Michael Duff: Swansea City boss hopes to compete for Championship play-off place
- Published
Michael Duff left Barnsley to take over at Swansea City in June
Michael Duff says Swansea City's form across their last 10 games offers hope that they can compete for a play-off place this season.
Swansea have won only once in five Championship matches going into Saturday's meeting with Hull City.
But after a difficult start to the season, they have taken 17 points from the last 30 on offer.
"I think if you take 1.7 points per game over 46 games, you get in the play-offs," said Swansea boss Duff.
"It's not that simple, but the good thing is we have played the top two in that [sequence], so it's not skewed by 'oh you haven't played anyone in the top half'.
"I think hopefully in the second half of the season we'll be a lot stronger for what's gone on in this half.
"There has been a lot of stuff going on - behind the scenes, on the pitch, players coming in, getting fit - all those things."
Swansea are 17th in the table, seven points adrift of the play-offs and eight clear of the bottom three, after 16 league games of the campaign.
At the same point last season, the Welsh club had just climbed to fourth courtesy of a win over Cardiff City, only for a long-term slump in form to leave them 17th by last March.
They then finished 2022-23 with a superb run to end only three points outside the top six.
Following the summer exit of Russell Martin, Swansea limped through the early stages of this season before a draw at Queens Park Rangers in mid-September marked the start of an improvement.
"We had a poor start and then the last 10 games I think we have been all right," Duff added.
"We have won five, drawn two and lost three, and two of those were against the top three. We have had a couple of red cards in those games as well.
"After a tough start, I think it's been okay. There is still loads of room for growth but there are things that have been put in place to try to help move it forward."
Charlie Patino is available for Swansea this weekend having featured for England Under-21 during the international break
Duff says there is a "disparity" between the clubs relegated from the Premier League last season and the rest of the second tier, with Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton occupying three of the top four spots as things stand.
But he added: "Then you have that mid-block of probably anyone from fourth or fifth to 20th, you are looking at them thinking they could probably finish anywhere in there.
"I don't think anyone in the building thought that with the amount of change that had gone in the club, we'd be in the top two or three by Christmas.
"We want to be as competitive as possible. We want to get to a point where we are in the top six, that's the end goal, then do something with that.
"But me sitting here saying we can do this, we can do that… it's irrelevant what I think, it's what we do.
"I think we have been competitive in the last 10 games. If we can repeat that over the next 20 games, it will put us in a stronger position. Then you see what happens from there."
Josh Key is close to returning from injury but will again miss out against Hull, as will Mykola Kuharevich, Azeem Abdulai, Joe Allen, Nathan Wood and Josh Ginnelly.
Charlie Patino is available after a ban, but Liam Cullen is suspended having been sent off against Ipswich.