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Swansea City: Herbie Kane move could be back on the cards after Liverpool admission

By Liam Togher

Posted on 17 October 2019, 16:45

Swansea could reignite their interest in Liverpool midfielder Herbie Kane after his club changed their stance on the player this week.

Football Insider reported that the Reds are open to interest in the 20-year-old amid doubts in his ability to graduate into the first team, after the same publication had previously stated that the Anfield club intended to keep him with a view to first team integration, with Swansea among the teams showing an interest in him.

Following Liverpool’s change of heart, the72.co.uk reported that the Championship club are keen on bringing Kane in on loan during the January transfer window.

Kane has already had experience of the Football League from his time on loan at Doncaster last season, where he scored seven times in 49 appearances (0.14 goals per game) in all competitions from a central midfield role.

However, when goals in cup competitions are excluded, his League One return was a mere four goals in 40 matches (0.1 per game) including the play-offs, although he did set up seven goals in the league for Doncaster (0.17 per game) and had 10 assists in total (0.2 per game). [via TransferMarkt]

While his League One goalscoring tally seems modest, he still scored more often last season than any central midfielder at Swansea – Jay Fulton and George Byers each bagged three goals in 2018/19 – although Bersant Celina scored eight times from an attacking midfield role. [via TransferMarkt]

Byers has already matched last season’s scoring tally in 13 matches in the first two months of this season (0.23 goals per game), albeit with two of his three goals coming in the Carabao Cup, leaving him with one goal in nine Championship outings (0.11 per game). Meanwhile, Celina has netted twice in 11 Championship games (0.18 per game).

In terms of goal creation from Swansea’s central midfielders in 2019/20, Fulton has provided two assists in 11 games (0.18 per game) and Byers has set up one goal in 13 matches (0.08 per game).

Kane had a lower scoring rate in League One that season than Byers and Celina have posted in the Championship so far this term, which suggests that the Liverpool man could have a job on his hands trying to displace either of those two in Swansea’s line-up if he moves to the Liberty Stadium.

He could offer more to the team in terms of creating chances rather than scoring them if he were to make a loan move to south Wales, but while he may seem more likely to get senior gametime at Swansea than Liverpool (where he has made one senior appearance totalling eight minutes), he could still expect a battle to get into the team given the current central and attacking midfield options in Steve Cooper’s squad.

Swansea fans, would you like to see Kane arriving on loan from Liverpool in January? Do you think he’d make much of an impact? Comment below with your views!