Wednesday 11 February 2015 00:08, UK
Manager Garry Monk is determined not let Swansea’s season “fizzle out” as he takes his team to West Brom on Wednesday night.
Monk has just celebrated his first year at the Swansea helm and his record of 52 points from 38 games makes for pretty good reading.
Having taken 34 points from 24 games this season, Swansea are on course to beat their best Premier League haul of 47 points accumulated in the club's inaugural 2011-12 campaign.
But Monk insists he is looking no further ahead than a February sequence of fixtures which starts at West Brom and also takes in a home game with Manchester United and a trip to Burnley.
"It's important that we don't let the season fizzle out," Monk said. "European football is not an aim for me, it's just trying to target those games.
Tony may not be everybody's cup of tea, but there is no right or wrong way to play football and if we all played the same way it would be boring.
"Let's go on a big push this month and see where we end up and then we have a realistic chance of re-assessing where we are going to be."
Monk and Baggies counterpart Tony Pulis might follow different footballing philosophies with Swansea's passing game at odds with the more direct and physical approach being instilled at The Hawthorns under the latter's command.
West Brom showed their growing set-piece threat under Pulis by scoring from two corners in the 2-2 draw at Burnley on Sunday but Monk says the Welshman's brand of football should not be criticised.
"Tony may not be everybody's cup of tea, but there is no right or wrong way to play football and if we all played the same way it would be boring," Monk said.
"He plays a different philosophy to what I believe in, but when he explains how he goes about it you can see what a good manager he is and how much work he puts in.
"Everyone thinks you can just set up two banks of four and play long ball, but it takes a clever person to be able to make it effective.
"He did it for Palace and Stoke and he is turning West Brom around really quickly which shows what a good manager he is."
