Swansea City host Southampton on Tuesday aiming to record back to back wins for the first time this season.
Last time out, Swansea were victorious in a thrilling 3-2 victory over Liverpool at Anfield last gameweek.
Southampton have beaten Liverpool and lost to Arsenal in cup action recently, while their last Premier League game saw them as 3-0 victors against Leicester City.
Defence that needs to improve
Lukasz Fabianski
The Pole has conceded 51 goals this season already, just one behind their record for most goals conceded in a Premier League campaign. However, the majority haven’t been Lukasz Fabianski’s fault, and he is still one of the better goalkeepers in the league.
Kyle Naughton
While Kyle Naughton didn’t have the best game of his career against Liverpool, he should still be in the starting lineup. Since his arrival two years ago, the majority of play has come down his left hand side, but after Martin Olsson was signed and Gylfi Sigurdsson has been moved to the left flank, Naughton will naturally see less of the ball and despite his main attributes coming when he does have the ball, Swansea will benefit from this.
Federico Fernandez
Paul Clement stated in his pre-match press conference that it’s unlikely that Swansea will sign a centre-back this month, despite it being a club priority. This means that his preferred pairing of Federico Fernandez and Alfie Mawson will likely continue to start.
Alfie Mawson
The best centre-back at the club, despite having the least experience of the four. Mawson has a bright future in English football, and Clement seems to agree.
Martin Olsson
With Neil Taylor’s imminent departure to Aston Villa, Olsson is now the starting left-back at the club, with Stephen Kingsley as his debutant. Swansea lose a little defensively, which would have been fine if they brought in a more competent centre-back, but his presence offensively will be a huge plus for Swansea.
Midfield looking settled
Ki Sung-Yeung
Coming in for Leroy Fer, despite the Dutchman’s impressive performance over Liverpool. This will be a tough call for Clement, but Southampton will pack their midfield and a calm passer under pressure in Ki Sung-Yeung could be more useful than Fer’s attacking quality.
Jack Cork
Leon Britton was ruled out of the game by Clement in his pre-match press conference, while Jay Fulton seems to have been demoted to Under-23 duty, so it seems likely that Jack Cork will continue as the deepest midfielder.
Tom Carroll
He made what was arguably Swansea’s best debut performance since Michu against QPR in 2012. Despite only playing a single minute of Premier League football this season he was outstanding in the win over Liverpool, and surely he will start against Southampton.
Forwards to continue as per usual
Wayne Routledge
This spot will also be a tough call for Clement. Wayne Routledge put in a good performance against Liverpool, which was backed up by his xGChain, provided by Statsbomb IQ (Red is better). However, new signing Luciano Narsingh is fit to make his debut, which surely sounds enticing to Clement.
Fernando Llorente
Swansea’s top scorer will start barring any injury. He has made a stellar start to life at Swansea and now speculation over his future has gone away, Fernando Llorente can start to fire Swansea away from the relegation zone.
Swansea’s star man, now playing a different role on the left flank. He wasn’t impressive against Liverpool despite his winning goal, but a Swansea side with Sigurdsson is much better than one without him.