Swansea City manager Paul Clement has explained his tactical switch that he used in the 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town.
Swansea used a 4-3-3 formation for the first time this season, with Luciano Narsingh and Jordan Ayew occupying the wide roles.
Both of Swansea’s goals came from Tammy Abraham, scoring twice from close range.
Immediate change from West Ham
“I decided immediately after West Ham to change the system,” Clement explained.
Swansea lost 1-0 to West Ham before the international break, and used Ayew, Abraham and Wilfried Bony in a diamond system.
“When you do that as a coach, you have got some time to work.” The Englishman said. “We had eight training days to work on some principles, and a lot of that work was offensive work.
“It paid off. I still think we have got the ability to switch systems, but I was pleased with what I saw today.”
Swansea have used several systems this season, including five-at-the-back, as Clement has been searching for his best team.
“We have shown with the other systems that we can be hard to break down, but today we managed to find that balance – we kept a clean sheet but also had a threat going forward.” The former Bayern Munich assistant said.
“The decision to change the system was because of a combination of what I saw at West Ham and also the games before that,” Clement added.
“We didn’t create a lot of chances and we were not scoring enough goals, but we have found that balance today.”
Not creating chances
Like Clement said, Swansea had been struggling to create chances and did much better against Huddersfield.
In the 2-0 win, Swansea had an overall Expected Goals number of 2.06, which is higher than anything they have posted all season.
However, they did have just seven shots, slightly higher than their 6.6 shots per game average for the season. 6.6 is the lowest by any side in the Premier League this season.
The chances that Swansea create are good chances, but they don’t happen regularly, which must worry Clement.