Premiership preview, table prediction: 17. Swansea City

Swansea City

Swansea City

Nickname: The Swans

Ground: The Liberty Stadium

Capacity: 20532

Manager: Brendan Rodgers

Squad:

·         Goalkeepers 13 David Cornell 21 Jose Moreira 99 Gerhard Tremmel ·         Defenders 2 Ashley Williams 3 Neil Taylor 4 Steven Caulker 5 Alan Tate 16 Garry Monk 22 Angel Rangel 34 Joe Walsh 35 Daniel Alfei

·         Midfielders 6 Ferrie Bodde 7 Leon Britton 8 Andrea Orlandi 11 Scott Sinclair 12 Nathan Dyer 17 David Cotterill 23 Ryan Harley 24 Joe Allen 25 Shaun MacDonald 26 Kemy Agustien 27 Mark Gower 28 Thomas Butler 29 Ashley Richards 31 Lee Lucas ·         Attacking Midfielders 25 Wayne Routledge

·         Forwards 9 Craig Beattie 10 Danny Graham 14 Stephen Dobbie 15 Leroy Lita 19 Luke Moore 36 Casey Thomas

The first Welsh team to appear in the Premier League, Swansea impressed in the play-offs with their passing football.They swept aside Reading 4-2 in the final thanks to a Scott Dobbie strike and a Scott Sinclair hat-trick.

 
Manager Brendan Rodgers likes to play offensive and prefers to play a 4-3-3 attacking style of play. Swanseas belief in retaining possession, earned them the moniker the Welsh Barcelona. My question is, can they defend good enough in the premiership to stay up? They look strong enough in attack, also bringing in Leroy Lita and Wayne Routledge, as well as getting Championship's top scorer from last season Danny Graham t. I think Swansea will be a fun team to watch, and I think they might give us entertainment like Blackpool did last season. My big question mark is their defense and goalkeepers. They did well in the championship last season, keeping 21 clean sheets, but now its season 11/12 and premiership football. They have yet to bring in any solid defenders or goalkeepers with premier league experience. That said it’ still time to sign players, and they might be able to strengthen enough defensively before the season starts.

Pre-Season Fixtures/Results

July 16 vs Neath 0-1

July 16 vs Port Talbot 3-1 Beattie, Rangel, Cornell

July 23 vs Afan Lido 2-0 Beattie, Lucas

July 27 vs Inter Baku 3-1 Sinclair, Dyer, Moore

August 3 vs Celtic 2-0 Rangel, Dobbie

 August 6 vs Real Betis 1-0 Graham

The results in pre-season have been good, and especially the victory against Celtic and Real Betis show that Brendan Rodgers boys are in good shape for their premiership debut.

Players in

08/11 Leroy Lita FW

07/11 Kemy Agustien MF

07/11 Steven Caulker DF

07/11 Scott Donnelly MF

07/11 Danny Graham FW

07/11 Ryan Harley MF

07/11 Shaun MacDonald MF

Players out

06/11 Fabio Borini FW

06/11 Dorus de Vries GK

06/11 Darren Pratley MF

06/11 Albert Serran DF

The loss off goalkeeper Dorus de Vries will be a big blow if they don’t get a new one before the window closes. Right now it’s not shure who will be Brendan Rodgers first pick in goal. And the club is nowdays linked to FC Utrecht goalkeeper Michel Vorm.  As earlier mentioned I belive that they have done a lot of good signings in Lita, Routledge and Graham.

 

Most likely starting line up for Swansea next weekend:

                                           Jose Moreira

Angel Rangel       Ashley Williams       Alan Tate    Neil Taylor

Nathan Dyer    Kemy Agustien     

 

 Scott Sinclair              Stephen Dobbie           Leon Britton

 

Danny Graham            

To summon things up, I think Swansea will be a positive new team to watch in the premiership, and let’s hope we see some Barcelona type of play from the swans this season as well. At this point I think they will have tough time in the premiership due to the lack of defensive quality, but I have a feeling that they will manage to stay up.