By David Williams
Swansea City’s mean machine defensive system will be looking to shut-out Wayne Rooney’s Derby County side and make it 11 Championship clean-sheets tonight.
The 2-0 south Wales derby win at Cardiff City Stadium last weekend made head coach Steve Cooper’s Swansea side the best defensive unit in the Football League system and helped them to hang on the coat tails of the top two as the promotion race hots up.
“You can put positive or negative records in front of me, but I just want to make sure we keep going and get ready for the next game,” said Cooper.
“The more clean sheets we can get the better. If we can keep adding to that tally, while trying to score at the other end as well, it’ll be a beneficial factor.
“We want to keep clean sheets but we also want to play with the ball and manage games well. The last game for example, when we were 1-0 up, the message wasn’t ‘let’s see this out’ – we wanted to push on for a second.
“We want our defence to be with a positive mentality.”
One of the stars of the season to date has been Chelsea loanee Marc Guehi, who has been receiving rave reviews for his towering performances alongside the experienced Ryan Bennett.
He is one of three 20-year-old centre backs being utilised by Cooper following the departure to Spurs of Welsh international Joe Rodon.
“Marc is getting great experience and you can really see him improving every week. Chelsea are fully aware of how he is doing and I think we’re all benefiting from his time here,” said Cooper.
“He’s playing at a really high level and its really good to see 20-year-olds like Marc, Ben Cabango and Joel Latibeaudiere play at centre-back in this league, and play as well as they are doing. I really enjoy seeing that.”
Meanwhile, Connor Roberts, fresh from his assist for Jamal Lowe’s opening goal on Saturday, will be looking to extend his record of not having missed a minute of action to date this season in the Championship, making him one of only nine outfield players to do that.
Derby sit in the relegation zone after a difficult start to the season. The Rams have won just two of their 18 games, and are yet to win a home fixture this term.
But Cooper is paying no attention to those facts and expects a tough test against a side who have proven hard to beat since Wayne Rooney was placed in sole interim charge.
“Their home record only becomes a dangerous statistic if you make it that. You can put stats together for every game, so we don’t look too much into that,” he added.
“They have not lost many recently, even though there is always a context around games in such a mad period where you play every three or four days.
“They are a big club with good players, but the focus is down to us and making sure we do what is needed to succeed in the game, and we go and do the business.”
Swansea will be without defender Tivonge Rusheshsa for an extended spell after the teenage defender suffered a serious knee injury.
Former England captain Rooney believes he is steering Derby away from the rocks, but admits his team have yet to translate their improved form into results.
“We have had to get some stability back in the team, start getting clean sheets,” said Rooney.
“The next part is scoring goals and winning games, it’s our job to get players in the right areas to do that.” I have stressed to the attacking players that they need to start rewarding our defenders for the clean sheets they are keeping.
“We are moving in the right direction, but you cannot ask for everything at once.”
Morgan Gibbs-White and George Byers are nearing returns from foot and groin injuries respectively, while Cooper has no injury concerns among those who featured in Saturday’s win over Cardiff.
Derby are without defender Curtis Davies, while Wales international Tom Lawrence is also a doubt.
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