Bob Bradley admits he is looking for the new manager ‘bounce’ effect as he chases his first win as Swansea boss.
He is also intent on stemming the goal flow of former Swan Joe Allen for his third game in charge with Swansea in Monday night action at Stoke.
The American has so far overseen a 3-2 defeat at Arsenal and a goalless draw at home to Watford as the Swans have dropped to second bottom of the Premier League.
But Bradley says he has detected signs of progress since succeeding Francesco Guidolin at the start of October.
He said: “The responsibility of a manager in any club is to win games.
“The bounce is talked about and you have to make it happen. I’ll be excited when we get that first win.
“I’ll be pleased for the players because I see how they work every day. We talk a lot about confidence and they need that reinforcement.
“At the Emirates we had a chance for a point, but I’m not certain we put ourselves in a great position to take three.
“Coming off against Watford I felt that was more there for us.’
Wales midfielder Allen has scored four goals in four games for Stoke, enabling Mark Hughes’ side to move out of the relegation zone after three successive victories.
Bradley says he is a big admirer of Allan, but added: “We don’t change our game plan around Joe, but it’s about being aware of him. He’s not a player that will drive past people, but he’s smart and finds good spots on the pitch.
“He sees the right pass, so we have to understand how Shaqiri and Joe move to create space in between the lines, and how we cut off balls that get played to them.
“We have to close them down and take away the windows that they want to go through. We need to force Joe to play balls square and backwards, and not give him the chance to find the attacking players.”
Swansea produced a better second-half showing against Watford last weekend which almost produced their first victory since the opening day of the season.
Gylfi Sigurdsson had two big chances to score, striking the post on one occasion, and substitute Fernando Llorente also fired over from close range.
Bradley said: ‘I think players see progress. They feel good about training.
‘There was a sense after Watford that the all-round effort was stronger. Those things help, but we also know we have to continue to work to turn the positives into more points.
‘The hope is that the work that’s being put in will turn into results.’
Swansea are two points from the safety zone ahead of the weekend games, and Bradley has accepted that his team are in a relegation fight the club has not been used to during their previous five seasons in the Premier League.
He said: ‘We’re honest when we look at the table and understand what we see.
‘But at the same time, if we continue to grow as a team and get more confident, then I certainly hope in a few weeks’ time we’re not having this discussion.
‘We’ve looked at the positives of the Watford game and tried to make sure the players could see the things where we’re going in the right direction.
‘I think we won the ball higher up the field more than we have this year and created some good advantages.
‘We also tried to give them examples of how we can be a little sharper with some of those moments and be more of a threat.’