After being promotion contenders under Steve Cooper's management for two years, Swansea City are using the 2021-22 campaign as a potential building block for better things next season.

Having parted ways with Cooper in the summer, MK Dons head coach Russell Martin was appointed before the season began and his methods of playing out from the back with a possession style of football hasn't gone fully smoothly.

Right now, the Welsh side sit in 16th position and their season is pretty much all-but done with a mid-table finish expected, but if every player was fully-fit, what would be Martin's best line-up to go with right now? Let's take a look...

 

 

 

 

Swansea don't actually have that much senior depth compared to other squads in the league, but there's still debates to be had in certain positions about who is the right fit.

In-between the sticks, it's clear to see that new signing Andy Fisher from MK Dons epitomises the way that Martin wants to play out from the back, which is why he brought the ex-Blackburn man to the Swansea.com Stadium.

One of the contentious line-up decisions is at the back - Martin is an avid believer for the most part in a back three but who to select there is a tricky decision.

Ryan Manning would probably miss out as a non-natural centre back, but with Ryan Bennett and Kyle Naughton in the best trio it's clear to see that Martin perhaps needs to recruit younger models in the summer.

Manning's best position is probably at left wing back but in this system, Austrian wide player Hannes Wolf is an exciting talent who would probably flourish right now if he wasn't injured.

Matt Grimes is an automatic starting selection in midfield and it's a case of who plays next to him, with Flynn Downes probably preferred to Korey Smith at this point - both are similar players but Downes has time on his side being a youngster.

And then it comes to the final third where there is usually four players vying for three spots.

The goalscoring form of Michael Obafemi recently has seen him shoot into automatic starting contention, and despite not showing the form of early season, Jamie Paterson probably has to make the front three alongside the Ireland international and Joel Piroe.

It means that Olivier Ntcham misses out, but he's not exactly a bad option to have from the bench - even though he would have been expecting to make more of an impact this season.