Borja will be our man on the spot, says Swansea boss
MANAGER Steve Cooper has confirmed Borja Baston is Swansea City’s designated penalty taker.
The Swans were awarded their first spot-kick of the season in the 3-1 win over Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday night, with Borja slotting from 12 yards out to put his side 2-1 up.
Swansea were awarded a total of eight penalties last term, although they missed four of those.
Oli McBurnie was denied against both Preston and Bolton while Wilfried Bony and Bersant Celina were unable to convert from the spot against Aston Villa and West Brom respectively.
Matt Grimes took over the duties late on in the 2018/19 season, scoring with both of his efforts against Man City and Middlesbrough.
But speaking ahead of the clash with Birmingham City tomorrow, Cooper revealed Borja – who is the joint-top scorer in the Championship with four goals in four matches – has been assigned to penalties since the start of the campaign.
“We made (the decision) it together. It’s been clear in every game who the designated penalty takers are. There’ll be no grey areas in terms of that, that’s for sure,” said Swansea’s head coach.
“I’m pretty sure it was Grimesy who got the ball and handed it to Borja.
“We’ve got the designated penalty takers, one, two and three, it goes up before the game and that’s what it is. It’s non-negotiable.”
And Cooper has revealed the Swans’ struggles from the spot last term were not part of his decision to give Borja the responsibility of taking penalties this season.
“If I’m being honest it wasn’t because of that. I remember the one Bersant missed (at West Brom) which the players have reminded him of a few times,” he added.
“But that’s what we do. Our coaching team analyse who we think the best penalty takers are, we give them the order and then they use it.”
Borja is expected to lead the line when the Swans host Birmingham at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow, with Cooper’s men going in search of their fourth league win in five matches.
And Cooper admits he’s pleased with the 26-year-old striker’s efforts so far this term, although he is expecting more from the Spaniard as the season continues.
“His numbers for goals are good at the moment, but like with everything else, we’ve only played four games,” added Cooper.
“We’ve always got to be striving to get better and that’s how we’ll go about it.”
Pep Clotet will make late calls on a number of his Birmingham City players as they prepare for the trip to Swansea.
Clotet, heading back to the Liberty Stadium where he was previously a coach under Garry Monk, appeared optimistic on the likelihood of being able to call upon Lukas Jutkiewicz in South Wales.
“He was training today. He had a bit of a knock. It’s one of them - he trained today, but we’ll have to assess him. I’m very confident,” Clotet said.
“Jake [Clarke-Salter] got back to training after our win over Barnsley and Kerim [Mrabti] too is training after Barnsley.
“I’m assessing whether they’ll be fit enough in our final training session. We haven’t decided yet. Slowly our players are coming back.”
Blues will be without deadline day signing Jefferson Montero.
The Ecuadorian winger made his debut from the bench in the victory over the Tykes midweek, but is unavailable to face his parent club this weekend.