Freddie Woodman | Attitude and hard work key to defensive record
Freddie Woodman believes Swansea City’s attitude to their defensive work has been a key factor in their good start to the season.
The Swans racked up a third home win in a row with victory over Rotherham at the weekend, also keeping a third-straight clean sheet at the Liberty.
The last time Swansea enjoyed a quartet of home wins without conceding was from the final four games played at their old Vetch Field home.
All of which means they can match that for the first time since moving to the Liberty in 2005 when Sheffield Wednesday come to SA1 on Wednesday night.
While the focus will very much be on the here and now, as opposed to matching what has gone before, Woodman has good reason to be pleased with how the season has gone so far.
No goalkeeper has kept more than the six clean sheets he has to his name from 11 league appearances, while only Middlesbrough have conceded fewer goals than Swansea’s seven so far.
And the on-loan Newcastle keeper believes that is a reflection of the hard work done on the training ground, and a strong attitude and team spirit.
“We do an awful lot of work defensively, on our shape, on defending set-pieces where Marge (Martyn Margetson) came in last season and changed things up a bit,” said Woodman.
“I think we're doing really well with them at the moment. Obviously, this league can give you those challenges with the aerial threat. But we have dealt with them, and we need to keep doing that.
“We go into any game wanting to show what we can do with the ball, but you have to be able to do the other side of things too because this game is about what happens in both boxes, not just one.
“It's obviously important in this league. I think the boys have got a really good attitude towards it and you have seen guys making the effort to be there to make key clearances.
“Even when we're watching other games, the lads are always saying "this team do this differently, this team do that differently". It's a learning environment, which is good.”
