Martin’s brought excited vibe to Swansea, says Routledge
FORMER Swansea City winger Wayne Routledge has spoken about how Russell Martin has transformed the Swans this season and why the fans should be excited ahead of today’s clash against Reading.
The SA1 outfit are currently sitting in ninth place in the Championship after 19 games, only four points off the play-off places.
Head coach Martin has fundamentally changed the way Swansea play this season. They are now playing football they are traditionally known for, which is playing out from the back and keeping possession.
According to Optajoe, the Swans completed 811 passes in their 2-0 win at Barnsley in midweek, which is the most by a team in a league game within the top four tiers of English football this season.
Routledge, who made more than 300 appearances for the Swans between 2011 and 2021, spoke on Quest TV after Swansea’s dominant win over the Tykes about the way his former side play and how effective it is.
“The way that Swansea play is that they want to dominate the ball, by dominating the ball they create chances,” he said. “They never look to rush it and by doing that they wait for the perfect opportunity to attack.
“The vibe that I get from the Swansea dressing room is they are excited for this season under Russell Martin.”
Routledge was part of both the teams that narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League under Steve Cooper. He maintains the way Swansea are playing under the new man in the dugout that they can reach the levels of the last two seasons, if not more.
“In the last two seasons we got to a play-off semi-final and a play-off final, we didn’t get over the line,” he added. “But, under a new manager with new staff and new ideas just to freshen it up, the squad have taken to it and as you can see, they are coming to fruition now.
“It’s a new style of play that Russell Martin likes to play, which is always a challenge at the start of the season. The coaching team came in relatively late into the pre-season. To be able to implement their ideas at the speed that they did is a testament to them and their philosophies
“Swansea are on the way up and it will be interesting to see what they do in January.”
Swansea will be looking to bolster their squad in January transfer window. Martin is on the lookout for attacking reinforcements to boost their chances, with Joel Piroe and Jamie Paterson providing the lion’s share of goals so far this term.
Piroe, meanwhile, has had a great start to life at SA1. Since joining from PSV Eindhoven the striker has scored 11 goals in 19 appearances. At his press conference ahead of the Reading game, Swans head coach Martin spoke about how popular Piroe is around the squad and how keen the Dutchman is to keep improving every day.
“We love Joel, he is a confident and self-assured boy, but he is humble and he wants to learn,” he said.
“He is just himself, he might take a bit of stick from the guys sometimes but he doesn’t care, he just gets on with things. It’s not that common to have a group that can express themselves, do what they want without being mocked, they are all accepting of everyone and that makes it an easy dressing room to come in and work with.”
The Dutch striker arrived from PSV in the summer for £1million and he already looks like the real deal.
“When we came in and looked at the squad those first two weeks, I would have to say he has exceeded our expectations since then,” added Martin.