Preston North End manager Alex Neil is looking for his side to build upon a week with two wins, seven goals and back-to-back clean sheets.
The Lilywhites have had 3-0 and 4-0 wins in two competitions with 25 different players used and the gaffer is hoping for more of the same.
He has plenty of options available to him and says form and his team’s own plans will be the most important factors in his team selection this weekend and not that of their hosts, Steve Cooper’s Swansea City.
“People make too much of us focusing on the opposition,” Alex told iFollow PNE. “What we do it cast an eye over them, to make sure we know what they are doing and then if they have any real frailties we try to capitalise on that and if they have any real strengths we need to negate them.
“But we have a method about how we play. I don’t pick teams solely based on the opposition, we pick teams based on how our lads are performing, the form they are in and maybe the types of strengths we need for that game – the opposition is only a small part of what we do.
“The last week has been very productive for us. We have two groups of players who have both performed extremely well and that gives me a headache for the weekend; but it also gives me great options.
“That is the best position to be in, where all the lads are fighting for their slots, they are all committed and they are all working extremely hard to try and push themselves into the team, so it is a good position to be in.”
In terms of the Swans, the PNE boss has been impressed by what he has seen after their change of manager and says it is easy to see that they are well-coached.
“Swansea have a good brand of football,” he continued. “They have got a system in terms of who they recruit manager wise and player wise and each manager in the last four or five season have folded into each other nicely and continued the work that the previous manager has done.
“They are a good team; they have good players and they sold a couple of players in the summer for £20m each, so what they are doing is obviously working and it will be a tough match for us.
“They were good at moving the ball last year. The game [at Deepdale] finished level; but they moved the ball well, they had good patterns. They have guys who understand their positioning, so they will have done a lot of work on the training ground.
“What they do, is they give you dilemmas – do you drop in with them, do you stay back, do you sit on top of them or sit in and try and play on the counter.
“There are a lot of things to take into account and having watched their first few games they move the ball well, they have dangerous players all over the pitch, they have pace on the counter, so they are a well set up team. You can tell they have been coached well.
“They have got good players and they have a good balance between experience and youth, as well as an expansive brand of football, where they move the ball well. These type of teams are always difficult to play against, because on their day they will cause anybody trouble; you just hope that you can go there and put on a good display to give yourself the best chance of winning the game.”
And the two games between North End and their South Wales opponents in 2018/19 were very different ones, even within the matches themselves.
“[At the Liberty Stadium] I think certainly second half [we were the better the team]. In the first half we started okay and then for half an hour they were the better team.
“They created some chances, won the penalty, missed the penalty, scored the goal, but I think it was complete roles reversed in the second half.
“I thought we did more than enough to get something from the game, potentially even win it, but we just couldn’t get the ball across the line.
“The second game at our place was very different. They moved the ball better than us. It was a really weather day, with the wind and the rain; we played Jayden [Stockley] and turned the ball to him and played more direct and we didn’t play particularly well, but got a result,” he added.