Swansea City will look to strengthen their defence over the summer but one part of the solution might have been under their noses the whole time.
Only four teams in the entire Championship shipped more goals than Swansea last season and it’s 20 years since they last conceded this many goals in a 46 game campaign. More than a quarter of their fixtures saw them concede three or more goals, which is a terrible record.
This isn't strictly a personnel issue and a lot of the problems also come down to tactical flaws which see the team over-extend itself, often needlessly. Nevertheless there seems to be a general consensus among fans that a few new faces may be needed to solidify the Swans' rearguard.
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But in order to play the Russell Martin way, a defender needs to tick an inordinate number of boxes. Heading and tackling ability is seemingly a desired but not essential quality if the past nine months are anything to go by. We have seen natural centre-backs such as veteran Ryan Bennett and Man City loanee Finley Burns left out of the squad entirely in favour of full-backs who've been asked to play out of position.
Martin has been determined to create a team full of passers and dribblers, even if this means picking sides without many, or at times any, traditional centre-halves. All three of the central defenders who started the final two games of the season were under six feet tall, which is quite a break from the norm in the rough and tumble of the Championship.
Martin himself transitioned from being an excellent full-back to a dependable centre-back during his playing career, so perhaps we should have been more prepared for a season with Kyle Naughton anchoring the defence and Ryan Manning competing for headers in a central position.
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Sadly, Swansea's defence has generally struggled this season, becoming a glaring weakness in the side. Changes will be needed if they are to compete higher up the table next season. What we need are more players like Ben Cabango. His absence was painfully costly after he was forced off with injury against Bournemouth in the final weeks of the campaign. He’s strong in the air, defensively solid and has worked hard to improve his footwork in order to meet Martin's demands.
Sadly science is yet to reach the stage where clubs can clone Welsh international defenders, so we'll have to find options from elsewhere to partner the likes of Cabango. One particularly well-trodden path leads to the loan market. Young centre-backs such as Ben Wilmot and most notably, Marc Guehi, had great spells under Steve Cooper.
But many of the loan deals which helped make Swansea play-off contenders under Cooper were made possible by expensive wages. Without Premier League parachute payments, it will be more difficult to attract the very best of England's academies down west.
So we may have to look elsewhere for these defenders. Scouting from abroad has become increasingly difficult since Brexit, with new regulations making it almost impossible to procure players from lower leagues in countries such as Spain and Germany.
The English lower leagues are therefore probably the most realistic source for reinforcements and there's a lot of talent to be found in League One and to a lesser extent League Two. Leagues which were once characterised by rustic, long-ball football now have technically proficient players who want to express themselves.
Harry Darling has shown himself to be exactly the kind of footballer Swansea would want in defence, a big physical figure with excellent feet and genuine goal threat. Since the MK Dons' play-off exit last week, some Swansea fans have been hoping Martin could raid his former club to get the 22-year-old defender, but he still wouldn't be cheap.
Even after looking at all of these options I believe there is one player who could make a difference, and he wouldn't require any kind of transfer fee. Brandon Cooper has been a Swan since the age of six and came through the youth set-up to become a member of the first-team squad. For years he was a key figure in the under-23 set-up and made his senior debut back in 2018.
But since then his first-team opportunities have been limited and I'm not sure why. He’s a natural centre-back who’s over six feet tall but also mobile enough to cope with the fast pace of the Championship. He reads the game well and looks comfortable enough on the ball.
During the 2020-21 season he was sent on loan to Newport County where he was probably the best centre-back in the league at that time. Having excelled at Rodney Parade, manager Steve Cooper cut short his loan, only for the youngster to pick up an injury immediately upon his return.
But with a new manager introducing a new style of play, and with starting positions very much up for grabs, the 2021-22 season looked like being his chance to break through. During the opening month of the campaign he made three starts and came on as an early sub away at Preston.
His performances were not earth-shattering but for the most part he looked assured and did not look out of place in a Championship defence. He had a pass success rate of 82 per cent over those four matches but on top of this, he wasn’t dribbled past once and he won more than 60 per cent of his aerial duels, which is pretty respectable compared to other Championship centre-backs.
And while his early-season displays were not fault-less, it’s worth remembering the chaotic environment in which they were played, under a manager who had only just arrived and who had just hit the players with a totally new style of play to master. The team was in a state of flux and the players were very much learning as they went along.
With this context in mind, it seems strange that he was then jettisoned quite abruptly, playing just one EFL Cup match between the end of August and a surprise start against Southampton in a January FA Cup tie. Against Southampton he did pretty well. In fact he did remarkably well considering his lack of match practice.
It seemed at that point as though he may finally get a proper chance to develop in the first team but instead he was sent out on loan once again, back to League Two with Swindon Town. It was an underwhelming move, seeing as he had already distinguished himself at that level and probably needed a step up to help his progression.
Bad luck struck shortly after his move as he was ruled out for the season with injury just eight games into his loan spell. Brandon Cooper has shown signs of real promise but a combination of injuries and a lack of opportunities at his parent club have left him in limbo to a certain extent.
The Wales Under-21 international turns 23 later this year, so he’s reaching a significant point in his career. He needs to play regular first- team football and there’s no good reason why that shouldn’t happen at his boyhood club.
I’m not suggesting he will be the next Marc Guehi and he won’t be the silver bullet which solves all of Swansea’s defensive issues, but he has a number of attributes which the Swans have lacked at the back and could develop into a very able Championship defender.
Considering the Swans’ desperate need for genuine centre-backs who are comfortable on the ball but can also handle the physicality and pace of the Championship, it makes sense to give Cooper the proper chance he’s been begging for.
