Concerns about Brendan Rodgers replacing Garry Monk as Swansea manager

Swansea City have sacked manager Garry Monk. The decision was made today, just days after the club lost 0-3 at home against Leicester City. Under Monk, the club had failed to win in its last 5 matches (the worst form in the Premier League).

For Swansea City supporters, the decision is a tough pill to swallow. While the team has looked a shadow of itself in the past two months, it’s been the players that have let the manager down and not vice-versa. New blood will help give the players a push, but I still feel the club are now suffering from the sale of Wilfried Bony last January.

But given the gigantic TV deal going into effect next season, Swansea had to act fast and couldn’t wait any longer in hopes that Monk would be able to turn things around.

Former Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers has been tipped as the favorite to replace Monk. Since leaving for Liverpool in 2012, the Swans won the League Cup under Michael Laudrup and finished in a record 8th-place in the Premier League under Monk.

Both Swansea and Rodgers have changed a lot since then. Under Laudrup, he brought in a tactical change to bring Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge closer to the action in the final third instead of having them out wide. Then under Monk, he relied less on Swansea’s tiki-tika and played a system where players were encouraged more to mix up the attacking styles, as well as solidifying the defense more than previous managers. Both styles worked to varying degrees, but it’s Rodgers who changed the most. When he joined Liverpool, many were expecting Liverpool to copy the same tiki-taka style at the club but that quickly transformed into a hybrid system that kept changing and which often featured playing footballers out of position.

SEE MORE: 10 biggest problems facing Swansea City right now.

For Swansea and Rodgers, there’s an opportunity for both of them to go back to what worked best — a tiki-taka Swansealona system that supporters loved and opposition teams feared.

But it’s difficult to know where Rodgers’ head is at currently in his managing philosophy. At the same time, he would be entering a situation where the players are low on confidence and there are no hidden diamonds that he can find to help the club start scoring goals again. Also, would the tiki-taka system even be as effective as it once was?

It’s also unclear whether Rodgers views Swansea as a stepping stone to get a bigger job in English football again. He worked magic with Swansea with a limited budget, and he could do it again. But how committed is he to staying in South Wales, and what will he do if another promising offer comes in again for him? In Swansea’s current position in the Premier League, perhaps they should be so lucky.

If it’s not Rodgers, the other possible replacements include Rangers manager Mark Warburton, Everton assistant manager Graeme Jones, and Gus Poyet. It’s very unlikely that Swansea would hire David Moyes, and it’s doubtful that there would be any other candidates that fit the system that Swansea employs.

So while hiring Rodgers may seem like a step backwards for Swansea, he’s a ready-made candidate who knows the system and would be able to hit the ground running. If Rodgers does go to Swansea, the only question is whether the players will raise their game and start playing as well as we know they’re capable of doing. It may take time, but hopefully there’ll be enough of a new manager bounce that it can help pick up some points before the January transfer window opens when a new striker will be on top of the list, and we can start all over with a renewed self-confidence.