Skip to content

Paul Clement admits Swansea City's confidence is low during winless run

SWANSEA, WALES - NOVEMBER 25: Nathan Ake of AFC Bournemouth blocks Wilfried Bony of Swansea City shot during the Premier League match between Swansea City
Image: Swansea ended a five-game losing streak with a goalless draw against Bournemouth

Swansea head coach Paul Clement says his side are low on confidence as they continue to struggle for form.

The Swans have won just two league games this season and currently lie 19th in the Premier League, two points from safety.

Clement's side ended a run of five successive defeats but continued to struggle in front of goal as they battled to a goalless draw with Bournemouth on Saturday.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Swansea 0-0 Bournemouth

"It's been no secret that the team has been down on confidence," said Clement. "The players always go out with the intention to do their best, but confidence and poor form can have such a big effect on the way a team plays."

Wilfried Bony had a goal controversially disallowed by referee Stuart Atwell on Saturday, meaning Swansea have failed to score in their last three games, but Clement believes that their attacking woes are nothing new.

Wilfried Bony complains to referee Stuart Atwell after having a goal disallowed
Image: Wilfried Bony complains to referee Stuart Atwell after having a goal disallowed against Bournemouth

"I will go back to last season and say that we were never a team that were prolific in terms of creating chances," he said. "What we did then, which probably masked the issues we've got now, is that we were very clinical.

"We overcome it by continuing to build confidence as a team. We continue to work on offensive movements and finishing all the time in training and that's the only thing we can do."

Also See:

Swansea travel to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea on Wednesday and Clement admits that his side will have to be defensively solid against his former employers.

Swansea travel to Clement's former employers Chelsea on Wednesday
Image: Swansea travel to Clement's former employers Chelsea on Wednesday

"I know they're trailing behind a couple of teams, and Manchester City are clearly the best team at the moment, but Chelsea are still a very strong team," said Clement.

"They had that little error at the start of the season when they lost to Burnley that was very uncharacteristic of them but they're packed with talent and on their day are a very strong team.

"We'll have to go there and defend very well. We'll have to defend together and be compact. We have to believe we'll get chances because if you defend well teams will try and break you down by throwing more and more players forward and then that opens up spaces.

"We're not going there just to defend. The line-up I'll choose will be with the objective of creating chances.

"It's a big ask but we've been to other big places before and pushed big teams very hard."

Tuesday's Super 6
Tuesday's Super 6

There's £250k up for grabs in this Tuesday's Super 6. Enter your predictions for free here.

Around Sky