This week’s supporter is Kevin Elphick of @VitalSwansea. Here’s what he had to say...
Were you happy with your transfer window business this summer?
Andre Ayew has been the only player to make an impact for us so far. Without him and his goals – you have to wonder where we’d be in the table.
How would you assess your season so far?
It’s not gone to plan. It’s been surprising to see how badly our season has started to be honest. Garry Monk was hopeful of at least matching last season’s record-breaking eighth placed finish – I think the majority of fans were
There was even talk of qualifying for the Europa League for a second time. But instead, we find ourselves in a relegation fight just a point ahead of the bottom three.
Our performances are getting worse by the week, and looking at our upcoming fixtures, it’s difficult to see where the next win is going to come from.
What are your hopes for the rest of the season?
Simply survival, now. We’re really struggling and have become one of the favourites to go down as we simply cannot score goals – let alone pick up some points.
Garry Monk claimed in the summer that the squad was “the best the club had ever had” but for me, it isn’t. That’s partly because we’re struggling up front: we haven’t replaced Wilfried Bony and it’s showing.
Our starting line-up often has five or six international players in it every week, all performing well for their countries – the likes of Montero, Williams, Taylor, Sigurdsson and Ayew, but they don’t bring out their best at Swansea.
If you could place one Manchester City player in the Swansea team, who would it be?
While I’d have Wilfried Bony back in a heartbeat, it’s got to be Sergio Aguero. He’s world class and he’d be the type of player who can score goals all by himself, which is what we desperately need right now.
Who is your most important player?
That’s another tricky question, and another key issue for us. We’re lacking leaders and our “big players” haven’t come forward to deliver when we really need them to. It has to be Andre Ayew, though.
He’s currently our top goalscorer and the only player who looks likely to score for us – despite playing out wide. A lot of fans would prefer to see him given a chance up front instead of Gomis, as he prefers to make inside runs off the flank – which leaves our full-back exposed and lacking support on the attack.
What will be the key battle in today’s game?
We’ll probably sit deep in our own half and hopefully play for a point, so it’ll be up to Pellegrini’s side to try and break us down – which I’m sure they will.
They’ll be looking to bounce back after a poor performance at Stoke. Without Kompany, Manchester City look vulnerable at the back but recently we haven’t looked like a side capable of testing their defence.
Predicted starting XI:
Fabianski, Naughton, Williams, Bartley, Taylor, Ki, Britton, Sigurdsson, Montero, Ayew, Eder.
Score prediction:
Manchester City 3 Swansea City 0.
