Is Rhian Brewster ready for the Premier League?
At the time of this writing, Liverpool starlet Rhian Brewster has played 20 matches on loan at Swansea City – 19 as a starter – and has scored 10 goals with no penalties. For a 20-year-old getting his first taste of regular senior football, that's quite a feat. Working under his former England U17 boss Steve Cooper has undoubtedly helpeded. But is Brewster ready to rejoin the mothership and thrive in the world's biggest domestic league?
Brewster certainly hit the ground running, playing 90' for Swansea just five days after joining the squad. He scored in his next match, and from there the frequency of his goals steadily increased. So his performance at the end of the season may represent a player on a steep learning curve. But here are his stats for the entire loan at a Premier League standard:
He still looks quite raw, with deficiencies in key areas like attacking output, ball retention, aerials, and ground duels on the ball. He hasn't been flagged by our young prospects algorithm, either. So what's special about him? Let's see how some of his other stats stack up:
He hasn't taken enough shots for us to rate his finishing skill, but he has scored well above par – 21% of his shots have scored, versus an estimate chance of 16%. That's part of why he's been involved in 58% of the Swans' moves leading to a goal while on the pitch, but only 35% of the shots. When he takes the shot, there's a greater chance of scoring. A big reason why is that he rarely has shots blocked. Here's our map of his shots from open play:
There are only three shots blocked – one of them in the six-yard box – on the whole map. So Brewster already seems quite expert in generating good opportunities for himself.
At this point, though, he might not be doing much else. That 35% number for involvement in moves leading to shots, combined with the fact that only 3% of his expected goal contributions come from passing, gives a hint to why his other numbers aren't higher. He just hasn't been part of the play as much as we might like. Our smartermap shows scattered touches across the final third, with some emphasis on the left channel and a decent number of dribbles up both flanks:
Who else plays this way – what kind of player might Brewster become from these beginnings? If we look for players with similar styles across Europe's top five leagues, we see quite a range of names. Here's a comparison with two of the strongest matches, using stats at a Premier League standards:
Mario Balotelli and Joao Felix at Atletico Madrid have attracted the same criticism – they get their shots off, but they're otherwise peripheral to the play. This wasn't always the case for either of them; Felix's role has been reduced in part via coaching, and Balotelli used to be a more influential player. All three players do pass pretty aggressively, but, as we saw above, Brewster doesn't create much with those passes.
The issue is clear, and it's one that Brewester shares with another young English star, as this comparison shows:
Mason Greenwood has been playing a slightly different position from Brewster's, and his passing style is quite different. But he's also been knocked – as much as a teenager in the Premier League can be knocked with any justification – for being on the fringes of Manchester United's attacks until the final ball arrives.
The other distinction with all of the players above is that Brewster has less skill in duels and lower ball retention. He may not be maturing quite as quickly as Felix and Greenwood, or perhaps his ceiling isn't quite as high. But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has figured out a way to exploit Greenwood's developing skills to the maximum, and so apparently has Cooper at Swansea. When Brewster returns to Liverpool, there will be plenty for Jurgen Klopp to work with – and plenty to work on as well.
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