Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray says Swansea City should be seen as serious promotion contenders this season, and believes Jurgen Klopp's influence is visible in boss Vitor Matos's side.
The Swans bounced back from a 5-0 defeat at Queens Park Rangers by beating Mowbray's Rovers 4-0 at the Swansea.com Stadium, with Stephen Eustaquio, Joseph Opoku, Filip Lissah and Ross Stewart all scoring. Mowbray admitted his side played into Swansea's strength on the press.
Mowbray admits tactical error
"We got it wrong and suffered for it against a very good team," he said. "My frustration comes from preparing for a week to play the number one team in the league for high pressing and then not carrying out what we'd worked on. We shouldn't have been trying to play nice football around our box against a high press team. Maybe my messages to the players weren't strong enough."
Mowbray was impressed by Swansea's "amazingly good" intensity, which he said reminded him of previous meetings with Klopp's Liverpool. Matos spent five years on Klopp's Anfield staff, and Mowbray believes the German's methods have heavily influenced Swansea's style.
Klopp comparisons
"My previous Blackburn team, particularly through Covid, played Liverpool quite a little bit," Mowbray added. "We weren't in the Premier League but we played Liverpool in Covid just to get their team up to speed, we played them twice I think at Anfield and once at Ewood Park. Liverpool of those days were absolutely amazing because they didn't let you breathe, and you can see bits of that with this [Swansea] team. There seemed to be three men closing every one of our players down."
The win keeps Swansea firmly in the hunt at the top of the Championship, and Mowbray believes City are capable of launching a genuine promotion challenge this season.
A warning to the Swans
However, he warned their style might not always yield results, suggesting Swansea may find it harder against teams that choose a more direct approach.
"Yeah, I think so," he responded when asked if Swansea have what it takes to fight for promotion. "I think when you play against the best teams, the coaches will know that you're number one at high pressing, know you're going to swarm all over the ball and the pitch. [They will] just not take risks, just turn you around and let you swarm over nothing because there's nobody trying to pass it out from the back. They'll be kicking every goal-kick long. They'll be playing a big centre-forward and trying to get two little fast guys running in behind."
He added: "It's great coaching, it's great philosophy, but I'm saying there are coaches in this league who'll be watching. We're only 13 games in, [Matos] has got a lot of football still to play and there'll be a lot of teams where they won't be able to [do that] because there'll be nothing to press."
