“You have got to be careful” – Carlton Palmer speaks out on Swansea City’s start to 2022/23 | OneFootball

Swansea City‘s opening home game of the season did not go to plan as they suffered a 3-0 defeat against Blackburn Rovers last Saturday.

The Swans were carved open with relative ease on the counter-attack and they struggled to create any real chances of note despite having the lion’s share of possession.

Russell Martin’s bold style of play has had its ups and downs in just over a season of action at Swansea, and the Scotsman could become under pressure fairly quickly if the wait for their first victory of the campaign drags on.

The Swans have excellent ball players and are very comfortable on the ball, but they have struggled to translate that into high quality chances since Martin arrived and supporters’ patience is being tested.

When asked if Martin’s heavily possession-based style of play will work in the long term in the Championship, Carlton Palmer said: “We’re only two games into the season, you can’t take anything from that, losing 3-0 at home is never good.

“You have got to be careful with possession, people get smoke-screened over possession, you can have a lot of possession in your own half, keeping the ball but never hurting the opposition.

“A lot of teams who play on the counter-attack allow the opposition to have a lot of possession, it’s what you do with the possession in the final third.

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“So, he’s (Russell Martin) got to work that out quickly and work out where they had the possession, were they hurting the opposition?

“A lot of teams will go away from home, set up a mid block and allow teams to have the ball in their own half.

“You can’t be losing by that margin at home.”