Swindon Town v Everton - Pre-season Friendly - 11/07/2015

Ahead of Everton’s meeting with Swindon Town on Saturday, evertonfc.com spoke to Tom Bassam, Chief Sports Writer at the Swindon Advertiser, to find out more about the Robins...

Swindon are back in pre-season training this week. What sort of shape are they in?

Not quite where they'd want to be. At the moment they only have 13 pros and when they played Swindon Supermarine on Tuesday night, they had six trialists in the squad. They lost a lot of their players at the end of last season, including goalkeeper Wes Foderingham and the top goalscorer Andy Williams, and they had five loanees that made up the first team. They also sold Mass Luongo, their best player, and Ben Gladwin, the rising star, to QPR. So they are rebuilding.

How hard will it be to replace those players?

Swindon have recruited well in the last couple of years. The chairman Lee Powers seems to be fairly well connected. A lot of Premier League clubs like the way Swindon play so are quite willing to send youngsters here, which is expected to happen again this season. Then it will be down to how quickly the group gels.

What style of play do Swindon adopt?

It’s a progressive, on-the-floor brand of football. Some of the fans are a little unhappy with it and would rather Swindon move the ball forward a bit quicker. It’s not a style that historically has been associated with the manager Mark Cooper but it seems to be how the chairman wants them to play because it makes Swindon more marketable.

Of the players who are left, who should Evertonians keep an eye on?

Yaser Kasim. He is the best midfielder they have. He plays centrally and is an Iraq international with good feet, composure and an eye for a pass. You have also got Nathan Byrne, who plays as a wingback. He was one of League One’s players of the season. He was taken from Tottenham as a right-back but he has been pushed further and further forward as his career has progressed. Then up front you have three good strikers – Michael Smith, Jon Obika and Jermaine Hylton. The most interesting is the latter, who they signed from Redditch United in January. He didn’t do much for the first couple of months but he became a real force in the play-off run. He looks unorthodox but drifts past players and is very quick. Smith can be dangerous and Obika is a 15-goal-a-season striker in my opinion.

Roberto Martinez says he will use Everton's game at Swindon Town to give as many players as possible a run-out ahead of next week's Barclays Asia Trophy in Singapore.

The Blues are set to taste their first action of 2015/16 at the County Ground on Saturday in a match that will be shown LIVE on evertontv.

Martinez's men will then take on Stoke City at Singapore's National Stadium next Wednesday before facing Arsenal or a Singapore XI in the final or third-place play-off three days later.

"The Swindon game will be a perfect introduction playing-wise as we will be able to get 45 minutes’ playing time for most of the players in our squad ahead of us travelling to Singapore," Martinez told evertonfc.com.

"Logistically, the game fits in well in terms of our preparation overall.

"We have enjoy some good groundwork during the first few days in training and the game at Swindon and the week we then have in Singapore will follow what has been a build-up week full of volume at Finch Farm."

League One Swindon narrowly missed out on promotion to English football's second tier last season, eventually losing out in the play-off final to Preston North End.

And though preparations for the campaign ahead remain very much in their infancy, Martinez believes Mark Cooper's Robins will provide a valuable challenge in ensuring Everton are fit and ready to go for their Premier League curtain-raiser against Watford on 8 August.

"From the very beginning, we want to make sure that we start the season well and carry that on," added the Toffees chief. "In our first 10 games we will face teams which finished in the top eight of the Premier League last season, so it is a very challenging start.

"But that’s what we are preparing for during these weeks, to make ourselves as strong as we can be early in the campaign."

Evertonians unable to travel to Wiltshire will be able to watch full LIVE coverage of Saturday's game on evertontv.

Blues legend Graeme Sharp will be joining resident commentator Darren Griffiths on the County Ground gantry and fans will be able to put their questions and comments to the pair using the hashtag #EFCLive on Twitter.

A six-game pre-season pass for evertontv LIVE is priced at £17.99 or Blues can watch Saturday's match for a one-off price of £3.99. The full match and highlights will be available for purchasers to watch again on demand shortly after the final whistle.