Swansea City’s campaign had just gotten back on track when they saw a resilient Manchester City getting the better of them in the Premier League right in the end. Paul Clement has nonetheless brought a positivity to the South Wales side and has been effectively bringing out the best from his newly brought in players.
Clement has brought in a winger, a forward, a full-back and a central midfielder in January and the Swansea line-up looks much more compact now. Here’s how they could look like when at full strength.
Defence
Lukasz Fabianski started the season quite badly but it seems like that the overall improvement of the team has also helped him get better. Even in the last game against City, the Polish international looked sharp under the bar. He is expected to be the first choice for Clement in the remaining months as well.
Martin Olsson has been a valued addition for Swansea City this season. Left-back had been a huge crisis for Swansea throughout the first half of the season and the manager seems to have got it right with this former Norwich City player. Olsson has been surprisingly good for the Swans so far as the 28-year-old has brought a mix of good attacking play on the left and solid defending to add to that. He has definitely brought more stability to the side. Kyle Naughton starts on the other flank with Olsson.
The centre-half duo of Jordi Amat and Federico Fernandez looks to have improved under the new boss and we are getting to see more disciplined performances at the back.
Midfield
Jack Cork is the ever-reliable holding midfielder for Swansea and he has the huge trust of Clement. The skipper is a real leader and pretty much orchestrates the game from the middle of the park bringing a flair to their defence and attack.
In front of Cork, the new recruit Tom Carroll has been quite influential alongside Leroy Fer, whom Clement has given an advanced role to make things happen up front. In Fer and Ki, Clement has a decent set of central midfielders, who do their offensive and defensive duties well and the signing of Tom Carroll was thought to be largely a backup option. But Clement has shown his big plans for the former Spurs player, experimenting him in quite a few positions.
Attack
Narsingh was the first buy for Clement after taking charge and the manager is yet to use him in a full-fledged way. With Wayne Routledge and Gylfi Sigurdsson on the wings, Clement has kept Narsingh to use from the bench and he has been of little impact. His versatility in the attacking third blended with exquisite passing and the quick burst of pace can catch opponents off guard and Clement is looking to count on that. Fernando Llorente will lead the attack.
