Federico Fernandez: Swansea City must show quality
30th March
Federico Fernandez hopes Swansea City will serve up a reminder of how good they can be when they face Middlesbrough in a key relegation clash this weekend.
The Swans have shown significant signs of improvement since Paul Clement arrived at the Liberty Stadium at the beginning of January.
But the first back-to-back Premier League defeats of Clement's reign mean the pressure is on to deliver victory when Boro visit SA1 on Sunday.
Fernandez, who has not missed a minute of action since Clement was appointed, admits standards slipped in the recent losses at Hull City and Bournemouth.
But the centre-back is convinced the Swans are on the up - and has urged them to prove as much against Steve Agnew's second-bottom Boro side.
"We have had some good results in the last three months," Fernandez said.
"Around Christmas we were in a difficult position in the table. We have recovered well since then, but now we must keep things going.
"We have to work hard in training and work hard to play our football in the games we have coming up.
"We know we can play better than we have against Hull and Bournemouth and now we have the chance to show that."
Clement's first home game in charge ended in a 4-0 defeat to Arsenal, but since then the Swans have been in fine form on their own patch.
Southampton, Leicester City and Burnley have all been seen off in vital fixtures, leaving the Swans searching for a fourth straight Liberty win when they take on Boro.
With Tottenham due in Wales next Wednesday, Fernandez is eyeing a chance to put some daylight between themselves and the bottom three.
"We have had a couple of disappointing games away from home," the Argentinian international added.
"We had a chance to take some points and we expected more from those games, but for some reason we didn't play our style, maybe because there was a bit of pressure.
"But we have done well at home when we have needed to win. Now we have to focus on the next two games at our stadium because they are massive for us."
