Wycombe Wanderers make the trip across the Welsh border to face Swansea City in the second round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday. In a rare meeting between the two sides, both will look to improve on underwhelming performances in this competition in recent seasons.
Swansea come into this early round tie on the back of a 1-1 draw with Cardiff City in the south Wales derby on Sunday. Local lad Liam Cullen opened the scoring inside 10 minutes for the Swans, but a late Callum Robinson equaliser meant the spoils were shared at the Swansea.com Stadium, as the hosts handed Cardiff their first point of the season.
The draw moves Swansea up to eighth with four points to their name after three matches, but there was disappointment at their inability to hold on and build more momentum after a 3-0 win over Preston North End last week. A better showing in this competition for the 2013 winners will be most welcomed, as a 3-1 win over League Two Gillingham in the previous round was just their third EFL Cup win in four seasons, after first round exits to lower-league opposition in 2020 and 2022.
The next challenge for Luke Williams's side is the visit of Wycombe, a side they have faced just twice in 17 years, both during Wanderers' season in the Championship back in 2020-21. Swansea won 2-0 at Adams Park, but there was nothing to separate the sides when they met here, drawing 2-2, and League One Wycombe would be pleased if they can be as competitive this week.
Matt Bloomfield's men recorded their first league win of the season at the weekend, finally putting strong attacking performances to good use with a 2-0 win over Rotherham United. Wycombe had also scored two goals in both of their opening League One fixtures, but fell to 3-2 defeats against promotion hopefuls Wrexham and Birmingham City.
In close encounters against two strong sides, narrow defeats were disappointing but encouraging, and Wanderers were able to get over the line to get off the mark on home soil on Saturday. Bloomfield also saw his side net twice in their first round clash with Northampton Town which booked their spot here, making it four seasons in a row that Wycombe have progressed past the first round. However, getting much further has proved problematic, as Sutton United and Bristol City have dumped them out at this stage in the past two seasons, while they were condemned to a third round exit the season before.
Six players who started Swansea's win over Gillingham in the last round have not started either of the league games since, so they could all be given another opportunity here. Among them is striker Zan Vipotnik, who recently arrived from Bordeaux after their dissolution, while there could also be debuts for Florian Bianchini and Nelson Abbey, after both were unused subs on Sunday.
On the injury front, Sam Parker, Aimar Govea and Josh Ginnelly are set to remain on the sidelines for the hosts. Despite only being a few weeks into the new season, Wycombe already have a lengthy list of absentees currently. Goalkeeper Nathan Bishop joins the likes of Ryan Tafazolli, David Wheeler, Sam Vokes, Luke Leahy, Brandon Hanlan and Beryly Lubala on the treatment table for the visitors ahead of the trip.
New signings Gideon Kodua, Aaron Morley and Cameron Humphreys all came off the bench to make their debuts against Rotherham, with the latter scoring the opening goal in that 2-0 success, and could well start here.
Swansea's Chance to Rotate
While changes are likely for the hosts, a strong bench gives them the chance to rotate effectively in the cup competitions, and that could see them into the third round here. Being a division below their hosts, Wycombe are understandably the underdogs, but they should make a good fist of it, even if that does still result in elimination.
Key Battles
The Swans will face a team in Wycombe Wanderers tonight with a number of doubtful and definite players out. Wycombe have started the season with two losses and a win scoring six and conceding six. And now they have injuries in abundance.
Siriki Dembele: A Possible Target for the Swans
First off, Siriki Dembele, currently a Birmingham City player will crop up over the next forty eight hours at a club near you. We reported on him back on August 1st, and indeed as expected nobody was really interested in him at the price Birmingham City wanted. Speculation that Blackburn Rovers and the Swans were interested in Dembele was accurate, and potentially remains. However, it very much depends on what the Swans have said to him, and indeed Blackburn who are sitting on a big bag of money this summer. Far more than the Swans have. The thing in the Swans favour is they are a more attractive proposition possibly ? And indeed the commitment of head coach, Luke Williams to talk with him, and for him to understand what the Swans need.
He’s definitely going somewhere, and his exclusion from Birmingham City’s line up last night against Fulham wasn’t going unnoticed. We can disclose the first issue, and that’s his salary, rumoured, and it is pretty much around £13,500 a week tends to put the Swans off at prices like that. And if it becomes or is permanent you can be rest assured there will be another big fee by Swansea City standards. If he wants the salary he is on now we just can’t see him coming to Swansea. Even if he’s on loan, without a deal being done. He has seen his salary decrease a lot since leaving Bournemouth. Will he want another step down ? Unless some remarkable negotiations have occurred, and anything is possible, it doesn’t add up.
We will leave this here. Tony Mowbray on Dembele. “I called him in for a one on one because I was a bit concerned in one of the early training sessions that he didn’t want to run. His first comment to me was that he liked to conserve energy for when he had the ball and could damage the opposition. I’m saying, that isn’t going to work, mate, and so we are going to play with ten men when you haven’t got it and then you come alive when we’ve won it ?”
Wycombe's Injury Crisis
Tonight’s opposition are Wycombe Wanderers, we’ve covered a bit on here already.
Injuries are not good for the Chairboys. Players ‘rumoured’ to be out for this game. Nathan Bishop (ankle surgery) Ryan Tafazolli (unspecified) Aaron Morley (cup-tied) Berryl Lubala (hamstring) David Wheeler (unspecified) Luke Leahy (knee) Brandon Hanlan (ACL) Sam Vokes (unspecified) That’s a flexible list and it could be more or a few could have made recoveries over the last two days. Either way that’s an injury crisis.
Alexo from gas room.org says on his club currently. We are a hybrid between now trying to pass and play it out from the back mixed with an ingrained mentality to lump it long if all else fails. It’s a bit early in the season to say, but most of us are reasonably happy...ish with our new recruitments. Humphrey's and Morley changed the game for us last week. Morley however is cup tied for this one. Kone up front has many of us hoping for a striker who will get well into double figures for us this season.... however he is still very green and unproven at our level. Personally I'm hoping for at least to be able to match last seasons tenth placed finish in league one. On the away support I guess circa 300 ? On the manager. Bloomfield is a promising young manager who is learning and improving all the time. I currently think he is doing a sterling job. Weaknesses : I feel our weakness is maybe not knowing who our true best starting eleven is yet and in what formation. However I expect our team will be swapped up quite a bit with our match against you. We have a mini injury crisis and I expect some of our top players will be rested for the league game against Blackpool shortly after we play you.
Cheers Alexo, appreciated.
Swansea's Plans and Debuts on the Horizon
The Swans are in the same position, a game tonight is a good opportunity to field some new faces, especially Nelson Abbey and Florian. They have completed a pre season and have been training with the club. Why not ? With this game and then Saturday away at West Bromwich Albion believe it or not it’s the international break and two weeks off from club football. Crazy.
Team news later and more from Luke Williams. Tonight’s game kicks off at 7:45pm at the Swansea.Com.
Swansea's Manager's View
Luke Williams is expected this evening to make changes in his selection as he gives some of the newer summer signings a chance to shine as the Swans entertain Wycombe at the Swansea.com Stadium this evening in the second round of the Carabao Cup. Just two weeks after we progressed with a comfortable home win over Gillingham, we are back in action tonight for a fourth successive time at home and looking to finish that period with an unbeaten home record still intact. Progression tonight will move the Swans into the last 32 of the tournament and into the stage in the competition with the teams that qualified for European competition added to those who progress through the second round.
And Williams has confirmed that he will be looking to rotate his squad as he faces up to another three game week and the penultimate game before we break for the first international break of the season.
“We will make some changes tonight,” said Williams via his programme notes for the fixture. “As we are in the middle of another three-game week, but they will not be extensive as we look to build consistency of performances while making sure players get the minutes they need while we are still early in the season.
“We face a different challenge tonight, but one we certainly need to be ready and focused for.
“Wycombe have made an encouraging start to their season, and it’s important we are prepared to play with intensity and energy, and be every bit as professional as we were against Gillingham in the last round.”
Those changes are expected to give Swans debuts to both Nelson Abbey and Florian Bianchini whilst Zan Vipotnik is expected to start up front with Sunday’s goalscorer, Liam Cullen, dropping to the bench to allow for that change to happen. Bianchini’s appearance could see Eom move into a more central role behind Vipotnik whilst for Abbey it has been suggested by several people that it will be at the expense of Cabango and we could even see Kristian Pedersen line up alongside him with Harry Darling also earmarked for a rest ahead of the weekend. Nathan Tjoe-A-On is also expected to be in the starting line up for the game.
Although Williams looks set to make these changes he is still keen on cup progress and will keep his bench strong with options should he need to make changes to see progression which he wants to achieve inside ninety minutes and not rely on the potential lottery of a penalty shoot out.
Wycombe's Perspective
Wycombe arrive in SA1 with somewhat of an injury crisis with seven players missing from their weekend clash with Rotherham – absentees included first-choice goalkeeper Nathan Bishop, centre back Ryan Tafazolli, utility player David Wheeler, midfielder Luke Leahy, and strikers Sam Vokes, Bez Lubala and Brandon Hanlan. Captain Jack Grimmer also went off injured in the win over the Millers, and Bloomfield believes the right-back has sustain a ‘muscle injury’.
“It’s not ideal,” said manager Matt Bloomfield before adding about his transfer business “We’re down to the bare bones but we’re pleased with the business we have done.”
Wycombe have so far introduced three news faces in the squad, including Cameron Humphreys, Aaron Morley and Gideon Kouda who signed from Ipswich Town, Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United respectively.
On the subject of the transfer window, Andy Coleman confirmed that the club are still “working to ensure that we have news to bring you before the deadline this friday” (Transfer latest news here)
You can keep up to date with the views of the fans in our matchday thread which for this game can be found here.
Final Thoughts
Swansea City will be looking to use this game as an opportunity to give their new signings some valuable game time. With a strong bench, they should be able to rotate effectively and maintain their momentum in the cup. Wycombe, however, will be hoping to cause an upset despite their injury problems. They have shown a good attacking spirit in recent weeks, and they will be looking to capitalize on any defensive errors from the Swans. This should be an exciting and competitive match, with both teams looking for a win.
