Alfie Mawson has jumped to the defence of Renato Sanches and insisted the Portugal star will make a success of his loan move from Bayern Munich to Swansea City.
Sanches has begun with two low key performances for the Swans –against Newcastle and Tottenham – which both ended with him being substituted.
The 20-year-old has also been criticised by pundits such as Jamie Redknapp and suffered reports back in Germany that he was let go by the Bundesliga club because of doubts over his attitude.
With manager Paul Clement having insisted Sanches needs game time, the veteran of Portugal’s Euro 2016 campaign is likely to start the Carabao Cup third round clash against Reading at the Madejski Stadium on Tuesday.
“He is a quality player, and in training he is so encouraging,” Swans defender Mawson said.
“The gaffer said last week he is going to take time to adapt, and he hasn’t played a lot of football lately, so he needs to get that fitness back and when he does he will be a star player and it will be a joy to play with him.
“He did well (against Tottenham). Obviously, it is a tough test to come away to Tottenham, and he had a good performance.”
Clement is likely to make changes for the trip to Reading, but not wholesale switches, with Sanches, Angel Rangel, Leroy Fer and Roque Mesa all probable starters, along with striker Wilfried Bony.
Swansea head back along the M4 three days after holding Spurs to a 0-0 draw at Wembley.
And Mawson, asked if the Swans required a reaction following their home defeat against Newcastle six days earlier, added: “Yes, especially the performance.
“We didn’t do enough last week, and we knew it would be a tough game, but we seem to come away to the big grounds, like we did season, and prove that we are a good side.”
Mawson played in every Premier League match following Clement’s arrival at the Liberty Stadium on January of last season and has already appeared in all five of their League games so far in the current campaign.
He wants to continue that trend, bit also believes the club are well capable of another Cup success following their historic League Cup triumph of 2013.
“I want to play 38 Premier League games this season. The priority is to stay up, but we don’t want to be looking down. We want to be pushing up and trying to get into mid-table – or maybe even higher.
“We want to go on a little cup run as well. We want to see if we can progress like we did when we won the League Cup a few years ago. It would be great to get to Wembley again and recreate that feeling.”
Another new signing Mawson already knows well is his England U21 team-mate Tammy Abraham. The Chelsea youngster turned down a move to Newcastle to seal a season-long loan move to Swansea, and Mawson was only too happy to help him with the decision.
“I tried to help him with the move,” he says. “He asked me what the club was like, what Swansea was like as a city. I told him it’s the right place if you want to get your head down and properly push on. You haven’t got too many outside distractions in Swansea, it’s nice and quiet. I think he made the right decision.”
Swansea are unbeaten in four games on the road this season in all competitions, conceding just one goal away from home, and Clement said: “Good defending has to be applauded.
“You go to Italy and they applaud it. We are showing that on our day we are difficult to beat.”
