Championship leaders Norwich City head to South Wales to face Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium. Much like the Canaries, Graham Potter’s Swans find themselves in good form heading into the game, winning three of their last four games.
What have you made of Graham Potter’s time at Swansea City so far? Is this a widely held opinion within the fan base?
He’s made a good start, the football on show is far more positive than the last few seasons and I’m hopeful he’s the man for the long term at Swansea. The fan base is far happier with the manager in the dugout than for a long time.
Swansea have only conceded 13 goals so far this season, only Middlesbrough have a more impressive record. What, or who, can this be attributed to?
We have a good back four who are improving all the time. Joe Rodon and Connor Roberts in particular have been revelations while Mike Van Der Hoorn has been excellent. Potter has now seen the sense to put Erwin Mulder back between the sticks as well so that should ensure we continue to not give many goals away.
Graham Potter appears to chop and change formation to suit opposition, is this something which has benefitted the team this season?
I’m not a big fan of it. I appreciate making the odd change to freshen things up can be of benefit but there were spells when he was making 5-6 changes and that’s too many and it did lead to inconsistency. The last few weeks we’ve had a more settled side so hopefully that will continue.
Leroy Fer and Martin Olsson could potentially face their old club, what is the perception of these players within the fan base?
Both are important players given the relative youth of the rest of the squad. Fer was injured at the start of the season and has been finding his feet since. Olsson has improved as the season has gone on after a slow start.
As a result of relegation, Swansea have sold a number of players to Premier League clubs and Championship rivals, replacing these players with youngsters. Coupled with the fact it is Graham Potter’s first season in charge, is 8th position fairly respectable at this stage of the season, all things considered?
I’m over the moon with 8th, it’s higher than I thought we’d be. This has always been seen as a transitional season where we hopefully improve as the campaign goes on and move on the high earners as well as bringing youngsters through from the academy. So far it’s gone very well.
What are your expectations for the rest of the season?
Hopefully more of the same. It might be too early to go up so I’d happily see us finish in the top half and look to push on next term after hopefully improving the squad in the summer.
Which Swansea player should Norwich be most wary of?
Oli McBurnie is our main goal getter. Dan James has been giving right backs the run around as well so those two I would say.
What will Norwich have to do, in order to beat Swansea?
Take your chances, we don’t give too many clear cut ones away hence why we aren’t conceding so if you’re going to win you will have to take the one’s that come your way.
What have you made of Norwich so far this season?
You’ve been a revelation. You’re the inform side right now and if I’m honest you’ve taken me a bit by surprise. Given how close it is at the top you must be feeling very confident of your chances after recent results.
Which Norwich player are you most apprehensive about facing?
Teemu Pukki has to be our main source of concern given that he has nine goals so far. We need to keep him quiet.
Your predicted Swansea line-up and score prediction? Ha ha, predicting a Potter team is almost impossible!
I’ll go with 4-2-3-1 formation Mulder, Roberts, Van Der Hoorn, Rodon, Olsson, Fer, Fulton, McKay, Celina, James, McBurnie. Prediction wise I think it’ll be an entertaining 1-1 draw with us scoring first.
A big thank you to Steven, you can follow him and the SOS fanzine here: @SoSFanzine
