Who solves Swansea’s right-back crisis?
During Swansea’s 3-2 victory over Burnley, the Premier League’s worst defence lost their first choice right back, Kyle Naughton to a hamstring injury.
One week later, club stalwart Angel Rangel filled in for the injured Naughton in the 2-1 defeat to Hull City. 30 minutes later, Rangel limped off with, what was later confirmed as, a broken metatarsal that will see him out for the season.
With the only recognised first team right back on the sidelines, who are the contenders to fill in at full-back in Paul Clement’s side to take on Bournemouth in the 5:30 kick off this Saturday?
Jordi Amat
The likely replacement this weekend, Amat took Rangel’s spot at right back after he limped off against Hull but looked unfortable in an unnatural position against the pace of winger Kamil Grosicki.
Former Spain-U21 international Amat is midway through his fourth season with the Swans having joined from Espanyol during Michael Laudrup’s reign and has yet to cement his place in the first team having always played second fiddle to the likes of Ashely Williams, Federico Fernandez and Chico Flores.
When he has deputized in the Swansea side however, Amat has mostly played at centre back, his favoured position, meaning Clement may decide against playing Amat out of position in favour for a natural, but inexperienced, right back.
Connor Roberts
Local boy Roberts has been a mainstay in the Swansea U-23 side since returning from a loan spell at Bristol Rovers in December 2016 but was left out of the squad to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night prompting speculation that he is in contention for a starting place at the Vitality Stadium.
Having signed his first professional contract with Swansea in 2014, Roberts continued his developed in South Wales until he was loaned out to Yeovil town for the 2015/16 where he won the Young Player of the Year award.
Although Roberts has yet to play at a level above League One, his exposure to top level youth football in the new Premier League development set up will mean he is prepared as possible for top flight football should Paul Clement call on the youngster this weekend.
Tyler Reid
A less likely contender than either Amat or Roberts having started for Under-23’s on Monday night alongside the likes of Oli McBurnie and Dan James who are also seemingly out of contention for the first team on Saturday.
Reid joined the Swans last summer from Manchester United and came with a glowing reputation however Reid struggled for game time in the Manchester United Under-21 side and left for Swansea in a hope to improve his development.
Unlike Roberts, Reid has yet to make his professional league debut with his highest level of experience coming in this season’s much maligned EFL Trophy so it would be unlikely that Paul Clement would select Reid in such a massive game for the Swans.
Stephen Kingsley
An outside shout, the Scotsman is predominately a left back and has largely found himself excluded from Paul Clement’s match day squad after the arrival of Martin Olsson from Norwich, however Kingsley has made several appearances for Swansea in the Premier League and would bring more experience to the table that Roberts or Reid.
Kingsley’s possible inclusion could see Olsson move to right back or Kingsley could fill in there himself.
Who do you think should start at right back for the Swans on Saturday? Or will Kyle Naughton recover in time making this entire exercise pointless?