Laudrup looks for League Cup lift

Michael Laudrup hopes victory against Crawley Town in the League Cup on Tuesday will lift spirits at Swansea.

The former Mallorca boss manager a fantastic start to his Premier League career with convincing wins over QPR and West Ham, but has seen his team has succumb to defeat in their last two games.

But the former Denmark international sees a trip to the Broadfield Stadium as an opportunity to arrest that run of poor form.

“We want to get that winning feeling back because you go from everything being perfect by winning two games and getting a draw where we played very well, and then suddenly you lose two games,” he told reporters.

“You have to be careful this run does not extend. This is what Tuesday can bring by going through to the next round.

“We don’t want to lose three games and then it’s four games since we last won. Football turns quickly and that’s why we need to get back on the winning track as soon as possible.”

Swansea are big favourites against League One opposition, but the former Real Madrid and Barcelona forward believes that status simply adds pressure.

“It’s not a very good game to play,” Laudrup said.

“When you play a League One team everyone expects you to win because you are Swansea and you play in the Premier League.

“You have much more to lose. It puts pressure on everybody. The players can’t consider that this is just the Capital One Cup and not the Premier League.

“Everyone knows the Premier League is the daily bread but we want to go as far as possible in the cup.”

The 48-year-old manager is expected to rotate his team for the midweek clash, and sees the match as an opportunity to rest some of his senior players and hand youngsters a chance to impress.

He added: “I want to win but it’s true that we have players who have already been out that came back on Saturday like Ashley and Jonathan. These players probably won’t play on Tuesday.

“(Nathan) Dyer is banned, it is Chico’s last game of his ban and Kemy (Agustien) is still out.

“But we will make a list and the rest will come from the Under-21 team. We are talking about the future and they will get the opportunity to show what they can do in these games. But I want to win this game.”

One player who has been ruled out is Israeli international striker Itay Shechter, who has been given special dispensation to miss the match as he observes the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

The 25-year-old, who signed on loan from Bundesliga side Kaiserslautern in the summer, had been expected to make his first start for the Swans at the Broadfield Stadium.

“In Israel there is one important holiday in the season, that is Yom Kippur,” Shechter said.

“For 24 hours you only pray, you don’t eat or anything. Anyone who’s Jewish cannot work on that day, they cannot do anything.

“Yossi Benayoun is my friend from the national team and he is exactly the same.”