Amat hoping for league chance

09 November 2013 15:47

Jordi Amat hopes he has done enough to force himself into the Swansea starting line-up for Sunday's meeting with Stoke.

While the former Espanyol centre-half has featured in seven of Swansea's eight Europa League games to date, he has found action harder to come by in the Premier League.

Amat, 21, has just three league appearances to his name, all of which came during an enforced injury lay-off for Swans' captain Ashley Williams.

But the Spain Under-21 cap looked assured when given the chance to partner Williams in Thursday's 1-1 draw with Kuban Krasnodar in the Europa League and pushed himself into contention to usurp Chico Flores at the heart of the Swansea defence.

Amat feels he and Williams have formed a good understanding, but will be prepared to put the needs of the team first, as opposed to his own personal aspirations.

"The team performance is the most important thing, and we played well in the first-half in Russia, although maybe we could have scored another goal. We need to learn from these mistakes," he said.

"As for myself, I enjoy playing with Ashley, I think the partnership looked good, the transitions were good, the communication is good, so I would obviously like to keep playing in the team.

"But I am not the manager and I can only play as well as I can when I do play, whether that is with Ashley or Chico.

"I don't know if I am getting better, but I think we played very well against Kuban and we were unlucky in the last minute.

"We must all try and use what happened there as a motivation to come back and win the next game."

While Mark Hughes is looking to tweak the manner in which Stoke play, the Potters remain a real threat from set-pieces meaning Amat, if selected, will have a big part to play.

The Spaniard is keen for Swansea to improve a recent record of two wins from nine games in all competitions and give supporters of the Welsh club a boost ahead of the international break.

"It is difficult to switch straight away to thinking about Stoke after playing in the Europa League, but we are getting used to it and will do as we have done before.

"This is a very important game, not just in terms of getting the three points at home, but to lift the fans after some tough games."

Thursday's draw in Russia, as a result of relinquishing a lead in stoppage time in both fixtures against Kuban, means Swansea will have to wait to confirm their place in the Europa League knockout stage.

But Amat has urged his team-mates not to dwell on their late slip-up.

"It was unlucky because we had control of the game and it was expected in the second-half they would try and push more.

"But to concede in the last seconds again is incredible and just unlucky. We have to just win the next game now against Valencia and not think too much about these two games with Kuban."

Source: PA