TALKING TACTICS.... with WhoScored.com

An international break is as good a time as any to review the season so far, so to continue our partnership with football statistics gurusWhoScored.com, here's a look at how the campaign has panned out for the Swans.

Eighth in the table with eight games remaining, Garry Monk's men are well-placed for another extremely impressive finish in the Premier League - back in the top half where most people would agree they belong, after last season's dip into the bottom half.

Monk has established himself as one of the top flight's most exciting young managers, impressively dealing with the departure of the club's talisman Wilfried Bony to Manchester City. In fact, since the Ivorian's return from this year's Africa Cup of Nations, Swansea have taken as many points in Premier League games (nine) as the defending league champions.

That is testament to both Monk and the players that have had to adapt so quickly. Goals are coming from all over the team, with the likes of Ki Sung-Yueng, Jonjo Shelvey and Gylfi Sigurdsson amongst those providing goalscoring support to Bafetimbi Gomis, who has two goals in his last four starts.



With six goals, Ki is the second-highest scoring central midfielder in the whole Premier League this season, behind only Yaya Toure, who is often afforded the chance to attack rather more than the South Korean.

Seven different Swansea players have more than two Premier League goals this season with the squad sharing the burden out. According to WhoScored.com's statistically calculated characteristics system, Swansea have been very strong at 'shooting from direct free kicks' and strong at 'creating chances using through balls'.

At the other end of the pitch, Swansea have built their season on a sturdy defence, with Ashley Williams their highest-rated player according to WhoScored.com's rating system, which uses over 200 raw statistics to work out a score for each player live and in-play. Williams' extremely impressive average of 7.23 is even more impressive given that he is one of only five outfielders to play every single minute in the Premier League this season. Attaining such a high score is one thing, but to maintain it over such a vast time on the pitch is outstanding.

Jack Cork (7.18) has been a revelation since moving to South Wales, while Ki (7.18) and Sigurdsson (7.15) also fare well. Williams' centre-back partner Federico Fernandez (7.04) and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski (7.03) make up the Swans' other highest-rated players.

It has been a largely positive season so far, and Swansea head into 2014/15's final straight in high spirits. There is a gap between themselves and seventh-placed Tottenham, but don't bet against Monk's men putting pressure on the Londoners during the run-in.

*WhoScored.com is a unique website and one of the fastest growing in the sports industry, specialising in the in-depth analysis of detailed football data. Provided with unique stats, they compile and create comprehensive analysis on the major European divisions, including live match stats and player ratings. You can follow @WhoScored and their editor-in-chief @alitweedale on Twitter.