Europa League was tough, says Dyer

Nathan Dyer admits Swansea City’s UEFA Europa League campaign took its toll on their Premier League season.

The Welsh outfit made it to the last 32 of the competition and, including qualifiers, played 12 extra matches on top of their four domestic cup outings and 38 Premier League fixtures.

At one point, the club looked in danger of suffering relegation back to the Championship following a run of one win in nine matches between mid-February and mid-April, but Dyer and his team-mates turned things around, winning three of their last four matches to comfortably secure survival.

And the diminutive winger conceded that Swansea’s lengthy European campaign stretched the squad in the final weeks of the campaign.

“Being in the Europa League has been very hard,” he told Wales Online.

“We haven’t got a massive squad so trying to play those games, then play in the cups and the league, it’s difficult, especially as a new team coming into that situation.

“It’s been a great learning curve for us as well, we know about these games now and how to handle it all if we get another chance.

“You play in different countries and the style of play is different, then you go and play in the Premier League and it’s changed again.

“Then when the domestic cups come into it you can play a team in the Championship or League One and it’s changed again. You have to adjust to all those sort of things and it’s difficult in such a short space of time.

“It was tough but we can be pleased with where we finished in the end, now we can start next season fresh and push forwards.”