Clement needs to hit reset button and stick with what he really believes in

As grim as it was up north, Paul Clement still has backing as Swansea City manager. And while four of the bottom five clubs in the Premier League have all aimed and swung an axe at the dugout, the message has been consistent from within the Liberty before and after the defeat at Burnley.

Concern is obvious, perhaps more so after the Turf Moor showing, but there is a genuine reluctance to make a change.

And, as a result, Clement still has support, still has time.

But he also still has a huge task to show that he can get Swansea back to where they need to be.

There are no suggestions that the visit of Bournemouth is make-orbreak for the 45-year-old.

Yet, with four straight defeats and only one win in nine – the worst stretch of his time in South Wales – Clement is not daft. He’ll know it is not a run of form that can go on much longer, one way or another.

It’s important to note that no-one – in the stands at games at any rate – has called for Clement’s head, the anger of fed-up and frustrated supporters being aimed elsewhere at the moment.

But it would be naive to think that the question of Clement’s position is not a regular topic among fans in the street.

He has credit among some supporters and decision-makers after what he did last season, though that doesn’t last forever.

As part of a coaching team that were dismissed within 12 months of winning the double at Chelsea and sacked a season after lifting the Champions League with Real Madrid, it’ll be nothing new to Carlo Ancelotti’s former assistant.

Ultimately, for managers, no job lasts forever – neither will the backing and the time unless he can find a way forward.

Plenty are accepting that the issues currently affecting Swansea don’t all lie with the manager, but the expectation is that things should be better than the performances served up of late.

The flashes from Renato Sanches and Wilfried Bony were something to cling to, but that was not enough to even pretend that this was a sign of improvements. Swansea looked like a side thrown together in the hope for the best. Clement needs to show that there is reason for faith as opposed to just hope.

Injuries and the context of different games have seen the side sent out in various guises in terms of selection and system, appeasing neither the need for results nor the desire for even an echo of ‘The Swansea Way’.

Perhaps it is a case of trying to be all things to all people and pleasing none while doing so.

So perhaps Clement now needs to just think about himself. Granted, there is an irony about a publication calling on a manager to go a certain way and at the same time telling him to ignore all outside advice, but perhaps that fits in with Swansea’s muddled ways at the moment.

Because it is hard not to look at the two best period’s of Clement’s time at the club and associate them with him going with his instincts.

When he arrived, full of confidence and ideas and a stubborn knowledge of how to get the best out of the team, it brought a new organisation, a new intensity and a confidence, not to mention results.

After a lull and with the margin for error removed going into the final month, a steadfast sticking to guns – including the return of Leon Britton – brought with it the wins that sealed a Great Escape.

It suggests Clement needs to go back to what he knows if he is to give himself a chance of escaping this situation.

He cannot concern himself with worries about being perceived negative or cautious, or whether it is good to watch, he needs to go with what he knows and stop over-thinking. He said he is not doing so, but it doesn’t feel like it – especially given there was another system attempted at Burnley.

Players were signed with the suggestion the manager’s preference was using a midfield diamond, so then he should use it.

To do so, he needs someone at the base capable on the ball and has two options in Leon Britton or Roque Mesa, or even Tom Carroll. Ki SungYueng knows what to do on the right of a compact four, Sam Clucas surely will look more at home on the left and, given others have been tried there and not offered much, surely Sanches is worth a go at the tip behind Wilfried Bony and – a hopefully fit – Tammy Abraham.

You can’t help but feel this is the side a fully confident Clement would