Can Swansea consolidate top-flight spot with Llorente leading the line?

When reports suggested that Fernando Llorente was being courted by Premier League leaders Chelsea, eyebrows were certainly raised. While the experienced Spaniard had settled relatively well, he hadn’t exactly set the Premier League alight, with his form hardly warranting a move to the title favourites. That being said, Llorente was often utilised as a plan B for Juventus during his and Antonio Conte’s time together in Turin and the Chelsea boss had evidently targeted a trusted frontman to provide backup for first team regular Diego Costa. 

Youngster Michy Batshuayi is currently Costa’s understudy at Stamford Bridge, but at 23 years of age, the Belgian needs regular game time if he is to develop accordingly. A swap deal involving Llorente was mooted, but that did not come to fruition and Swansea are now seeing the best of the Spaniard. The summer arrival netted a brace at the weekend to take his total for the season to eight as the Swans landed back-to-back away Premier League wins for the first time in the same season since the end of the 2014/15 campaign. 

With eight goals to his name, Llorente is Swansea’s top scorer, with his double salvo guiding the Swans to a surprise 3-2 win at Anfield in Saturday’s early kick off and earning a WhoScored rating of 8.55, his second highest return in a Premier League fixture since moving to the Welsh side. With the Swans more often than not deploying a system that incorporates a single striker, the 31-year-old is ideal to play such a role given his physical capability. 

One of Llorente’s two statistically calculated WhoScored strengths is ‘aerial duels’ and he exhibits this routinely to win 4.2 headed battles per game, which is enough to rank among the top 10 players in the Premier League this season. While Swansea will often look to play the ball on the deck - only 14.2% of their passes this season have been considered long balls - they have an imposing attacking threat where required if a direct approach is implemented. 

Here, Llorente can effectively hold off opposition defenders to successfully knock the ball on for attacking teammates, while also shielding possession impressively to ease pressure on the Swansea goal and bring others into play. An average of 1.2 key passes per 90 minutes is also a respectable return for Llorente, who is evidently using his standing to help create chances for teammates. Given recently appointed manager Paul Clement is able to call on the deep-lying goalscoring threat of Gylfi Sigurdsson and the pace of Wayne Routledge, Modou Barrow, Jefferson Montero and new arrival Luciano Narsingh, the Swansea striker is not without attacking outlets in the final third. 

That being said, Llorente isn’t adverse to testing his luck where possible, as is a necessity for any striker. Indeed, only Sigurdsson (3.1) is averaging more shots per 90 than Llorente (2.2) of all Swansea players this season. Considering his eight league goals this term, a conversion rate of 25% is a very impressive return, and of players to score more than five league goals this season, the Spaniard’s rate is the third best in England’s top tier. 

After the departures of Andre Ayew and Bafetimbi Gomis, there was ample pressure on summer arrivals Borja Baston and Llorente to make an immediate impact for Swansea. The former, a club-record signing from Atletico Madrid, may have struggled for game time and consistency due to injury, but the latter has indeed performed sufficiently for the Swans. A player his age could well have struggled to adjust accordingly to a new league, yet Llorente’s good form has given Swansea a fighting chance of staving off relegation. 

Saturday’s win at Liverpool moved Clement’s side out of the bottom three and while just two points separate Swansea, Crystal Palace and Hull, who occupy 18th and 19th respectively, victory at the home of one of the title contenders is as much a confidence boost to go with the vital three points. While there remains time for Llorente to leave between now and the end of the month, his good performances as the lead striker for Swansea have given Clement a strong chance of pulling off an excellent feat and consolidating their Premier League spot. 

His signing was viewed as something of a coup given his track record and Llorente is now proving to be just that for Swansea.