Chris Davies was 25 when Brendan Rodgers brought him to Swansea. Now his Birmingham City side stand between the Swans and a bounce-back at St Andrew’s this afternoon (3pm).
Davies spent two seasons at the club as an assistant coach from July 2010. He worked on tactics and opposition analysis as the Swans won promotion to the Premier League.
Now the Blues are flying. They have won five of their last six Championship games, and are third, a point behind Wolves in second.
They are unbeaten in the league at St Andrew’s this season (W3 D4), and have won their last three home games 10-0 on aggregate. It is the first time since their 2008-09 promotion season that they have won three Championship home games in a row without conceding.
The Swans have taken three points from their last four games after Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat at Portsmouth. They are fifth, level on points with Birmingham.
Vitor Matos has warned his side to expect a battle of duels, long balls and long throws.
‘Man-marking especially in the opposition half’
Matos expects Birmingham to go man for man all over the pitch, and said: “Birmingham are a really intense team as well. Man-marking especially in the opposition half, they are really aggressive and follow the player.”
He believes that turns the game into one-on-one battles, and the Swans may need to go more direct to break it: “You need to be maybe as well much more vertical in some situations to be able to break that.”
The Blues are just as dangerous from dead balls, he warned. He said: “They are strong on set-pieces and really try to take advantage of all set-pieces wherever they are on the pitch with long throw-ins and as well long balls.”
There have been only three days between Fratton Park and St Andrew’s. Matos said: “It’s not easy to prepare for these types of games with shorter time of course, but that’s what we will do.”
He was clear about what it will take: “We know that we need to do our best and with our best we are much closer to the win.”
Lincoln and Millwall: ‘We showed already that we can do that’
Matos believes his side have already passed this kind of test, and pointed to two more direct sides, Lincoln and Millwall.
Matos admitted: “It’s hard to control the game, that’s clear.” He added: “But we showed already that we can do that.”
He says the key is getting the details right: “What we need is to keep focus on these small things and try to be better on these small things.”
Portsmouth: ‘The ref allowed a little bit too much’
Tuesday at Fratton Park was a similar kind of game, and Matos felt the referee let too much go. He said: “The ref allowed a little bit too much of those duels and that makes the game completely hard to control.”
He said the Swans worked their way into the game after the break: “The game started to come to us on the second half with much more space.”
Terry Devlin’s stoppage-time winner came from a corner, and Matos traced it back to the Swans not winning the second ball. He said they “need to do much better on the second ball”, and added: “That will allow us to maybe avoid the corner and then of course we need to organise the situation on the corner.”
Even so, he felt the Swans deserved something. He said: “I think we compete and we could have taken at least one point, if not maybe three.”
He listed the chances that went begging. Ross Stewart hit the bar late on, and Josh Key, Joseph Opoku and Elijah Just all had openings.
Priske settled the EFL Cup meeting in August
The sides have already met this season. August Priske’s goal gave Birmingham a 1-0 win in Swansea in the first round of the EFL Cup.
Zan Vipotnik came off the bench that night. Last season’s top scorer has mostly played second fiddle to Adam Idah this term, but scored the Swans’ penalty at Fratton Park.
Team news: Yeo and Eom back, Eustáquio out
Moussa Yeo is back in contention after three games out with a hamstring problem, and Jisung Eom is fit again. Stephen Welsh’s scan has come back clear, but Matos will still assess him before kick-off.
Stephen Eustáquio (groin), Melker Widell (hamstring), Cameron Burgess and Ronald are all out. Captain Ben Cabango is available.
‘If someone can do it, it’s him’
Yeo has been called up by Mali for the international break, and Matos said: “He’s a joy and he’s fresh air as well in terms of how much joy he takes for every situation and all the games.”
He added: “He’s a wonderful kid, always happy, always trying to help the team. I’m really happy for him, really happy to have him here with us.”
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