Swansea City defender Jordi Amat earlier this month told the press that he wanted first team football and was therefore unsure on his future at the club – so you have to ask – should we be using him more often – particularly in an effort to convince to stay and sign a new contract?
The last thing we want is to lose what looks like a very capable centre half who has shown that he is capable of taking over from Ashley Williams when the Welsh international does finally retire.
It’s also fair to say that Federico Fernandez hasn’t done enough this season to earn that first team spot for the entire season. The only he lost it was when he was dropped by Garry Monk, and amazingly, the former boss replaced him with Kyle Bartley rather than the far superior defender Jordi Amat.
The Spaniard also has a great record playing for Swansea City in the Premier League this season, he’s not experienced defeat in 8 games. Of those 8 games, we won five of them, conceding 6 goals – and never conceding more than 1 goal in a single match.
A coincidence? Hardly, the season before shows a similar trend of results. The 24 year-old featured in 10 Premier League matches, as he started the season as first choice centre half before suffering a very unfortunate injury at Chelsea, and was replaced at half time when we were drawing 1-1. We later lost 4-2. So you can’t technically count that game as a loss under Amat as he wasn’t on the pitch.
In the other 9 games, the Swans lost just twice. 1-0 at home against Liverpool and 2-0 at Leicester – where he played as a full back. The other 7? we won them all!
So over two seasons, Jordi Amat has seen his side concede 14 goals in 17.5 League appearances – not a bad record.
If I was Guidolin, I’d do what Monk did at the start of the 2014/15 season and make him a first team centre back. He’s waited a long time for a first team opportunity but he took it towards the end of this season. He played in the last 3 games, conceding 3 goals, and winning 2 of them.
Earlier this month, Amat said he was happy at the club
‘It has been great to be back involved with the team over the last few weeks and months,’ said the defender.
‘I am happy to be here at Swansea and I would like to help the club fight for more wins next season.
‘All the players want to play every week. That’s why we train,’
‘We’ll see. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next month, I’m waiting for any more information, to tell me what they want.
‘I’m happy here, but I want to play.’
Amat also praised coach Francesco Guidolin:
‘He’s very good, he’s a great manager with a lot of experience,’
‘All the staff have helped us to do this job because we were in a bad situation.
The quotes aren’t too alarming. Every player wants to play regularly, but he must be wondering what more he has to do to get first team football when the likes of Fernandez aren’t exactly producing superb performances on a regular basis.
The Argentine international might have arrived from Napoli for £8m but that doesn’t make him undroppable, because right now, you could argue that Amat looks a more capable and solid defender.
Stats – Defenders compared 2015/16 season – averages per 90 mins:
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