Team Focus: Premier League Preview Part 9 - Swansea and Tottenham
Swansea continue to impress in the top flight since their promotion only two years ago and with their success, the reputation of manager Michael Laudrup grows more and more. Having followed up an 11th placed finish in their debut season in the Premier League with 9th and a victorious Capital One Cup campaign last term, many are expecting them to do even better this year.
New signings have further boosted optimism about the Swans' upcoming campaign, in particular those of the 2012/13 Eredivisie top scorer Wilfried Bony and José Cañas from Real Betis. Bony netted 31 goals in 30 appearances last season, so his £12m signing could turn out to be quite the snip, though not on quite the same level as that of Michu a year ago. The Ivorian has already repaid a portion of his club record transfer fee with 2 goals in his side's Europa League qualifying win over Malmo and should relieve Michu of some of the pressure to provide goals.
Cañas adds another option in midfield and having ranked 6th in La Liga last season for interceptions per game (3.1), he would be a marked improved in that regard over any of their other central midfielders, with Leon Britton second best (2). However, with a pass accuracy of 80.8%, he is somewhat lacking in a department for which Swansea are famed; Ki Sung-Yueng (92.7%), Leon Britton (91.4%) and Jonathan De Guzmán (88.8%) were all streets ahead of Cañas last term. The Spaniard did, however, impress as Betis came close to a European spot, so it will be interesting to see whether he can hold down a first team place at the Liberty. Whether or not he can, he is yet another quality option in the middle of the park.
Another vying for a place will be Jonjo Shelvey, who is likely to play in the middle but could feature in a number of positions. He would add goal threat to the midfield, having top-scored for Liverpool in their Europa League campaign last season and even played up front in the competition.
With the third best pass success rate in the Premier League last season (85%), the Swans kept possession typically well (55.3% on average). The main problem was scoring goals; only 7 teams scored fewer (47 goals) and other than Michu, no Swansea player scored more than 5 goals. The new signings should alleviate that problem to an extent, and if they can balance their European commitments with their Premier League ambitions, they could improve on 9th place this time around.
Position Last Season: 9th
New signings (at time of writing): José Cañas, Alejandro Pozuelo (both Real Betis), Jordi Amat (Espanyol), Jonjo Shelvey (Liverpool), Wilfried Bony (Vitesse Arnhem), Jernade Meade (Arsenal)
Possible Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Michel Vorm; Angel Rangel, Chico, Ashley Williams, Ben Davies; Leon Britton, Jonjo Shelvey; Nathan Dyer, Michu, Pablo Hernandez; Wilfried Bony
Predicted finish (average of authors): 8th
While the Gareth Bale saga drags on towards the season's curtain raiser this weekend, as keen as they are to avoid such a fate, Spurs have had to plan for the new campign expecting to be without their superstar. The Welshman dug them out time and again last season when they looked to be heading towards a stalemate, winning Tottenham an invaluable 24 points with his 21 strikes. What is more, most of his goals were of his own making when Spurs looked devoid of ideas or a creative spark, and he almost single-handedly saved them on numbers occasions.
Most often, that was when Spurs played teams who sat back against them and left no space for André Villas-Boas' side to get in behind. With the arrivals of Nacer Chadli, Paulinho and in particular Roberto Soldado, movement in and around the penalty area should be more inventive and mean they don't have to rely on Bale (if they still have him, of course). Soldado was the 9th highest goalscorer in Europe's top 5 leagues last season, with all 24 of his strikes coming from inside the penalty area. His arrival will thus force a change of tack for AVB against such defensive sides, when he'll need his midfielders to create chances for their lethal fox in the box.
Scoring goals wasn't a problem for Spurs, but doing so without Bale would be an issue, and they will need the likes of Aaron Lennon and Mousa Dembélé to chip in as well as the new arrivals. Chadli scored 31 goals in 109 appearances for FC Twente, whilst Paulinho is also capable of scoring, having netted twice in Brazil's recent victorious Confederations Cup campaign and the equaliser in a 2-2 friendly draw with England prior to the competition. A player that is key to Chelsea's Ramires missing out for the national team, Paulinho is an energetic midfielder who should also do much to strengthen Tottenham in a defensive sense.
Spurs conceded 9 more goals (46) than rivals Arsenal (37), who pipped them to the final Champions League spot. Playing as high a line as Villas-Boas insists, Tottenham allowed their opponents fewer shots (9.7 per game) than any other team in the top flight, but the quality of chance they were conceding was, often, better than other teams due to all that space behind the back four. Paulinho should help out in terms of preventing teams scything through the team too easily, whilst the returns from lengthy injury layoffs of Sandro and Younes Kaboul will further boost the side, particularly in a physical sense.
The sad fact of the matter for Tottenham, though, is that much of their hopes hinge on the future of Gareth Bale. If Daniel Levy gets his way and the Welshman stays in north London, Villas-Boas will need to motivate him into producing the same kind of performances as he did last season, rather than play a whole campaign with his heart and head elsewhere. With a performing Gareth Bale, this is arguably the best Spurs squad ever, but as they will likely be without him - at his best at least - and with history against them, it is hard to see past them failing to beat Arsenal to 4th spot once again.
Position Last Season: 5th
New signings (at time of writing): Paulinho (Corinthians), Nacer Chadli (Twente), Roberto Soldado (Valencia)
Possible Starting XI (4-3-3): Hugo Lloris; Kyle Walker, Michael Dawson, Younes Kaboul, Danny Rose; Paulinho, Sandro, Mousa Dembele; Aaron Lennon, Roberto Soldado, Nacer Chadli
Predicted finish (average of authors): 5th
