Swansea City legend Lee Trundle thinks his former side would be in the automatic promotion spots right now if they had Rhian Brewster in their ranks.
The 20-year-old striker spent the second half of last season on loan from Liverpool at the Liberty Stadium, scoring 11 goals in 22 appearances for the Swans.
His strikes pushed Steve Cooper's men into the play-offs, before they fell to Brentford in the semi-finals.
Cooper was keen to keep Brewster for the 2020/21 campaign but as soon as Jurgen Klopp decided to sell him Swansea were priced out of a deal. He eventually moved to Sheffield United for £23.5million, where he has found the going tough. The Blades are currentlt bottom of the Premier League, with Brewster yet to find the back of the net.
Swansea have missed him too, with a No.9 missing from Cooper's masterplan, and Trundle says his quality would have pushed Swansea into the top spots had he been retained.
Asked if Swansea had that out and out striker, Trundle said ahead of the South Wales derby against Cardiff City: “No not really, but they adapt to that. I think if you look at last season Swansea had Rhian Brewster, this year I think they’d be up in the automatic places."
"Do you think he made that much of a difference?" pressed host David Prutton.
"Massive, yeah," Trundle added.
"I think the way Andre and (Jamal) Lowe play, they like to drift into different areas, they are hard to mark but they aren’t an out an out centre-forward. Lowe, I think he’d say he’s had some chances and he could have scored a lot more goals but his normal play, his workrate and his running in behind, it makes space for Ayew to get on the ball in those pockets to go and cause problems."
Prutton suggested that Lowe and Ayew combined made up for Brewster's absence, which Trundle agreed with to a certain extent.
“They both do it different to what Rhian would because he’s an out and out goalscorer," he said.
"If he got a chance he scored a goal, but the two of them have worked really well together. If you look at Ayew's ability and for me he’s one of the best players in the Championship. When you watch him you can see his quality standout, so those two have got a great relationship and have started really well."
You can follow the derby here.
