Ryan Manning was rightly at the heart of Swansea City's celebrations at West Brom following yet another pivotal display as Russell Martin's men came from behind to secure a dramatic 3-2 win.
The Republic of Ireland international was once again key to Swansea's attacking efforts at The Hawthorns, although his all-round game was crucial in helping the visitors to secure a third win in four league matches.
Putting the spotlight firmly on Swansea's wing-backs against the Baggies conjures up endless talking points. Manning teed up Matty Sorinola from a corner as the Union SG loanee notched his first goal for the Swans to put the away side ahead after just six minutes on Saturday.
It came after Sorinola picked out Manning at the back post to volley home Swansea's opener in their 3-0 demolition job of Hull City prior to the international break. Sorinola has come on leaps and bounds in recent weeks following a slow start to his Swansea career, something that was understandable given that the 21-year-old had never previously played at Championship level.
It represents a huge boost for Russell Martin and his coaching staff following the concerns over the wing-back positions in the summer. Swansea wasted no time in improving their defence while other pieces of the jigsaw were gradually added as the transfer window progressed.
With limited finances available, replacing Hannes Wolf and Cyrus Christie was always going to be a difficult task, although the Swans seem to have found answers to the dilemma that had fans relentlessly questioning the club's pursuit of wing-backs.
"Can he play RWB?" read the Swans' official Twitter account on the post confirming the loan capture of Fin Stevens from Brentford on deadline day. It's perhaps telling that the Wales Under-21 international and Joel Latibeaudiere - who recently spent six weeks on the sidelines due to a shoulder injury - face a really tough battle to get into the starting 11 at present.
But when it comes to the left flank specifically, Manning is quite simply undroppable at present. He is one of only two players, Sorinola being the other, to feature in each of Swansea's 12 matches in all competitions so far this season.
The 26-year-old has made the most key passes in each of Swansea's last two fixtures, with his average of 1.8 key passes per-game in the Championship this season being comfortably the best figure in the squad. Manning is also the club's joint-second top goal scorer following his strikes against Millwall and Hull while he wins more free-kicks per-game than any other Swansea player and is second only to Nathan Wood for interceptions per-game.
They are all statistics that make for encouraging reading, particularly given that Manning excelled for so long at left centre-back last season. But with the back three now stronger that it was in Martin's debut campaign at the club, Manning has been freed to showcase attacking talents once more.
"Last season, I fell into the role of learning a new position, with Covid and a few injuries," Manning recently said of his current position on the pitch. "But I love the freedom of being able to get into the box and score goals. It’s going well and I can only keep working hard and try to score more goals."
Part of Swansea's collective improvement was typified by Manning at West Brom as the six-cap Irishman carried the ball towards the corner flag deep into injury-time before winning a free-kick to eat up more valuable seconds and ensure there was to be no more late heartache.
To the more pressing issue of Manning's contract situation, chief executive Julian Winter recently confirmed that talks over a potential new deal for the 26-year-old were at an early stage. Head coach Martin himself admitted he was eager to see both Manning and Latibeaudiere - who is also out-of-contract next summer - remain at the club for the long-term, such is their importance within the squad.
As far as Martin is concerned, Manning's performances on the pitch at present are doing all of the head coach's talking for him when it comes to persuading the owners to stump up for a new deal for the versatile wing-back. And the responses to the club's caption of 'Warra player' attached to an image of Manning on social media after Saturday's comeback triumph at West Brom tell you all you need to know about his rapport with the Jack Army.
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