By Jack Evans
After being named the Barclays Premier League Player of the Month for August, Andre Ayew is already looking like he could be the bargain of the season having been brought to South Wales over the summer without commanding a transfer fee.
The Swans did pay out a high sign-on fee to the Ghanaian, however it is a fee that would’ve remained very similar with or without the supposed £15 million we would’ve had to come up with to sign Ayew should he have still been contracted to Marseille.
The one time BBC African player of the year certainly arrived in Swansea with a big reputation and, even he didn’t come with a big price tag, he has proven why there was such a buzz around his signing as he has proven to be one of the best players in the league so far this season.
But just what has his arrival added to the squad? And in what area’s has been improved over other wingers at the Swans in recent years?
Goals:
In their last full seasons at Swansea (2014/15 for Dyer, Routledge and Montero and the 2013/14 season for Pablo Hernandez) no Swans winger scored more than three goals all season – a tally which Ayew has already reached this season. I’m sure you’ll remember that Dyer scored his 3 goals by this stage of the season last year (how times change!), however Ayew’s role in the Swansea side will allow him to pick up more goals than Dyer, or any other winger in fact, as he spend’s a lot of his time as a second striker to Gomis whilst Swansea are on the attack, get in the box for crosses, which has led to two of his three goals so far.
Ayew’s goal scoring is a huge improvement on his fellow Swansea wingers.
Assists:
Despite being just 4 games into his Swansea career, Ayew is already contributing with assists as well as goals. He’s got the just one assist to his name so far. but what an assist it was! Ayew’s pass to Gomis for what would prove to be the winning goal against Manchester United was sublime, a pass you would expect to see from the likes of Iniesta or, of course, Leon Britton.
Ayew’s assists per ninety minutes is significantly higher than both Routledge and Dyer, with the two only registering three assists between them during the whole of last season. If his assist against Man Utd is anything to go by then it’s clear that Ayew can all play those key, defensive splitting passes as well as getting his name on the score sheet. The combination of goals and assists is a perfect combo for any wide player, a duo of abilities which appear to be lacking in our current and previous wingers of the last few seasons.
Ayew is on course for 9 assists this season.
Chance Creation:
As you would expect following Ayew’s impressive assisting stats, his chance creation is also higher than both Routledge and Dyer, with the Ghanaian creating more than half a chance per ninety minutes than any of our wingers last season. This improvement in chance creation is also mirrored in the overall Swansea chance creation for this season, with the side making more chances per game so far this season than they made last term.
New Ayew?
Ayew may be an improvement on the Swansea wingers of recent years, however, is the Ayew playing at Swansea actually an improvement on the oen who was playing at Marseille? Well from what we’ve seen so far, I’d definitely say so.
In the last four seasons, Andre Ayew’s stats have been some way of those of this season. Of course, he’s only played four games for us and he could well pull what I now like to call ‘a Nathan Dyer’ and disappear after the first international break, but the sheer quality he’s shown both in the current and in previous seasons would tell you otherwise.
Even when you take into account the fact that he hasn’t played all that much, these stats prove that Ayew can go on to to be one of the best players for the Swans this season, if not one of the best in the league.
Should we look back at these statistics come May I would obviously expect them to be lower than what they currently are, however it would not surprise me if he kept up these performances for the majority of the season. ‘
Ayew clearly possess a great talent, contributing to the side in more than just goals and assists but also in his team ethic. He is modest when praised by the media and constantly turns his achievements back to the quality of the team.
His attitude is exceptional and is something that is lacking in a lot of modern footballers. With the fame and talent that Ayew brings with him, I must agree with Garry Monk that Andre Ayew is refreshing; a breath of fresh air and hopefully another catalyst to success for Swansea City.
Credit: Theswanseaway
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