Swansea boss highlights Sunderland strength and confirms double injury blow ahead of Championship fixture

Swansea boss Michael Duff wants his team to play on the front foot against Sunderland but has  highlighted the Black Cats’ quality in wide areas.

The Swans are 13th in the Championship table, four points behind Sunderland, ahead of Saturday’s match at the Swansea.com Stadium, following a 1-0 win at Blackburn last time out.

“Sunderland are a really good team, young, loads of energy and real good quality in wide areas,” said Duff. “We’re going to have to be bang at it, but I think we’ve proved we can hurt teams too. We know we’re going to have to be at our best, play our way, be on the front foot.

“It’s been a good week,” he added. “After a three game week it’s nice to get a block of training in. We’re working on the new shape. There’s a good feeling around the place, I thought we were good against Blackburn. The attitude of the players has been good all the way through, we have won five out of seven and there is a positive feel around the place.”

Like Sunderland, Swansea are dealing with multiple injury setbacks. Full-back Josh Key and striker Mykola Kukharevych are set to miss this weekend’s fixture, while Joe Allen, Nathan Wood, Josh Ginnelly, Nathanael Ogbeta and Azeem Abdulai remain sidelined.

“I think we have the same pool of players,” said Duff when asked about injuries. “Josh Key is probably going to be another couple of weeks which is disappointing. Myko could be four to six weeks, I think it’s the ligament in the lateral side of his knee.”