Laudrup Confident With Squad Depth

Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup says he is confident that his squad has the strength in depth to cope with the recent injuries and suspensions to three defenders.

Neil Taylor will miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle. Chico Flores will miss three games after a red card against Sunderland, while fellow centre back Kyle Bartley will be sidelined for three months after a thigh injury suffered in training.

Despite the defensive setbacks, manager Michael Laudrup is confident his squad will cope with the absentees. He also hopes to have Ki Sung Yeung available after picking up a knock in a mid-week international match.

In defence, Alan Tate, Ben Davies and Dwight Tiendalli compete for the holes left behind by Taylor and Chico, while in midfield, Laudrup also has Pablo Hernandez available as a wing option. He’s likely to feature on the bench with Routledge and Dyer keeping their starting positions.

Speaking about the defensive losses in his squad, Laudrup said:

“It has been a bad couple of weeks,’

‘We all remember what happened to Neil and after that we have had another injury, not as serious, but a very difficult and rare muscle injury for Kyle.

“Then of course we have Chico suspended for three matches. It`s typical, to lose three defenders like this.

“But we have a squad and we have prepared them to play from the beginning, we did not think about serious injuries at that time but we are covered, we have players.

“Dwight is coming in to cover left-back so we don`t only have Ben for the rest of the season and I think we are covered.”

Laudrup also says there’s a lot of confidence within the squad, thanks to their unbeaten start to the season:

“We can draw a lot from the Sunderland game, but at the same time that was two weeks ago now,”

“We have another cycle of games coming up now with three league games and the cup tie with Crawley before the next international break.

“It is important that we stick to what we know and keep doing the things that have brought us success so far. We have a lot of confidence, and that is very important.

“But we can always improve, and that should be the mentality.”

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