Swansea can be the pass masters again, says Fulton
MIDFIELDER Jay Fulton is confident that Graham Potter’s desire for Swansea to get back to their traditional passing game is starting to bear fruit, despite a less than overwhelming set of pre-season results.
Fulton is back with the Swans having spent the second half of last season on loan at Wigan Athletic.
The 24-year-old Scot helped the Latics to the League One title, as well as a memorable FA Cup win over Manchester City, but was a little frustrated not to get regular football in Wigan colours. Now he is aiming to claim a place in Potter’s Swans team.
“It’s good to be back,” Fulton said. “The loan spell with Wigan wasn’t quite what I thought it would be because I wanted to play more games.
“It was still a good experience and I am grateful to Wigan for giving me that chance, but as soon the loan ended I was thinking about this season.
“I got myself fit in the summer and hopefully I can now play a part here at Swansea. I am hoping it will be a big season for me.”
Fulton, who was actually born in Bolton when his father Steve had a short spell as a player with Bolton Wanderers, has had plenty of football in pre-season and started the Swans’ 2-1 defeat to Eibar on Tuesday night at the base of midfield.
Although the Swans were beaten by their La Liga opponents, there were clear signs of the progressive game Potter wants his team to play.
“We have spent a lot of time on the training ground doing football — we are getting all our running through football,” Fulton explained.
“I think you could see against Eibar that we were moving better and passing a bit better, so hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.
“We want to play possession football. You are going to make mistakes and put yourselves under pressure when you do that, but you have to be confident.
“You have to keep taking the ball if you make a mistake. That’s what the gaffer has stressed — don’t be afraid to make a mistake.”
The Swans were beaten in penalty shootouts after drawing 60-minute games with Genoa and FC Magdeburg last weekend, but the Eibar loss was the first in normal time during this pre-season campaign.
The Swans play their final warmup game of the summer against SC Freiburg tomorrow.
“I think in spells we played well against Eibar,” Fulton added.
“At the end of the day, pre-season is about getting minutes, getting through injury-free and trying to get the chemistry right in the team.
“We are working with the gaffer’s ideas.
“Obviously you want to win every game you play and we were disappointed with the goals, but I felt there were positives.”