Michael Duff | Our aim is to be a high tempo, front-foot team

Head coach Michael Duff admits he would love pre-season to last longer, but feels his Swansea City side have shown glimpses of the front-foot football they are looking to play.

The Swans rounded off their preparations for the 2023-24 campaign with an emphatic 4-0 win over Reading at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Saturday.

Joel Piroe grabbed a brace, with Jerry Yates and captain Matt Grimes also on the scoresheet in Berkshire.

Swansea’s first and fourth goals came from incisive attacking play, while the second and third came as a result of work-rate to compete and press for the ball high up the pitch.

Duff was also pleased with how his side saw out a late spell of pressure to preserve a fifth clean sheet of pre-season.

Given he was appointed right on the eve of players reporting for pre-season, Duff makes no bones about the fact more preparation time would be gratefully received.

But he is clear about what he wants Swansea City to look like, and the aspects of play that reflected that at Reading.

“We want to play up-tempo, in-your-face football. That does not always have to be without the ball, that can be with the ball,” said Duff.

“I thought in the first 10 minutes it took us an age to get the ball back in play, we were a bit slow and ponderous, and we never got out.

“With the multi-ball system we have now, the challenge is can we get the ball back in play in four or five seconds? We don’t want to let opponents set up.

“That was the main message at half-time at Reading, we started hurting them towards the end of the first half in dangerous areas. We were incisive and those were the messages at half-time.

“We scored good goals. Joel Piroe is Joel Piroe, it was a really good finish for the first one.

“We were really pleased with Jerry’s goal. It looks like an open goal, but it comes from a good press, and we scored from their throw-in in their corner.

“Against Bristol Rovers we conceded from a throw-in in the same position, but we locked them in and made sure we did not let them out.

“We have come through pre-season now, and only had a couple of injuries.

“We want to have a team that is fresh and fit. For me personally, being selfish, I would love another eight weeks to work on things, so they are 100 per cent ready.

“They won’t be because we are in the process of introducing so much new information, but we will be as ready as we can.

“We are also looking to bring in a few more players to supplement what we have got.

“But once the real stuff starts, every football club in the league has hope and wants to get promoted. We are no different, so we will see where we are after 10 games and realign things from there.”

Another boost for the Swans in Berkshire was the availability of Joe Allen and Josh Ginnelly, who were introduced from the bench during the closing stages as they returned from injury.

While the pair will need to build up their fitness after missing much of pre-season, Duff was glad to have them back out on the grass.

“We were pleased to see them. Gino is going to take a bit of time he has pretty much missed all of pre-season, and Joe has not played much of it,” said the Swans boss.

“The Swansea fans know about Joe Allen already and what he brings, but I really liked the booking he picked up near the end.

“Whether it’s a pre-season friendly or not, it does no harm to get into the habits of doing some of the horrible parts of the game.

“Sometimes you have to take one for the team and that is what we want. I don’t want us to be a nice team to play against.”