Swansea City

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Head coach Luke Williams plans to give Florian Bianchini more opportunities to play as a striker after the Frenchman's upturn in form.

Swansea thought they were getting a player who would operate primarily on the flanks when they paid about £2m to sign Bianchini from Bastia in August.

But the 23-year-old's performances since arriving in Wales have prompted Williams to change his view.

Bianchini struggled to make any impact while playing out wide during the first couple of months of the season.

But having come on as a centre-forward against Millwall a fortnight ago, Bianchini had two big opportunities to score.

When he was given another substitute appearance as a striker against Oxford United last weekend, Bianchini delivered his first Swansea goal.

Williams again used Bianchini as a number nine against Watford in midweek and, though he did not score, he looked sharp and hungry to help his team as they held on for a 1-0 victory.

"He played wide more often than not last season and has great attributes for a wide player," Williams said.

"He was brought into fill that role but I think it’s fair to say that he found it difficult to find some rhythm there.

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"But since he’s been down the middle of the pitch, he’s looked a lot more confident and comfortable and he is making a really positive impact. I think certainly his immediate future will be more there."

Bianchini has made himself a genuine option to start up front when Swansea look for a third successive victory at Burnley on Sunday.

Zan Vipotnik has started the last four games as Williams' central striker, with Liam Cullen being used in a deeper role.

Williams says his trio of centre-forward options all have different qualities, with the pacy Bianchini looking much more at home in a central position.

"He is so quick and powerful and he was showing a good level of aggression and looked a goal threat [against Watford]," Williams added.

"I think the goal at Oxford has given him an extra boost in confidence. I’m very excited about his future here with us."

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Luke Williams says Swansea City have January transfer targets in mind as they look to build on a promising start to the season.

Williams has challenged his players to push for a Championship play-off place in 2024-25 after successive league wins lifted them to ninth in the table.

Swansea's head coach is working with a relatively thin squad – and says the club are looking at the possibility of trying to strengthen in the mid-season window.

"We’ve got some players who potentially would be a good fit for us and we will continue to monitor them as they play games and try to get a really good grasp on whether we think those players are the ideal ones for us," Williams said.

"That work has begun already."

Williams says that while performances leading into January will have an impact on transfer plans, there are some areas where Swansea need greater options.

"Some of the scenarios don’t change whatever is going on because there potentially are gaps in the depth of the squad," he added.

"I think we have a good idea of what’s out there and which players we can realistically sign, so that’s good."

It remains to be seen whether a probable change of ownership at Swansea will lead to any change of approach when it comes to transfer policy.

Last summer, the Championship club focused primarily on recruiting young players with the potential to develop in cheaper overseas markets, though they did bring in experienced defender Cyrus Christie earlier this month.

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Newport County head coach Nelson Jardim hopes Swansea City will be back on the “right track” as a result of an ownership change.

Majority owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan are in the process of selling their stake in Swansea City to fellow shareholders Andy Coleman, Brett Cravatt and Nigel Morris, along with businessman Jason Cohen.

Jardim had a long association with the Swans as a coach, first joining the club in 2009 under Paulo Sousa.

He subsequently re-joined the club in 2017 as a lead academy coach and then first team coach under Francesco Guidolin, Paul Clement and Carlos Carvahal.

Now Jardim hopes the ownership alteration and possible extra finance from the change, will strengthen a club about which he still has strong feelings.

“The club is important for the city and the country and hopefully they will find that right track, because Swansea belongs to the Premier League and hopefully they will go back," said Jardim.

Jardim recalled he first met Levien and Kaplan who bought a 68% stake in Swansea, then a Premier League club, in 2016.

“I got to know them for the first time in Washington, during a pre-season when Guidolin was there. They were great to us, fantastic, with big projects for the club. They were very focussed and very good to us.”

Portuguese coach Jardim now devotes his full focus to his first managerial role, with Newport County, under former Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins.

But he still has strong feelings for the Championship outfit which he left to join Aitor Karanka’s Birmingham City in 2020.

“I don’t hide my feelings. The club is close to my heart because of my past good years there.

"It is such a big club and and important club for me and my family.”

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Myles Peart-Harris was signed as a central attacking midfielder and he has already been tried out as a striker.

But the 22-year-old looks like he may have found a home as a wide player in Luke Williams' Swansea City side.

Peart-Harris, 22, marked his 11th Swansea appearance – and fifth start – with a first goal for the club against Watford on Tuesday.

His winner against the Hornets capped the latest encouraging display from a player who looks to be finding his feet in the Championship.

"I think he's a young player who didn’t play at the level before and is very quickly adapting and then doing a bit more than adapting, he is looking like he's feeling more and more comfortable," said Swansea head coach Luke Williams.

"I loved the goal because he had a couple of chances in previous games where he didn’t assert himself, where I think he didn’t really believe in that moment that he was going to score.

"But I think he ended up in the goal with the ball [against Watford] and I love that because he's like, 'I'm taking it, this is mine'."

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Peart-Harris is on loan at Swansea for the season from Brentford, where he has made a handful of senior appearances having spent much of his youth career at Chelsea.

He spent the second half of last season on loan at Portsmouth, where he scored twice in 12 games to help Pompey to promotion from League One.

Peart-Harris showed his knowledge of Swansea's history by mimicking Michu's hand-to-ear celebration after scoring against Watford.

Michu was one of the stars of Swansea's seven-year stay in the Premier League, memorably scoring 22 goals in all competitions in the 2022-23 campaign.

"He's a Swansea legend," Peart-Harris said. "Ever since I joined the club, I've been telling my friends that's the celebration I wanted to do."

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Luke Williams reckons his Swansea City side cannot do much more defensively - but says they must continue to improve in the final third to maintain their good form.

After a six-game winless streak - and a painful five-match sequence without a goal - Swansea have lifted spirits with successive Championship victories over Watford and Oxford United.

Zan Vipotnik and Florian Bianchini struck at Oxford last weekend before another summer recruit, Myles Peart-Harris, scored the only goal against Watford.

After dominating against the Hornets for an hour, Swansea withstood a spell of late pressure to keep a fifth clean sheet of the season.

Williams feels his players are showing signs that they can be a competitive Championship outfit, though he wants more progress in attack.

"There aren’t many teams who you think were a really good side but they couldn’t defend, or they were really good [defensively] but couldn't pass the ball for toffee," the Swansea head coach said.

"I think you have to do both. Hopefully we are showing that we are pretty mean defensively - we don’t ship too many goals and we have a lot of clean sheets.

"The big challenge was that we had to score more goals and we are scoring more, but I think still we can increase that with the ball we have and the attacking actions we have."

No side outside the Championship's top six have conceded fewer goals than Swansea, who have been breached only nine times in 14 league fixtures and have not lost a game by more than one goal all season.

But despite this week's successes, Swansea remain the lowest scorers in the division, having netted only nine times so far.

"I think we will have to go some to be a better side defensively - I think we are there pretty much," added Williams, whose team are next in action at Burnley on Sunday.

"But we have to try to continue to make more of the volume of ball we have."

Gareth Vincent
BBC Sport Wales

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Swansea City must hope the signs of promise being shown under Luke Williams will lure fans back to the Swansea.com Stadium as this season goes on.

Williams' team climbed to within two points of the Championship play-off places courtesy of a hard-earned, but well-deserved victory over Watford on Tuesday.

The only negative on the night for Swansea was the size of the crowd.

Only 12,869 fans were present to see Myles Peart-Harris' goal secure the points, the lowest turnout for a home Swansea league game – aside from those affected by Covid – in five years.

Not since April 2019, when 10,459 supporters watched Graham Potter's team beat Brentford, have fewer fans turned up for a Championship fixture on Swansea's patch.

Since then, in fact, there had not been crowd below the 14,000 mark until Watford's visit.

Other than the Brentford game, you have to go all the way back to September 2010 – in the early stages of the season which saw Swansea promoted to the Premier League – to find a lower league gate than the one seen this week.

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There are mitigating circumstances. It was Guy Fawkes Night, kick-off was not until 20:00 GMT and the game was available to watch on satellite TV.

But even so, Swansea's hierarchy will presumably be concerned about the new low mark in what has been a season of relatively disappointing attendances.

It is not as if Williams' team are doing badly.

Yes goals have been at a premium this season, but Swansea have lost just one of their seven home league games and, given the limitations of their squad, are well placed in the table.

Their successes so far have been achieved by playing attractive football, too, so it would be hard to argue that Williams' team could do much more to lure fans to the ground.

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Luke Williams believes his Swansea City side are developing an "identity" after successive victories lifted them to within two points of the Championship play-off places.

Swansea deservedly beat Watford on Tuesday thanks to Myles Peart-Harris' first goal for the club.

Swansea's first home triumph since mid-September followed last Saturday's away success at Oxford United, which had ended a six-game winless streak and five-match goal drought.

While Swansea remain the lowest scorers in the Championship despite successive wins, Williams says his side are showing signs of progress.

"When I look at the performances and try to look at the data in the performances – I know it's not the most exciting thing in the world, but that's what we have to do – and when I watch the games with my own eye, I feel like we are becoming a team with an identity," said the Swansea head coach.

"I think many of the games [this season] we have been able to make look the same. I think if we win more of those games, then we have a very good feeling.

"But I feel like we are going in the right direction and we are creating an identity where we can now establish ourselves in more games than not."

Swansea took control against Watford thanks to a dominant first-half display, with Peart-Harris sliding in his first goal for the club shortly before half-time.

They held on to win despite an improved second-half showing from Watford, with Williams' rearguard largely keeping the Hornets at arm's length.

"The way the players approached the game from the beginning – very intense, concentrating a lot, playing really good attacking football and very quickly destroying opposition attacks…" Williams added.

"This is the type of football I think is enjoyable and I hope it's more enjoyable for the fans when we play like that."

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Luke Williams has a decision to make at left-back when Swansea City host Watford on Tuesday because Josh Tymon will be missing through suspension.

Tymon has been a regular in Williams' Swansea side but the former Stoke City player must sit out against the Hornets after picking up a fifth yellow card of the season in the win at Oxford United last weekend.

The signing of free agent Cyrus Christie last week means head coach Williams has a number of options when it comes to replacing Tymon.

Though he is most at home at right-back, Christie - who featured as a substitute at Oxford - has plenty of experience of operating on the left flank.

Another right-sided player who could be asked to fill in on the left is Kyle Naughton, while Williams could also turn to Indonesian international Nathan Tjoe-A-On or on-loan Olympiakos defender Nelson Abbey, though he is primarily a centre-back.

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Wales head coach Craig Bellamy says he is "disappointed" for Ollie Cooper after the Swansea City midfielder was ruled out for three months.

The 24-year-old will miss Wales’ Nations League games against Turkey and Iceland this month having been ruled out until next year because of a stress fracture in his foot.

Cooper has played in all four Wales games since Bellamy was appointed as Rob Page's successor in July.

Even though he usually plays in an attacking midfield role for Swansea, Cooper has been deployed in a deeper role for his country.

"I'm so disappointed for him. I think he's really progressed as a footballer - there's different areas where you can use Ollie," Bellamy said.

"It's a real big shame but he needs to keep his confidence up because he's going to be involved with Wales for a number of years.

"It's a setback at the moment. But that's all it is - just a setback."

Wales will also be without Aaron Ramsey and Ethan Ampadu in midfield for this month's double header, but Joe Allen and fellow Swansea academy graduate Josh Sheehan have been included.

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He may have struggled for game time during a brief spell with Swansea City - but now Viktor Gyokeres is the talk of Europe.

The Sweden striker, 26, has been linked with several leading Premier League clubs and on Tuesday will lead the line for Sporting against Manchester City in the Champions League.

Since moving to Lisbon in 2023 he has scored 63 goals in 66 matches, and 20 in only 16 this season - a far cry from his time in Wales during the 2020-21 season when he scored just once in 12 games.

Gyokeres began his career with IF Brommapojkarna in Sweden, leaving in 2017 to spend three unsuccesful seasons with Brighton and Hove Albion during which time he had his brief spell in Wales.

Swansea agreed a season-long loan for the then 22-year-old Swede in October 2020, but he was recalled by his Premier League club in January.

Gyokeres started just three games in all competitions for the Swans, making a further nine substitute appearances.

His only goal came in his final outing for the Welsh club, scoring during a 2-0 FA Cup win at League Two Stevenage.

Swansea at the time were second in the Championship under Steve Cooper, who explained the reasons behind Gyokeres' departure.

"Brighton wanted to recall him, that happened a couple of days ago and he has said his goodbyes," said Cooper in January 2021.

"I have to say he is a really good guy, and there is a good player in there.

"I think it was a loan that came a bit later than what everyone wanted. He had some bad luck picking up Covid on international duty too.

"He was happy here, but he wanted to play more football."

Having left Swansea he was quickly back out on loan at Coventry City, subsequently spending two years with the Sky Blues where he scored 39 goals for the Championship side.

The move to Portugal followed for an undisclosed eight-figure fee, and it is fair to say his next price tag may well be among the highest for any player who has previously donned a Swans shirt.

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Swansea City striker Zan Vipotnik says he felt he was not doing his job well enough before ending his - and the team's - long goal drought at Oxford.

The Slovenia international ended Swansea's 563-minute run without scoring by netting in the first half of Saturday's 2-1 win, his first goal since 17 August.

Florian Bianchini then grabbed his first goal for the club, before Oxford pulled one back to make Swansea work hard for their first win in seven games.

"First of all, I was so happy for the team - we really deserved the win," said Vipotnik.

"The fans were amazing. We heard them almost all the game. From the first minute to the 95th.

"And I was thankful I scored. Of course, I was feeling pressure. As a striker, it's not easy when the team doesn't score and I don't. It's mentally tough."

The Swans' goals at the Kassam Stadium were the first they had scored since their 1-1 home draw with Bristol City on 29 September.

And the barren run ended just one game short of a club-record-equalling six successive league matches.

"We train every day to score goals [but] they were not here," added Vipotnik.

"It's tough for me. I know my teammates want to give me the ball to score goals. I'm here for that. I didn't do my job well, and I hope this goal will help the team and me also."

Vipotnik says he has found it tough adjusting to life in the Championship after his summer move to Swansea.

The 22-year-old joined the Welsh club on a four-year deal following the mutual termination of his contract with French side Bordeaux.

Saturday's goal was only his second for the club, ending a run of 11 league and cup appearances without finding the net.

Vipotnik hopes he can now go on a goalscoring run, starting with Tuesday's home game against Watford, as he settles into life in Swansea.

"At the beginning it's always difficult when you move from one country to another, as football's not the same in every country," he said.

"At the moment I feel really good. I've been training well, and I hope the goal will help me to settle more. I hope to [continue] with this form.

"My family are happy here. We love it here - being near the sea and the beaches - even though the rain and wind is tough."

He is also learning some of the fans' stadium songs, although not the Welsh ones like Hymns and Arias.

"Welsh is too hard for me - I will do the English ones," he added.

Gareth Vincent
BBC Sport Wales

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The Swansea City history book can go back on the shelf unedited after Luke Williams’ class of 2024-25 avoided the need to add a new line.

Zan Viptotnik and Florian Bianchini found the target at Oxford United as Swansea’s run without a goal ended one game short of a club-record-equalling six successive league matches.

The joy of scoring at the Kassam Stadium was mixed with relief, with a weight lifted off Swansea’s collective shoulders now their barren run is over.

Williams would not have cared who scored, but the fact that two forward players who have struggled in the early months of the season found the target will make the goals a little sweeter for Swansea’s head coach.

He has had little choice but to back the players at his disposal, because to come out and criticise their wastefulness in recent weeks would almost certainly have been counter-productive.

But privately, too, he has insisted Vipotnik has the tools to score goals regularly in the Championship, while suggesting the Slovenian just needs time to come to terms with the tempo of the English second tier.

While he still has plenty of room for improvement, former Bordeaux striker Vipotnik has looked more at home in his last couple of games.

It was no shock, therefore, to see him turn up in the right place at the right time to sweep Swansea in front at Oxford.

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Bianchini, too, should benefit from an injection of confidence after enjoying a much better week.

Signed as a winger, the pacy Frenchman has had little impact out wide thus far in Swansea colours.

But after coming on as a substitute to play up front against Millwall last weekend, Bianchini showed some better signs as he twice came close to scoring.

And having been given another run from the bench as a central striker at Oxford, he supplied a cool, precise finish which ultimately proved critical after Dane Scarlett’s late riposte for the home side.

They were only two goals after a miserable dry spell, and it was only one win for Williams’ team after a difficult run.

But the Oxford triumph was much more like it for Swansea, as they got proper reward for their control of a game.