Carlos Carvalhal has proven to be Swansea City's temporary solution for what were - and continue to be - deeply-ingrained issues at the club

The Swans now know survival is out of their hands as Carvalhal's bright start continues to fizzle out

Carvalhal ultimately has struggled to keep his good start going with a meaningful impact (AFP/Getty Images)

Struggling to make himself heard over the sounds of the music from the away dressing room next door, Carlos Carvalhal explained how, with Kyle Naughton stepping into midfield when Swansea had the ball, his team had not in fact played the back five system they were accused of using.

Such defensive comments on a defensive system were some way from the effervescent Carvalhal of the new year, the man who arrived to replace Paul Clement and looked briefly to spark Swansea towards Premier League safety. There were statement wins over Arsenal and Liverpool and then a 4-1 thumping of West Ham. But that was two months ago and since then Swansea have scored two goals and taken three points from eight games, losing their nerve at the worst possible moment.

Of course Swansea are not down, not quite yet. If Huddersfield lose their last two games then Swansea can save themselves by beating Stoke on the final day. But the odds are slim, and Carvalhal admitted that it was “horrible” that Swansea could no longer “depend on themselves”. He even described the prospect of their survival – still 9/4 with bookmakers – as a “miracle”.

That sums up the negativity at Swansea, and the sense that the arrival of Carvalhal was just a temporary solution to ingrained problems. The Swansea players saw Carvalhal as a brilliant motivator, who convinced the players they could win again, but less of a meticulous coach than Paul Clement. And the problem with motivational managers, as Slaven Bilic found out at West Ham United, is that however entertaining and articulate they might be, their effects are not permanent.

But in the likely event that Swansea do go down, Carvalhal cannot be blamed for a problem that he walked into. The fans at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday night did not hold him responsible, turning their ire instead on chairman Huw Jenkins, for selling to the consortium led by Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan. One fan even called him a “traitor” for selling to Americans.

The reality is that the club have been slipping downwards for three or four years now, losing that sense of identity which is the only way a club in the bottom half of the table can survive. That is why Burnley and Bournemouth have overachieved since coming up but why teams who lose any identity, like Stoke City, start to plummet.

Swansea did have an identity, ‘The Swansea Way’, and it took them to heights they never dreamed of, winning the League Cup, playing in Europe. But from Garry Monk to Francesco Guidolin to Bob Bradley to Clement to Carvalhal, Swansea have been drifting further away from that identity turning in narrower and narrower short-term circles every time.

When teams only ever appoint fire-fighters they can never look up, and when you appoint Guidolin, Bradley and Clement then Carvalhal in three consecutive seasons then those men are only ever going to be fixing the last man’s mistakes while trying to scrape their way towards 40 points. You can call it the ‘Sunderland Cycle’ and after years jumping from one fire-fighter to the next, Sunderland finished bottom of the Premier League last season and bottom of the Championship this year. Accrington Stanley and Fleetwood Town in League One await next year.

Next season is still a long way off and the immediate priority for Swansea is hoping that Chelsea batter Huddersfield tonight to keep Sunday’s games alive. Carvalhal said last night that he is so “exhausted” by the mental drain of the relegation fight that he cannot even bear to watch. Survival from here would be his own personal triumph, but relegation would be on far more people than just him.