It might still be the middle of July but after a record-breaking Premier League season, Swansea City are already back in action.
Garry Monk’s Swans are warming up for another top-flight campaign with a tour of Germany and began their pre-season with a 1-1 draw against Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday.
It was a decent result for Monk’s side – Monchengladbach finished third in the Bundesliga last season and will play in this year’s Champions League – as Matt Grimes’ second-half goal earned a share of the spoils.
But as always with pre-season games, the 90 minutes was about more than just the result.
How did Swansea go about things? Who impressed? And what did we learn from the game?
Here, WalesOnline answers all the key questions after watching the game from southern Germany.
What about the formation?
Monk fielded a very strong side for his team’s first game of pre-season.
The Swansea boss played the team he picked from the start for the first 60 minutes before making all 11 changes in one go on the hour mark.
He started with Lukasz Fabianski in goal behind a back four of Kyle Naughton, skipper Ashley Williams, Kyle Bartley and new man Franck Tabanou.
In a five-man midfield, a central three of Jay Fulton, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Ki Sung-yueng was flanked by Andre Ayew on the left and Nathan Dyer on the right with Bafe Gomis alone up front.
With all 11 changes made in one fell swoop, it was difficult to see who replaced who in the second-half.
But it looked suspiciously like the same formation, with £5m signing Eder taking Gomis’ place in attack and Jonjo Shelvey, Jack Cork and scorer Grimes all coming on in midfield.
Angel Rangel, Federico Fernandez, Stephen Kingsley and Neil Taylor featured in defence with Rangel taking the captain’s armband.
Who impressed?
Swansea’s usual domination of possession saw them out-pass their German opposition, despite this being their first game of pre-season.
The first 60 minutes saw Ki and Sigurdsson showcase their talents in midfield as they helped their side to monopolise the ball.
In defence, Williams looked relatively untroubled but it took until the second-half for the Swans to get the goal they deserved.
Scorer Grimes will take plenty of plaudits for his finish, and rightly so. From a Wayne Routledge pull-back, the England Under-20 captain remained calm and side-footed the ball home with his wrong foot.
Any black marks?
In a positive Swansea display, there were promising signs from pretty much everyone involved.
But one man who did look hurried at times was Bartley. He was booked early on for a scything challenge on Andre Hahn on the halfway line and did look ruffled on occasion.
He did go close to scoring with a header from a corner but Fernandez won’t be worrying about his first-team place on this evidence.
What about the new boys?
Monk saw all of his four summer signings in action.
Ayew and Tabanou started the game but were relatively peripheral figures. Ayew began on the left of a five-man midfield but struggled to get involved and switched flanks with Dyer to try and see more of the action.
Did deliver one mazy run down the left but there will be much, much more to come from the Ghanaian. Tabanou was relatively untroubled defensively with his best moment nearly producing a goal on his Swansea debut.
After a Sigurdsson corner was cleared, the French defender fired in a volley which whistled just wide of the post with the Monchengladbach keeper motionless.
In the second-half, we saw our first glimpses of Eder and Swedish stopper Kristoffer Nordfeldt in a Swansea shirt.
The latter was totally untroubled in the Swansea goal as Monk’s men dominated possession while Portugal man Eder went close to a winner with a header in the final few minutes.
Anyone missing?
Not really. Fringe defenders Jordi Amat and Dwight Tiendalli weren’t involved and neither was promising young attacker Modou Barrow.
The main absentee was, of course, Leon Britton, the legendary midfielder turning out for the Under-21’s while the senior side were in action in Germany.
Britton has admitted he’s had talks about a move to the MLS and his departure now looks increasingly inevitable.
Youthful exuberance
While the Swans fielded plenty of first-team regulars, Monk interspersed that experience with promising, young talent.
Grimes took the headlines by celebrating his 20th birthday with a goal but Fulton started the game and Stephen Kingsley’s involvement in defence ahead of the likes of Amat and Tiendalli was a pointer to the future.
More to come?
Definitely. Drawing 1-1 with a side who only finished behind Bayern Munich and Wolsburg last season is not a result to be sniffed at.
The Swans soon resumed their normal passing style but didn’t start as well as Monk might have liked. That will be one area of improvement to target moving forward.
Lessons from the game?
On the whole, a pleasing start.
Monk expressed his delight at the team’s performance post match and will hope for further signs of progression against 1860 Munich on Saturday.
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