Garry Monk: Manager not concerned by Swansea City form

Swans boss Garry Monk says he is not anxious about his team’s ranking on the EPL Table this season. The expectations are different, people expect more from the beginning of last season. “I’ve no problem with this group doing that”.

Monk made 10 changes for the Capital One Cup defeat at Hull in midweek, with only Gylfi Sigurdsson retained from the previous league game, but he is set to revert to the side which played out a goalless home draw against Everton last weekend. “It’s good to get the win, especially at home against a team who is competing with us for a European place”.

Virgil van Dijk’s first goal in England and Sadio Mane’s third in two games helped fire Southampton to a 3-1 win over Swansea in the Premier League on Saturday.

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman indicates he is very settled at his current club ahead of their upcoming encounter against an in-form Swansea City side.

“You can include pre-season as well if you like, and that’s another five games without defeat”.

“I’m satisfied with three points, yes, but maybe it was the best game of the season clinical-wise”, said Koeman. “I think it will be a really good tactical match”. It is the nature of the sport that we’re in that we’ll always have setbacks.

Add to that the team’s 6-0 League Cup victory over the MK Dons, the coastal club might just be starting to garner the confidence required to push back to some kind of consistent form.

“We’ve had good performances in all those games apart from Watford“, Monk said. Gomis fits into Swansea’s style well, having a passing accuracy of 82% which is pretty decent for a striker that likes to link up play with playoffs and quick turns.

But if we look back to that win over Louis van Gaal’s men we note two worrying aspects facing Swansea right now.

Swansea were a beaten side but they at least managed to avoid going a fourth straight game without a goal, Sigurdsson scoring from the penalty spot seven minutes from the end after Neil Taylor was brought down by Jose Fonte in the area.

Swansea had half a chance to make it interesting as Andre Ayew was picked out in the box but his header towards goal was fielded by Stekelenburg.