Do Swansea need a talisman to succeed?

After a promising start to the season, Swansea have taken a sinister turn for the worst, and after showing promise of challenging for a European spot, they now teeter above the relegation zone. But what is the reason for their woes? Many have put it down to, what some are calling, an irrational decision in sacking Gary Monk, who’s now touted as one of England’s most promising young managers. I felt that the Swans were justified in their decision to part company with their club legend – one win in eleven (the solitary win against Aston Villa no less) was frankly unacceptable given the calibre of squad the club has accumulated across the years. Another club legend, Alan Curtis, will stay on as the boss until the end of the season, but he seems to have been unable to turn proceedings around, underlined by a shock 3-2 defeat against Oxford United, where a fairly strong Swansea team distinctly underperformed. However, I have a new theory as to why they’re in such poor form, and I think it’s because they don’t have a talisman. If you think about it, across the last few seasons, Swansea have always had a star lighting the way for them. At the start of this year, it was Andre Ayew, last year it was Wilfried Bony for the first half, and Gylfi Sigurdsson for the second, the year before that it was Bony and the year before that it was Michu. The fact of the matter is that Swansea have always had one outstanding player, and there’s something to suggest that this particular set of Swansea players may take heart from one excellent performer. It isn’t uncommon. I’m sure there are plenty of clubs across the world who take heart from a star man. That’s not say that the rest of Swansea’s squad is rubbish, I think they just perform better when they have someone to look to and to set an example, to inspire them to perform as well and raise their own expectations of themselves. It may not be right, it’s a theory. If the theory was correct, it would be interesting to see the clubs moves in the transfer window this month. The sensible idea would be to spend a whole load of money on one star forward man (probably a striker as Gomis continues to disappoint) to lift the spirits of the entire team. Whatever the issue is, Alan Curtis has a massive job on his hands to change the fortunes of this side. If my theory is right, and it is a mentality issue, it could make his job even harder. The Swans are in danger.

Source: DSG