Swans Linked With Move For Scottish Striker As Graham Potter Takes Blame For Slump

Swansea City are being linked with a move for Ayr United striker Lawrence Shankland.

The 23-year-old has scored 26 goals in 23 matches so far this season for the Scottish Championship club, including three hat-tricks.

The latest of those came last Friday when Shankland hit four in his club’s 5-0 drubbing of Dundee United.

The interest in a goalscorer comes as the Swans have gone through their worst run of the season so far in the Championship with three successive defeats.

The 2-1 loss at Derby has dropped the Swans to 13^th in the table, eight points adrift of the play-offs and only the same number above the relegation zone.

Manager Graham Potter has attempted to divert the pressure off his players and onto his own shoulders after winning only three of his last 10 matches.

The defeat to Derby, said Potter, should be laid at his own door.

“We lacked intensity in the first half but I cannot look at the players for that, I have to look at myself,” Potter said.

“I have to take responsibility for that, we probably were a little too deep and too passive because of how we were set-up.

“And if the intensity was not there it was not because the players did not want to do it.

“Sometimes the set-up makes that happen, so that is something I have to look at and we have to look at.

“It is the third game in a week, you are not sure how to approach it in terms of what you can and cannot do but we have to think about the fact we kept going and had some opportunities.

“But as soon as the goal went in Derby were more deserving of the lead at half-time.

“We have had a bad week and that’s what football can do to you, especially in the Championship.

We played three good teams, we have a young group going through a process of finding their way and you cannot short circuit that too much.

“We have to go through some pain and we have to stick together and the fans were with us today even if we did not give them too much and I cannot sit here and complain about the players because they did everything they could. But I am disappointed in myself with the first half.”