Swansea City supporters will find new belief if they avoid recent Leeds United repeats | OneFootball

Belief is growing that Swansea City could challenge the play-off places, but Leeds United will test their credentials

Although Swansea City return to Championship action sitting six points adrift of the play-off places, there is genuine belief in South Wales that they could be top six contenders.

The Swans ran top-six Burnley close prior to the international break, and only a stoppage-time penalty prevented them leaving East Lancashire with a share of the spoils, but even still, that result should stand them in good stead moving forward.

Luke Williams' side had won back-to-back league games before that, which in a tightly-packed mid-table, was enough to propel them up to the periphery of the play-off race.

The problem for Swansea comes in the fact that those wins were their only two across their last nine league outings, so they still have plenty of work to do if they're to close up the gap on the early pace-setters.

The foundations are in place though, particularly in defence where they're relatively solid, but their credentials will face a stern test this weekend when Leeds United pay them a visit.

Williams will know that if Swansea are serious about finishing inside the top six, then they'll have to start picking up results against the sides around them, but so far this season, they haven't been able to do that.

Sitting in tenth ahead of the Championship's resumption, Swansea haven't lost a single league game this season against a side beneath them in the table.

Compare that with the sides above them, against whom they've lost six of their eight games, all strangely by the same 1-0 scoreline, and it's easy to see why Swansea are struggling to break into the play-off positions.

They have the ingredients there to be a solid side at this level, and their defence is among the best in the league, but unless they can prove that against the better sides they won't be in the top six in May.

The visit of Leeds is their next chance to prove they can do just that, and having lost the last two games when the Yorkshire club have visited South Wales, they've got more than one point to prove.

Another limp performance against a side above them, and it's hard to see how they bridge the gap, but if they can prove they're good enough to rub shoulders with the league's big-hitters, as they did for 90 minutes at Burnley, then perhaps they'll feel they're being overlooked a little in the play-off race.

Goals are a huge concern for Swansea

At risk of stating the obvious, Swansea are going to have to score a goal to win a game, and that in itself seems a tall order for a side who have scored just three times across their last eight league outings.

Unsurprisingly then, no side in the league has scored fewer than their 11 league goals this term, and as they come up against a Leeds side this weekend with one of the best defences in the league, building upon that looks likely to be tricky.

It's not for the want of trying that Swansea can't put the ball in the back of the net, as their xG is ranked in the top half among Championship teams, but they simply aren't able to finish their chances.

That would probably explain why the club's joint-top scorers this season, Liam Cullen and Zan Vipotnik are tied on two goals apiece.