Swansea City urged to make big Alan Sheehan call as 'no excuse' claim dropped - Russell Martin comparison made | OneFootball

The Irishman is already under pressure from sections of the Swans' support.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Despite a mixed bag of three wins and as many draws and defeats in the Championship thus far, Alan Sheehan is already under severe pressure in charge of Swansea City, with sections of supporters already calling for a managerial change.

The Irishman was handed a three-year contract back in April after an impressive spell in interim charge, in which the Swans had taken 23 points from a possible 36, before looking to make great strides of progress this term.

Swansea had been one of the most active clubs in the summer transfer window, with Sheehan welcoming eye-catching signings such as Cameron Burgess, Ethan Galbraith, Zedaine Inoussa, Manuel Benson and Adam Idah to the club.

However, with his side only winning one of their previous five league games, some supporters are urging the hierarchy to make a swift managerial change, and that includes Football League World's Swansea City fan pundit, Will Hughes, when asked what course of action the club should take.

Sheehan was named as the Swans' sixth permanent boss since their relegation from the Premier League in 2018, with the hope that he could build on an eventual 11th-placed finish last term that saw them finish just seven points outside the play-offs.

However, Hughes believes that the 39-year-old and his side are short of confidence and ideas at present, only pointing towards a continuous downward trajectory if performances and results don't improve.

As such, he believes a change in the dugout must occur.

"You mentioned in that question there, a decent chunk of supporters are calling for his head. I am in that group," Hughes admitted.

"I just want to say, at the end of last season, I was calling for us to maybe appoint someone like a Kim Hellberg or an Eder Sarabia," he added. But, I was under no illusion that Sheehan didn't deserve the job."

"He 100% deserved the job for the work he did last season. The football was good, it was entertaining. We were scoring goals, we were keeping them out. It was great.

"I was looking at it thinking, 'my God, imagine if we had a couple more players, we might be a serious play-off team'," Hughes claimed. "But, we look a completely different team from last season.

"The most annoying thing is, as well, the squad is better," he added. "The only notable sort of player that we've lost is Harry Darling. I suppose you could say Joe Allen, but he didn't play every game. Harry Darling was pretty much there every single time.

"You could argue we've replaced him with Cam Burgess, whether it's better or worse, it doesn't matter. But otherwise, the squad is better. Got more depth, got more quality, and we look worse," Hughes stated.

"Granted, we've had a mixed bag of results to start the season. We haven't won loads of games, haven't lost many games. But the thing that worries me is the way we play. On the ball, we are devoid of ideas.

"There's no real intensity to actually go and hurt teams. We're set up to try and sort of be hard to beat and stay in games, but there's no real invention there to say, 'right, let's start this game and actually go to try and hurt the opposition, let's go and try and win it from the off'. It's quite literally stay in the game."

Hughes then explained that he is seeing a complete contrast in style to what was promised by Sheehan in a pre-season talk with supporters, as well as comparing it to that of Russell Martin, who has recently been dismissed by Rangers.

"There was a fans' forum at the start of the year, which I attended. Alan Sheehan did an hour-long presentation on his style," our fan pundit said.

"At the time, I was thinking 'I'm intrigued, I'm all ears'. Happy at the start of the season, excited to see how he goes, if we can move on, if we can carry on playing the way we did, the end of the season before. I was thinking, 'great, fair play to him for taking a moment to explain how he wants us to play'.

"I thought, 'there's not many managers that would do that', but now I'm second guessing everything," Hughes continued.

"I'm thinking, 'did he do that just to give people an idea of how he wants to play, just so he gives a bit of an insight that he's trying to change things?' I don't know. But I look back on that now and I think pretty much everything he was talking about was off the ball.

"He didn't talk much about us in possession whatsoever. It was all off the ball. And I think what shows this year is that we're more focused on how we're going to be off the ball than what we're going to be like on it. For me, that's just far too negative. You've got to have a balance. You can't focus too much on one or the other.

"It's almost like the complete opposite of when Russell Martin was in charge," he continued. "We were so focused with how we're going to be on the ball, how we're going to pass it about, how we're going to keep possession, this, that and the other that ,when we lost it, there was nothing there whatsoever.

"It's the polar opposite with Sheehan. Out of possession, we might look okay, get back in numbers, throw bodies in behind them, whatever. We've got plenty of runners to work back. But when we get the ball, there's not a clue about what we're going to do with it. We basically give it back to the opposition.

"We haven't got a player to just tuck in that number 'six' role. But we haven't been playing a player to play that role, tuck in, pick the ball up from the defenders, carry it forward and start an attack or link it all together.

"Effectively, how we're playing at the minute, we play it out to one of the defenders, Cabango or Burgess. They play it up to Stamenic in the 'six. When I say play it up, they play it next to him because he drops in to basically play as a third centre-half for reasons I don't know.

"Knock it about for a little bit at the back. It goes to one of the full-backs, goes back to the centre-back, and then they play a ball over the top looking for one of the wingers, hoping that they latch onto it, get a cross in and hope that someone gets on the end of it," Hughes explained.

"There's no real invention, there's nothing there at all. And I think he's under even more pressure, purely because of the amount of money we spent in the summer.

"If we'd had a summer where we haven't spent any money and we were playing players out of position, like we have done over the last couple of years, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt," Hughes described. "But he has got absolutely no excuse. We're too strong in every position, two players strong in every single position and he's not getting a tune out of them at all.

"People will turn around and say, 'maybe he needs a bit more time because we have got a lot of new players', and I understand that."

"But there are lots of teams in the Championship who've got a lot of new players in. We aren't the only ones and they're doing better than us, you know?

"I personally think the longer he's in charge, the quicker this season is just going to fizzle out into nothingness. We'll finish mid-table, or if he does get sacked in December or January, we'll bring someone in and it's too late.

Swansea City hierarchy urged to be "proactive" amid Danny Rohl, Michael Carrick discussions

Hughes then turned his attention to whom the club should replace Sheehan with, which included the likes of ex-Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough bosses, Danny Rohl and Michael Carrick, albeit the latter has now taken up a role with UEFA.

"I think we need to be proactive. We need to get someone in now while we can, a Danny Rohl, a Michael Carrick, someone like that who's available," he continued.

"There's other names out there, but those are the two that top of the list right now for me. A lot of Swans fans are saying we need to be proactive. We need to get them in now to avoid our season from fizzling out.

"If it fizzles out this year, teams are just getting better and better and then we get left in the dust, then I don't know.

"This should be the season where we really have a go, in my opinion. You know, a lot of teams have spent money. It's the most wide-open Championship for years. Why not? Why not have a go? Why not say, 'let's try and actually push for play-offs'. Let's not just be satisfied with mid-table or staying up or whatever. Let's actually have a go.

"Some fans will turn around and say that's arrogant and that's entitled, when it's not that. Quite literally, we are in a similar position to others where we've spent a lot of money, brought a lot of quality in. Let's have a go.

"Everything's pulling in one direction with the club at the minute in terms of the players. I think it's fantastic who we brought in. The board are doing very well at the minute, renewing contracts and things going on externally from football," Hughes affirmed.

"The investor side of it with, you know, Luka Modrić, Snoop Dogg, all of that. It's really good. I think we're being let down by the manager.

"I just don't think he is at the level that we require to really push on to the next level, unfortunately. If I had my way, I would sack him," he concluded.

Alan Sheehan will hope international break can address Swansea City inconsistency

Of course, it is very early days, but it is clear that a fair portion of Swansea supporters are of the same opinion as our aforementioned fan pundit.

Unsurprisingly, the Welsh outfit have been extremely dominant in possession, such is the club's well-documented philosophy, yet that hasn't fully been translated into control in defence and attack.

Despite scoring 10 goals in nine games, Swansea rank bottom of the division in terms of big chances created, which isn't an encouraging trend when supporters are hoping their side can make a break for the top-six for the first time since 2021.

It remains to be seen if a change is to be made sooner rather than later, whilst Sheehan will hope the two-week international break allows his side to work on such inconsistencies.