Paul Clement insisted the FA Cup is not a distraction for Swansea City amid their battle for Premier League survival, with the club’s new manager viewing Saturday’s trip to Hull City as a chance to build some confidence in a competition that he won twice with Chelsea.
Clement described the FA Cup finals in 2009 and 2010, when he was an assistant to Guus Hiddink and Carlo Ancelotti respectively, as occasions that “make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up” and, although the 44-year-old is not thinking of a trip to Wembley with Swansea just yet, he is keen to create a bit of momentum on the back of Tuesday night’s crucial 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace, which lifted the Welsh club to within one point of safety.
After watching some of the action at Selhurst Park from the stand and allowing Alan Curtis, the caretaker manager, to pick the team and decide on the tactics, the third-round tie at Hull will be the first time that Clement has officially taken charge. Clement confirmed that he will make a few alterations to the lineup, but not wholesale changes as he wants to take the opportunity to assess the strength of the squad he has inherited before finalising transfer targets.
“The FA Cup is not a distraction,” Clement said. “We have had a couple of sessions and [the Hull game] is a chance for me to observe the players, the level they are at and what we need to do in terms of personnel to improve the team. In this short period I have to give players as much chance to get in front of me, it’s not only in games but in training. We’re videoing everything, we’re replaying everything, they are under the microscope. But we’re also trying to get information into them so we can help the team very quickly.
“This weekend is different, I will make some changes, not massive ones because we want to try and create some continuity and get some cohesiveness in the team, so I am thinking about how to give them confidence and an opportunity. We want to win the game and we approach every game like that, but more than that I want to see a performance, a 90-minute performance. Against Palace we had a 45-minute performance, we need to stretch that over a longer period.”
The FA Cup will always be special to Clement. He had been working with Chelsea’s first-team for a little over three months, as Hiddink’s No2, when they beat Everton 2-1 in the 2009 FA Cup final. Twelve months later Ancelotti’s Chelsea beat Portsmouth 1-0 to complete the double and Clement, who went on to work with the Italian at Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, was once again celebrating.
“I love it as a competition,” he said. “Having been to the final and stood there with the trophy on the podium, Abide With Me and the national anthem ringing out around you, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.”
