We need to talk about Swansea City’s defence because it’s becoming a major concern.

It may seem like a strange thing to say considering only eight teams in the entire Championship have a better defensive record than Swansea this season.

Even Norwich City, who enter this weekend top of the table, have conceded more goals than the Swans’ 42.

It may also seem like a bizarre claim because among the club’s most highly-praised players this season are defenders like vice-captain Mike van der Hoorn, his centre-back partner Joe Rodon and right-back Connor Roberts as well as Matt Grimes who has competently filled in at left-back on a number of occasions.

There is no sense that Swansea fans are getting nervy over the state of the defence but perhaps they should because it’s deteriorated dramatically over the course of the season.

Back in October Swansea drew 0-0 with Wigan, leaving them outside the top six only on goal difference. Just 11 games into the season they already had five clean sheets and the second best defensive record in the Championship.

But that match seems to have been a turning point because their record since then is awful.

They’ve played 22 league games since that goal-less draw at the DW Stadium, conceding 36 goals. Only four teams in the entire division have conceded more in that period and three of them are currently in the relegation zone.

Swansea City lost Joe Rodon to injury in January

The Swans have only managed four league clean sheets in that time, only the bottom three have managed fewer.

Put simply, Swansea’s defensive record since the beginning of October has been relegation-battle material.

This can’t really be blamed on any one player or formation. This poor defensive run stretches over five months in which various formations and team selections have been used. Every senior defender has had a run of starts in that period but Swansea have kept conceding goals at a consistent rate. Injuries to Martin Olsson and Rodon haven’t helped but the Swans were leaking goals even before both men were sidelined.

Likewise both first-choice keepers have been given game-time over recent months and neither has been able to stem the flow.

This isn’t down to the absence or poor form of one player, it appears to be a systemic problem which has become an unfortunate and unwanted personality trait in this team.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why Swansea went from solid to soft so quickly.

The number of chances conceded per game has remained consistent from the opening weeks of the season to now and there has only been a slight rise in the number of shots on target faced by Swansea goal-keepers.

Swansea only conceded one goal from set-pieces, including penalties, before that Wigan match, however since then they’ve conceded 16 which certainly hasn’t helped.

Over the past 22 league matches, 44 per cent of goals conceded by Swansea have come from corners, free-kicks or penalties, way higher than the league average and this goes some way towards explaining the Swans’ struggles at the back.

But set-piece frustrations only partly explain the Swans’ defensive downturn.

A look back over the last few months shows a very different attitude at the back compared to the start of the season.

Out of the last 36 goals conceded by Swansea in the league, 13 were a direct result of clear individual errors, indicating a greater degree of carelessness.

But these mistakes are merely a symptom of a wider problem. The Swans routinely look more open and less structured than they were in the opening 11 games of the season. There are more gaps, defenders are getting caught out more easily and the defence generally gets stretched on a more regular basis.

Manager Graham Potter

Some of this can be attributed to fatigue which is clearly affecting one or two players in the back line but Swansea’s general tactics have also changed.

At the start of the season the Swans were rock solid at the back but struggled at the other end of the pitch. They may have only conceded six goals in the opening 11 games but they were also scoring less than a goal per game.

That situation has since been reversed. The Swans have scored in 19 of their last 22 games but it may be that Swansea’s increased success at one end of the pitch is having an adverse effect at the other.

Swansea are trying to play a very open game, involving the entire team in attacks. Full-backs bomb forward, centre-backs are encouraged to dribble through the middle of the pitch, and while this is very exciting to watch it seems to have unbalanced the side.

We can’t say for sure what kind of impact the constant chopping and changing of formations and starting XIs is having on the defence but it can’t be easy to form strong partnerships when those partnerships keep getting broken up.

Swansea need to tighten up at the back, not least because in a few weeks they host one of the top-scoring teams in Europe, Manchester City in the quarter-final of the FA Cup.

Looking longer term Swansea must get the balance right if they are to build on the solid foundations established this season. Dutchman van der Hoorn is out of contract in the summer, if he leaves the Swans could find themselves in serious trouble.

Swansea’s defence is the elephant in the room. Nobody seems to be talking about it at any great lengths but the stats speak for themselves, it’s been underperforming for far too long for this to be considered just a blip.

The three sloppy goals conceded at Sheffield Wednesday last week should have rung alarm bells for the Swans’ management.

If this problem is not taken seriously it will only get worse. Over the final months of the season there has to be a concerted effort to tighten up and what better time to start than on Saturday against the league’s lowest scorers, Bolton Wanderers?