Bradley backs Spanish duo to start firing for Swansea

Joe Williams

Bob Bradley believes his Spanish strikers possess the fire power to steer Swansea away from relegation danger.

Swansea come up against their last regular goalscorer on Monday night, with Wilfried Bony leading the Stoke line.

Bony scored 34 in 70 appearances before joining Manchester City in January 2015 and Swansea have struggled to fill the void left by the muscular Ivorian.

Spanish pair Fernando Llorente and Borja Baston – Swansea’s record £15.5million signing from Atletico Madrid in August – are now tasked with supplying Premier League goals at the Liberty Stadium.

But they have both scored only once so far in stuttering campaigns affected by injury.

“Borja was an important signing for the club. He’s still adjusting to a new club and a new league,” Swansea manager Bradley said.

“Fernando has had a little bit of an injury, so we haven’t been able since I arrived to get everything out of him.

“But I’m hoping we have dangerous players. Gylfi (Sigurdsson) has found good positions in two matches and scored an excellent goal against Arsenal.

“We’re trying to taking advantage of the talent we have and improve in terms of creating advantages and know how to score goals and become more of a threat.

“I certainly am hopeful that with Fernando and Borja we have players with enough talent and that we can turn them into big goalscorers for our team.”

Bradley’s first task, however, on succeeding Francesco Guidolin was to shore up a defence which had been guilty of conceding sloppy goals.

The former United States manager’s response last weekend was to drop Argentina international Federico Fernandez and Jordi Amat and hand opportunities to inexperienced pair Mike van der Hoorn and Alfie Mawson.

Bradley’s reward against Watford was a first Swansea clean sheet since the opening day of the season, with debutant Mawson particularly impressive.

“With the US team, Jay DeMerit came to England and worked his way up at Watford,” Bradley said.

“He was a player that no matter who he was up against, as he was leaving the dressing room he’d give you a little wink as if to say ‘no problem’.

“He was excited to play against big players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney. It didn’t matter.

“I see a lot of that in Alfie because he’s not afraid of these situations.

“I think he’s worked hard and has looked forward to these opportunities.

“It’s the way top defenders think. He’s not overwhelmed by anything and is excited for the challenge.”