Plenty of work still to do, but stats show signs of improvement for the Swans under Williams

HOW HAS SWANS BOSS WILLIAMS FARED AS HE REACHES HIST FIRST MILESTONE IN CHARGE?

LUKE Williams has only been in the job for a little over a month, but he is approaching an early milestone in his Swansea City career.

Today’s clash with Sunderland will be the tenth game he has overseen since taking the reins in SA1, and many will feel we’re starting to get a decent idea on what now makes this team tick.

Certainly there’s a common school of thought that 10 games is enough to provide the sufficient evidence needed to judge the success of a manager.

Certainly it’s around this time supporters start to make up their own minds about whether the man in the dugout is going to be a success or not.

Predecessor Michael Duff certainly struggled to recover from a hugely underwhelming first 10 games in charge.

Results were poor, and the process of identifying the playing style and identity consistently felt like a laborious, purgatorial chore.

Has Williams fared any better? Well results aren’t exactly a million miles ahead of what Duff was serving up.

Williams has so far delivered one more point than the Northern Irishman had at the same stage, although he has at least won a league game ahead of this tenth game.

But barring the odd smattering of boos, supporters, on the whole, appear more upbeat about things under the current boss.

Indeed, while there’s a widespread acceptance that results haven’t been good enough, the standard of performances has still offered some comfort to the Jack Army.

Better quality of possession

PERHAPS one of the most pleasing areas of encouragement has been the perceived increased threat up front.

Some might well point to the captures of wingers Ronald and Przyemyslaw Placheta as key factors, and they’ve certainly had a tangible impact.

For instance, only Josh Tymon (1.1) has made more crosses than Ronald (1) so far this season.

But the data suggests the improvements go beyond the mere introduction of two tricky wingers.

According to numbers gathered by Statsbomb, Swansea’s average share of possession during the opening 26 games of the season stood at 53 per cent, with a field tilt (percentage of possession in the final third) at 48 per cent.

In the last five games, Swansea have only surpassed those possession figures twice; against Plymouth (71 per cent) and Ipswich (58 per cent).

But while their dominance in possession has perhaps dropped off, the field tilt figures suggest the majority of possession they do have is within the final third.

Possession stats for last five

games

Leicester City - Possession: 53 per cent, Field Tilt: 57 per cent Plymouth - Possession: 71 per cent, Field Tilt: 75 per cent

Hull City - Possession: 43 per cent, Field Tilt: 55 per cent

Leeds United - Possession: 41 per cent, Field Tilt: 51 per cent Ipswich Town - Possession 58 per cent, Field Tilt: 64 per cent

More chances

AS such, it’s perhaps not surprising that Swansea subsequently appear to be creating more chances.

Indeed, four of Swansea’s highest xg performances have come in the last six games.

In the 3-1 defeat at home to Southampton, they managed an xg of 2.28, their second highest xg total of the campaign so far, and the third-highest of any club against Southampton this season.

Against runaway leaders Leicester City, Southampton are the only side so far this season to have recorded a higher xg than the 2.01 managed by Swansea.

Finally, in the defeat to Ipswich Swansea racked up an xg score of 2.4, which was actually their highest of the entire campaign.

Of course, the obvious counterpoint is that all these stats are ultimately meaningless without goals and subsequent results.

But the feeling is that if Swansea can produce these sorts of numbers against some of the best sides in the division, then goals , and wins, will eventually start to come.

Pushing on the training ground

THE response in the wake of the defeat to Leeds United was particularly interesting.

It would be easy to simply throw the hands up and accept the gulf in class between the two sides.

But Williams instead spoke about ‘bridging the gap’ between his side and those at the top of the Championship.

Given the enormous financial disparities involved, it appeared a lofty ambition at best. A downright pipe dream at worst.

However, Williams believes a greater push in training can help his team take something a step towards achieving that goal.

“They’re playing 11 v 11 in training and they’re not used to it,” he told Walesonline this week.

“I know it sounds bizarre, but no one really trains 11 v 11, they just don’t do it, because it’s really confrontational and it’s really difficult to manage.

“You’re putting your own players up against each other.

“I want them to compete with each other.

“But you have to manage that because it can spill over.

“My idea is to put them into a stressful situation on the training ground.

“Their physical data was flat for six months. Now it’s gone up. They’re exhausted physically, which mentally they suffer. Then they’re stressed because they’re playing 11 v 11.

“Every single day we’re getting the reports through. They have DOMS in the quads. DOMS in the hamstrings. Calves are tight.

“I asked the conditioning team if this was normal for the group, and they were like ‘No. Normally maybe after the game you’d have a lot of players sore’.

“We need to flip that. So that after game, if they’ve played well the next day they feel alright. They can even play again the next day. But training? Nah. Dreading training.”

It’s nigh on impossible to authentically recreate the thrills and spills of a matchday, but Williams hopes that by suffering a bit of pain on the training pitch, his side will have the physical and mental resilience to cope with the challenges presented to them on