Championship | Gameweek 34

Feb 22, 2025 at 3pm UK

Swansea.com Stadium

Swansea vs Blackburn

Match preview

Swansea are on the hunt for a new permanent manager after sacking Luke Williams following last Saturday's 3-1 defeat away to Stoke City.

Josh Tymon saw his opener cancelled out by Wouter Burger before Bae Jun-ho and Lewis Baker found the net to condemn the Swans to a seventh defeat in nine league games (D1, L1).

The worrying run of form has seen Swansea drop from ninth at the turn of the year to 17th, with eight points separating them from the bottom three.

Alan Sheehan has been appointed caretaker manager following the end of his 13-month tenure, and he will be hoping to end the club's four-game home winless streak when they host Blackburn on Saturday.

Indeed, having lost their last three home matches, Swansea are now in danger of losing four consecutive league games at the Swansea.com Stadium for the first time since January/February 2024.

The Swans can take heart from the fact that they have won three of their last four home meetings with Blackburn, including a 2-1 victory in front of their own fans last season.

Like their hosts, Blackburn are in the process of appointing a new manager following the departure of John Eustace to relegation-threatened Derby County earlier this month.

Rovers have responded well to Eustace's departure, winning their first two games under interim boss David Lowe 2-0.

Makhtar Gueye scored a brace to see his side past West Bromwich Albion, before they took all three points from Plymouth Argyle thanks to goals from Adam Forshaw and Tyrhys Dolan.

The victories take Blackburn's tally to 51 points from 33 games and leave them four points clear of seventh-placed Coventry City.

Rovers have now kept 13 clean sheets in the Championship this season, a tally that only four other teams in the second tier have matched.

They will be hoping that a strong backline can form the basis of a league double against Swansea, having narrowly won the reverse fixture 1-0 in October.

Recent Performance

Swansea City Championship form:LLLWLL

Blackburn Rovers Championship form:LLWLWW

Blackburn Rovers form (all competitions):LWLLWW

Team News

The hosts are expected to be without defender Kristian Pedersen and midfielder Joe Allen due to injury.

Sheehan may be tempted to depart from Swansea's recent tactic of playing three centre-backs in favour of a back four for Saturday's home clash.

If Sheehan does decide to change his formation, he may opt to hand starting opportunities to the likes of Josh Key and Zan Vipotnik.

The visitors are likely to be without Owen Beck, Harry Pickering, Scott Wharton, Yuki Ohashi and Sondre Tronstad.Veteran defender Danny Batth remains unavailable after missing the win over Plymouth with a hamstring problem.

Will Buckley, Ryan Hedges and Andreas Weimann are all pushing for recalls after being dropped to the bench last weekend.

Possible starting lineup

Swansea City possible starting lineup:

Vigouroux; Key, Cabango, Delcroix, Tymon; O'Brien, Franco; Ronald, Cullen, Eom; Vipotnik

Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:

Pears; Brittain, Hyam, Sanderson, Ribeiro; Buckley, Travis; Hedges, Weimann, Dolan; Gueye