for a while just to take the energy out of these Swansea players who will be pumped to get their first win in November.

Cherry Chimes provides comments for SOS Fanzine's opposition view

Rival Lines: "Clement should have gone after the last game!"

Rival Lines
Match Preview: Swansea v AFCB
Blogger Interview: SOS Fanzine
Twitter: @StevenSOS1987 @SOSFanzine

I've spoke to Steve at SOS Fanzine a couple of times before and so I knew we'd get a really honest opinion of his team when I invited him to come on Rival Lines. He is no doubt hurting a bit by recent results as all Swansea fans have been, but I wanted to see if he really felt their was a glimmer of light that Paul Clement and the players are about to turn things around and if not what did Swansea need in January to pick up better results?

CC: What is the overriding opinion of Paul Clement with the Swansea fans - has he got what it takes to keep you up? 

SOS: No, I think it’s time for a change again unfortunately. He did really well to keep us up last term and in all fairness he was let down by our bad dealings in the transfer market over the summer. However, he has no idea on his best 11 of formation and we are a third of the way into the season. The football is so negative that people are bored out of their minds and recent performances have been abysmal. He should have gone after the game last week.

CC: I know he has been injured, but can Wilfried Bony still be the player he was a few years ago at Swansea?

SOS: I have my doubts. He was brilliant the first time around and there's no shame no ousting the likes of Sergio Aguero at Man City, but alarm bells were ringing for me when he was behind Berahino and Crouch at Stoke. We should have taken him on loan, not permanently.

CC: Why has the home form been so poor this season?

SOS: Negative tactics, wrong players and formations. Plus the fact that we’re just not very good anymore, it’s be hard for anyone to get this lot to improve to the point where we’re a reasonable side again.

CC: Fabianski has been on the end of a lot of opposition shots. What have you made of his performances?

SOS: He’s been one of the one shining lights. He was brilliant last season and has carried on where he left off. We’d have a much worse goal difference it if wasn’t for him.

CC: Do you feel it was a bad decision to sell Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente in the same transfer window last summer and is that what you are paying for?

SOS: Partly yes, selling Sigurdsson and not buying a direct replacement was insanity. We have no creativity in this team and no one who can’t take a decent set piece which is hurting us big time. Llorente has been a loss as well although he would have struggled with most Sigurdsson’s service. If we’d adequately replaced both then we maybe ok but we didn’t.

CC: How close are Swansea to turning around results? 

SOS: I don’t think we are at all, my main hope is we stay in touch until January and address the imbalances in the squad to try and dig ourselves out of trouble. Performances are getting worse, not better at the moment.

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CC: How good is Tammy Abrahams? 

SOS: Excellent, how he has four goals in a team that creates nothing I don’t know. He’s one of the only players who looks especially bothered by our predicament as well. Our fans love him.

CC: Do you expect Swansea to be busy in the January transfer window?

SOS: No idea with our board these days, but we have to be. A number 10 is vital, a right back, and a winger I would say. Need to ship a few out too who aren’t good enough.

CC: If you could swap a Swansea player for a Bournemouth player which players would you move?

SOS: Josh King has given us a few problems in the past, has pace to burn, scores a few and would likely set up a few. He’s the player from you who would make the biggest impact at Swansea. [Ed- And what about players going the other way? - Any but Fabianski and Abrahams I'll guess!]

CC: How do you expect Swansea to set up for this game against Bournemouth?

SOS: Clement loves to change things. Last week it was 4-3-3 but I have a feeling it might be 5-3-2 this week with Abraham and Bony both starting.

CC: Thanks for the answers Steve! The mood in the Swansea camp might not be so encouraging at the moment but a win would very quickly put a different look to the table and to the positions of Bournemouth and Swansea. That is why this game is one that Eddie Howe has been keen to highlight as a very important game. Paul Clement looked like he was running out of ideas in his post-match press conference after the Burnley defeat and by the words of SOS Fanzine it might not be long before the fans want him out if he can't do better, especially at home. So I expect a tense atmosphere at the Liberty and a high-paced first 20 minutes as I think whoever gets ahead in this game will pick up the points. You can read more reports on Swansea City and their players on SOS Fanzine.


AskFans Report AFCB 4 v 0 Huddersfield Town
Cherry Chimes' match preview on AskFans for AFCB v Swansea

Also look out for Cherry Chimes appearing on SOS Fanzine's Opposition's View

Is Paul Clement as good as Eddie Howe at turning around form?

Football is all about winning and while Paul Clement was a hero last season, he knows in this game it doesn't count for much when you are now on the end of a winless cycle. He has been making it clear in his post-Burnley match press conference that he knows where the team has to improve but is it as simple a job to put it right?

Paul Clement at Dean Court last season.

The Swans will understand that the match against Bournemouth is a very big game for both teams. Paul Clement has not been getting performances form his players, they haven't been scoring highly with just seven goals in 12 games and they need to break their winless run. "I'd be stupid if I wasn't concerned," said Clement when interviewed after Swansea's most recent defeat.  "I'm concerned about the level of performance, I'm concerned about our position in the table, I'm concerned about the amount of goals we have scored, or haven't scored - these are all things that I have to work on."

But in a week that has seen the sacking of Tony Pulis from WBA, who are two points ahead of Swansea in the table, Clement knows he hasn't got long to put things right. Not enough managers are given time to turn the form around and Swansea does not sound like it is a happy camp at the moment. With Tammy Abrahams not training on Tuesday but nursing his back through the week so that he can play on Saturday, Swansea are patching up their on loan striker and hoping they can get some better luck in front of goal against Bournemouth.

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Considering the game from Clement's view though, he has to be worried that AFCB have  only conceded once in their last three Premier League games and that goal was scored by Eden Hazard of Chelsea. In other words, it's going to need something special to score a few goals against the Cherries at the moment. Clement will point towards the early part of the game when AFCB entertained Huddersfield. There were good opportunities for van La Parra and Scott Malone in particular, yet even the form of Asmir Begovic will be something that Swansea also have to get past.

Eddie Howe has been getting a tune out of his players again. It is Paul Clement that will be hoping that by working hard he can get more out of his players now. The difference might be that AFCB pulls together when times are hard, but is everyone at Swansea behind Paul Clement?

Swansea will be the hardest game for AFCB so far in 2017

Don't think that AFCB have done all the hard work yet. Their next game against Swansea will be their most tricky game that they have faced in 2017 in my mind, as the need for both teams to get the points is bigger than ever. While AFCB have just beaten a team higher up in the league it is the lower half teams that are really scrapping for everything, and this game might not be pretty, but neither team can afford to lose at this stage of the season.

AFCB have to be ready for this massive game before the international break.

Swansea may be slightly weakened not only because they had a disappointing defeat against relegation rivals Hull City last week, but because they also suffered two injuries to key players in the first half with Angel Rangel and Fernando Llorente having to come off and Martin Olsson had to play on with his injury. Rangel is out for the season, while Kyle Naughton, the right back, is recovering from a hamstring pull that he had against Burnley. Can AFCB exploit these problems? Eddie Howe will have to consider what the injuries might mean to a Swansea side that is desperate to pick up points. Paul Clement has given Swansea fans fresh hope though and with Gylfi Sigurdsson on the pitch they always have a punchers chance of coming up with something special.

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Swansea have scored in four of their last five away games, but they have won just two of those games against Liverpool and Crystal Palace. Like AFCB, they tend to leave the back door open and this game has the likelihood of being quite a high scoring affair. Just like AFCB they also have eight wins now which is a tremendous recovery from where they were before the New Year. But if Llorente is not fit, the goals for Swansea may dry up a little. They can't play safe and while AFCB have been finding it hard to keep clean sheets, Swansea will not sit back. Wayne Routledge got himself into the scoring positions against
Hull City, even if he did not manage to put away his early chance - AFCB must be mindful of players like him.

The Swans will have highlighted this game as one in which they must pick up something. It is that prospect which might actually play into AFCB's hands if they can remain patient. UTCIAD.

Swansea Away Form
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AFCB Home Form
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You can also read some views I gave to Read Swansea and another piece on SOS Swansea before today's game.