What next for Luke Williams as Swansea City face crucial fortnight in bid to save season
It wasn't that long ago that things were looking pretty positive at Swansea City.
A last-minute winner from Myles Peart-Harris against Luton Town had sealed back-to-back home wins for the Swans, who looked to be entering the new year full of optimism.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and it's fair to say the mood in SA1 has tumbled at a rate of knots, plunging boss Luke Williams into the middle of what is surely the toughest and most challenging spell of his reign so far.
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Additionally, with Sheffield United, Norwich City, Coventry City and Bristol City now all lying in wait, it's clearly not going to get much easier. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here.
Saturday's farcical derby-day defeat hasn't quite dealt a fatal blow to Williams' tenure, but it has undoubtedly blown a hole into a season that was already in danger of wobbling. Indeed, something's just not felt right at Swansea ever since the rumours linking Williams with the vacancy at West Bromwich Albion first emerged.
Williams might well have a few regrets about how he responded to that speculation, with his comments in the press sparking concern from some supporters, and outright mutiny among others.
One has to wonder if the players have perhaps been affected too. The last four games have seen Swansea score just one goal while conceding 11. That's an alarming drop off for a defence that not so long ago prided itself on being the best in the Championship.
In the context of the West Brom rumours, some fans have questioned whether Williams still has the support of his dressing room, which is perhaps testament to the standard of performances lately.
If Williams is to move on from this tight spot, raising those standards might well be more important than actual results at this stage, although any sort of response would likely be roundly welcomed this week.
Williams chose to shift the focus onto his players after the humbling defeat in the capital, firing words like 'pathetic' and 'shoddy' across a packed press room. But there's an argument that he himself has to take some responsibility for some of his side's recent shortcomings.
There were certainly a few tactical calls on Saturday that he frankly got badly wrong.
Liam Cullen led the line despite the ample amount of previous evidence that it's not his most effective position. The selection of Joe Allen, presumably in a bid to pack out and dominate midfield, similarly didn't work.
Harry Darling started despite clearly not being fully fit. Ronald and Eom Jisung were left on the pitch far too long when everyone could see they were struggling, while many will be at a loss to understand the logic behind the decision to bring on Kyle Naughton for Josh Key late on.
There are mitigating factors behind some of those decisions, of course, the most pressing being the lack of strength in depth.
Some of the criticisms around his game management, while entirely valid, can perhaps be explained by a lack of viable alternatives.
The impotent cameos of Zan Vipotnik and Florian Bianchini, both of whom had been championed as potentially central to Swansea's hopes for this season back in the summer, arguably sum up that point pretty eloquently.
Put simply, when Swansea struggle to reach the level of performance needed, there are precious few options available to potentially change a game.
Williams, stony-faced and cutting the figure of a man deprived of sleep for the best part of a week, admitted himself there needs to be an added injection of quality in certain areas.
"We could do with some more quality for sure," he said after the humbling in the capital. "Some players that could perhaps drag the team with them by making a high-level action.
"We're not on the brink of bringing somebody in right at the moment," he added when quizzed about possible incomings. "For me it's really important we bring people in to make us better. Not just to bring another body.
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"There's no point. We need to improve. We need the highest quality players we can get so we can raise the bar."
Given that we're already three weeks into the transfer window, many will understandably be preparing themselves for another disappointing January, although there are still a few irons in the fire, with Williams travelling out to the Netherlands on Sunday in a bid to take a closer look at a possible centre-back target.
But at the time of writing, there hasn't yet been any sort of meaningful breakthrough with any incomings at this stage, and Williams himself has admitted he may have to look internally for solutions.
"We're not blessed with huge alternatives so I better get to work and get the maximum out of the squad,” he added.
That quote alone might well set a few alarm bells ringing with supporters, whose ire will extend well beyond the head coach should Swansea fail to strengthen and serve up another dour January recruitment drive.
