Paul Clement says he ‘wants to play a positive line-up on Saturday’ as his side look to bounce back from the 2-1 home defeat against Watford this weekend away at West Ham United.
Clement was heavily criticised for his negative approach in last Saturday’s game, as he adopted a 3-5-2 formation that he had to change at half time – making two substitutes at the restart as we were fortunate to only be 1-0 down after a lacklustre opening 45 minutes.
Switching to a diamond with a front two of Bony and Abraham with Ayew just behind, we equalised within 11 minutes of the change, and should have gone on and got a well-earned point, but another mistake saw us concede a second goal in the 90th minute.
Check out our article here as we post our ideas for our strongest formation and starting line-up for Saturday’s trip to West Ham.
Judging from his comments this week, you’d expect Clement to drop the 3-5-2 formation that has helped his side keep a 100% clean sheet record in 3 away games so far, and adopt a more positive approach to the game.
Clement said:
“We have worked on some things this week and I want to play a positive line-up on Saturday, a line-up that can get us the right result,”
“We want to try to get a victory, as West Ham will want to do in what is a big game for both teams.
“The clean sheets we`ve had away from so far this season have been a help, but we are defending better than we are attacking.
“We are working on that and I fully believe we`re going to keep improving in that area.
“Good defending gives you a platform, but we have done a number of sessions this week on getting some of our patterns right offensively.
“I have seen some positive signs in training, as I did in the second half against Watford, and I am sure the positive attacking performances are not far away.”
Paul Clement says he’s considering playing Abraham and Bony up top again this weekend, with Ayew playing just behind them:
“Our best football in that game [vs Watford] came with Abraham and Bony up front and Jordan in behind,”
“That`s an option I am thinking about for this weekend.
“Hopefully, as we are away from home and West Ham will want to win the game, we will find a bit more space to do the things we want to do.
“We need to be better going forward and we are working at that, but it`s still early days in the season.
“I think the fact that were so many ins and outs in the summer has had an impact on us (in attacking terms), but the more we train together and play together, the better we will get.”
Can the Swans get their second away win of the season at West Ham on Saturday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
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