The lowdown on Swansea’s three wingers and their podium positions

Garry Monk is in quite a strong position in terms of his wide options at Swansea – Jefferson Montero has looked good down the left, there have been England call-up suggestions for Nathan Dyer down the right and Wayne Routledge can play in either role, while being more of a natural in terms of drifting centrally to influence attacking moves.

If needs be, Gylfi Sigurdsson could also shuffle wide if Monk decide to set up with a 4-4-2 for a particular fixture, even if this isn’t his default formation.

So how do these three wingers rank? We have taken some statistics to make our own podium order and highlight who we think should be Monk’s preferred options in the wide areas.

Judging wingers is much tougher in modern football, as it’s not all about getting to the byline and sending over crosses.

However, given that Swansea retain a focus on keeping possession more than most, it has to be important to have players capable of beating a man and doing something a little different.

Despite spending less minutes on the pitch than Routledge and Dyer, Montero has virtually attempted the same number of dribbles as the other pair combined.

Furthermore, he is more prolific at getting the ball in the penalty box, which is vital for a winger in a team utilising a sole striker. Therefore, he takes top spot.

All that is left now is for Montero to score a first Premier League goal, which he is priced at 21/10 to do in the 90 minutes in the Swans’ next outing at home to Crystal Palace.

Dyer is ranked in the bronze medal position on the basis that he doesn’t get into the box enough and isn’t creating many chances. These have to be two of the key jobs for a modern day wide player.

Routledge is the most dependable across all of these stats and has the added versatility to demand a starting place. The likes of Samir Nasri, Willian and Santi Cazorla are others that tend to drift infield from a starting berth out wide and this can be crucial to control the centre of the pitch.

It is quite rare to see a team set up nowadays with two wingers directly tasked with hugging the touchline, which Montero and Dyer do tend to do.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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