"Baffling" - Luke Williams urged to axe Swansea City, Azeem Abdulai trend | OneFootball

FLW's Swansea City fan pundit has issued a message for Luke Williams ahead of their clash with Blackburn Rovers

Swansea City have made a solid start to the new Championship season.

Luke Williams’ side have earned 12 points from their opening nine league games, and sit four points outside the play-off places.

The Swans will be looking to improve on their 14th place finish last season, where they ended up 16 points adrift of the top six.

Williams was appointed as manager in January, and has now had 10 months to make his mark on the team since joining from Notts County.

The 43-year-old has overseen 12 wins from his first 33 games in charge, with a win rate of 36.36 per cent.

Swansea City demand for Luke Williams

When asked what message he’d give to Williams, FLW’s Swansea fan pundit James Fleming claimed that the use of Azeem Abdulai on the wing has to stop.

He believes that the 21-year-old is better off being used as a midfielder, especially when options like Florian Bianchini are available in the squad as well.

“If I had to send one message to Luke Williams it would be to stop playing Azeem Abdulai on the wing,” Fleming told Football League World.

“I think we’ve seen it basically every game now, he comes on off the bench, he struggles.

“He hasn’t got the technical ability to beat his man, he hasn’t got the technical ability to cross really well, he’s not really fast either.

“He’s got all the characteristics to be a solid midfielder, which is where he’s supposed to be.

“But he insists on playing him out wide, and I think a lot of the fans are confused as to what he sees in his performances to keep pursuing that.

“We’ve got players like [Florian] Bianchini on the wing, who we signed for £2 million last summer, being left on the bench when he is there to play.

“It’s sort of baffling really.

“Stop playing him on the wing, and give our actual wingers, even youth academy players, more of a chance on the wing.”

Azeem Abdulai’s Swansea career so far

Abdulai has made seven appearances in the Championship so far this season, with six of those coming from the bench.

The midfielder also made seven substitute appearances in the second division in the previous campaign, scoring once between these 13 games.

He has been unable to cement himself as a key part of the Swansea squad, but has proven a useful asset during his time at the club.

Next up for Swansea is a trip to Ewood Park to take on Blackburn Rovers on 19 October in a 3pm kick-off.

Williams’ use of Abdulai is confusing

Abdulai hasn’t worked well as a winger when used in that position by Williams, but it’s a strategy he keeps deploying.

It is especially confusing in the context of Bianchini’s arrival from Bastia in the summer.

Perhaps the international break will have given Williams the right amount of space between games to rethink his substitutions and strategy for the side to allow for a tweak.