Leon Britton believes Swansea have come such a long way this season that teams have had to change the way they play at the Liberty Stadium.
Swansea midfielder says visiting teams have changed approach
Leon Britton believes Swansea have come such a long way this season that visiting teams have had to change the way they play at the Liberty Stadium, and he feels there are lessons to be learned from the defeat by Everton.
Swansea have impressed with their style of play all season after being promoted from the Championship, and have been particularly difficult to compete with on home turf.
However, they suffered a 2-0 loss on Saturday as goals from Leighton Baines and Nikica Jelavic sealed a deserved victory for the Toffees.
It was a tight, disciplined pressing performance from Everton that prevented the Swans from playing their usual passing game and Britton admits it was a difficult afternoon.
However, he does feel the different approach sides adopt in Wales is a sign of their development.
"It shows how far we have come," the midfielder said. "I think at the beginning of the season teams coming down here, I wouldn't say they weren't bothered about how we played, but they concentrated on what they wanted to do.
"Now teams coming down know we pass the ball well and are looking for ways to stop that.
"It's a compliment in a way that they are changing their gameplan to stop us playing. You have to give Everton credit as well.
"They have some quality players and are an experienced Premier League team."
Space
Brendan Rodgers has set his sights on establishing Swansea as a top-flight club in the long term and Britton knows they will have to continue progressing.
"I suppose people will always look for ways to stop you playing," he said. "They will have different ideas.
"With Everton it was pushing players up to us and in the first half Tim Cahill was next to me all the half so it was difficult to find space.
"But these things are going to happen and you have to work out ways to deal with it and make sure you still influence the game.
"They were a bit similar to Norwich in the way they went about things.
"Against Norwich we were poor on the day. This time I don't think we were at our best by any stretch, but that was partly down to the way they played doing well.
"But these are the games we have to learn from, other teams will look at sides who got results here and see what they did."
