By Paul Jones
Michael Duff has suggested he may have only three games left to save his job after Swansea City completed their worst start to a season for 32 years.
The Swans head coach is still searching for his first league win as manager seven matches into the season after his team were held to a 1-1 draw at Queens Park Rangers.
“I know we have to win games. I’m not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes,” said Duff., who will also be without injured Joe Allen for a number of weeks.
“The last two games were really poor against bitter rivals (Cardiff City and Bristol City) so I understand why that gets the fans’ backs up, they are results led.
“There were improvements at QPR but I know you can’t just keep having small positives, you have to win and if we go 10, 15 or 20 games without one, then I won’t be here.
“But right now I’m looking at the positives because we need to build a framework. You can’t just have freedom all the time and then concede soft goals.
“I’ve had conversations with the board and I believe I have their full support, but I’m not in control of that,” Duff added.
“However, the world we live in is about winning. People probably won’t listen to a lot of what I say because we haven’t won. But all I ask is whether the players are giving me everything and they are.
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Duff acknowledged he is under pressure after Lyndon Dykes’ stoppage-time goal rescued a point for QPR at Loftus Road.
Josh Ginnelly’s early goal looked like giving the Swans a first Championship win under Duff.
But Scotland forward Dykes, on as a substitute, equalised by getting in front of defender Ben Cabango to head home Ilias Chair’s left-wing cross.
Swansea ended the match with 10 men after Ollie Cooper was sent off in the final seconds after a foul on Dykes earned him a second yellow card.
“I understand we need to win games to get the time to do that, but I see players who are giving everything, and when the whistle blew six or seven of our players dropped to their knees because they had given everything. I cannot ask for more than that.
“It’s where we are at the minute.”
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Asked about his failure so far to convince fans he was the right man to succeed Russell Martin, Duff gave a blunt assessment.
“My job’s not to win the fans over,” Duff said after the game when asked if he had a message to fans who had seemingly already made their minds up.
“My job’s to win games. If they’ve made their mind up, they’ve made their mind up.
“The Bristol City game wasn’t good enough. There was no intensity. The Cardiff game, we’ve shown the players. The reason it looks like there’s a lack of identity is that we’re doing certain things in training and then on matchday they’re doing their own thing.
“They’ve been shown that. Today I’ve said to them, if you can guarantee that shape, togetherness and spirit. Then you can start focusing on other parts of the game.
“At the minute it’s half an hour there, 20 minutes there, an hour there, an hour against Preston, and we feel the pressure a little bit.
“It’s about sticking to the process. You build teams on foundations, on solid foundations, on non-negotiables, and then you can build on the other stuff. I’m not naive enough to forget that I haven’t won a game yet.
“But if people have already made their mind up, they’ve already made their mind up.
“If I don’t win a game, then I’ll get the sack anyway. That’s not just me. That’s anyone in football. But I think there were lots of positives today.
“We are fifth in the league for xG against, that’s the foundation, and from there we can start working on being better with the ball,” said Duff whose team are 22nd in the early Championship table and in the relegation zone.”
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Duff’s stress on the metric of expected goals rather than real ones is unlikely to cut much ice with Swans fans who expected better than three draws and four defeats and a goal difference of -5 to begin the campaign.
The loss of Allen with a groin injury will only deepen the anxiety.
Dykes’ goal spared Rangers a fourth defeat of the season at home, where they have won just once since last October.
Summer signing Ginnelly, making his first league start for Swansea, netted after seven minutes.
He was helped by a mistake by goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, who failed to hold Jamal Lowe’s low cross from the right and the ball ricocheted off Ginnelly and into the net despite defender Osman Kakay’s attempt to prevent it crossing the line.
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