It's much too early to judge us, says Swansea City boss Michael Laudrup

MICHAEL Laudrup insists Swansea City should not be judged too soon after their fluctuating start to the Premier League season, declaring: “We must get serious.”

Swansea flew out of the blocks in August, winning their first two games of the campaign by an aggregate score of 8-0.

But they go to Stoke City today looking to end a three-game streak without a league success.

And Laudrup has called on Swansea’s followers — and his players — to stay calm whichever way results go in these early stages of the 2012-13 campaign.

“Before the first game, a lot of people said Swansea will be one of the four favourites to get relegated,” he said.

“Then we won two games and people were saying ‘Could they go into Europe?’

“That’s not serious, to be honest, because we had only played two games.

“Then we played another two or three games and suddenly we are back where we were before.

“Football is about emotions and dreams for the fans, but inside we have to stay calm and stay level.

“Of course we are happy when we win and we can get a little carried away when we win two games, but we can’t go from one extreme to the other.

“We can’t change the target, or the opinion of what we are, every two weeks. That’s not serious.”

Unlikely pacesetters early on, Laudrup’s men are in mid-table ahead of a testing trip to Stoke.

Swansea have moved closer to the sort of position they might have expected to be in after finishing 11th last season — but Laudrup believes the table carries little weight in late September.

“Let’s see where we are after ten games, or after 19 games,” he added.

“At New Year when we have played half a season, we can see where we are. That’s a little more serious to do it that way.

“You can’t change your opinion every two games.

“That is not to say we cannot be critical or cannot be happy after one game.

“I know that all of you sitting here (in the local media) want Swansea to win and when they lose you are not happy, that’s normal.

“We always have to analyse every game for the good and bad things — you do and the players do — but we cannot get carried away because that’s not good.

“You cannot be the best after two games and then four weeks later you are the worst. It cannot be like that because neither is true.

“We have only played five games, and things will always go up and down during the season, especially for the smaller clubs.

“Whatever we do, we have to stay calm.

“If we win three games or we lose three games, we have to stay calm within the club.”

Overachievers last season, Swansea will be delighted if they can go close to repeating the feats achieved in their maiden Premier League campaign.

In truth any finish outside the bottom three will be success this term after a turbulent summer in SA1.

Laudrup will hope for better than 17th place — but admits survival is the primary goal.

“I think everybody got a bit carried away with the start we made, including you (the media),” he continued.

“After two games I think people forgot we are not competing with Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham.

“We are in another part of the league and the good thing is that after Everton, we have our feet back on the ground again.

“We say okay, let’s go back to basics again. Let’s not try to convert Swansea into something they are not.

“Let’s be happy when they win, but we have to be realistic as well.

“What can we expect, what do we want? We know there will be ups and downs, but what is the target here?

“We would like to get the points to make sure we stay in the league as quickly as possible, then we will go from there.”