Jamie Redknapp has claimed in the Daily Mail that Swansea will go down if Jordan Ayew continues to stand in for first choice Fernando Llorente in attack.
Ayew has not scored for Swansea since transferring from Aston Villa in the January window for £5million.
The versatile forward, who was used predominantly on the flanks by Villa in the opening half of the campaign, has stepped in to lead the Welsh club’s front line in the absence of the injured Llorente for the last three matches.
But Ayew has struggled to provide the same threat as the Spaniard, extending his goal-less sequence for the Swans to eight matches in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at West Ham.
High-profile pundit Redknapp delivered a scathing verdict of how effective Swansea are when the Ghana international spearheads the attack.
“Llorente’s return from an ankle injury after half-time against West Ham is a glimmer of hope for Swansea in their battle to beat the drop,” former England midfielder Redknapp wrote in his weekly Mail column.
“Llorente has struck up a great relationship with Gylfi Sigurdsson since Paul Clement arrived. The pair are good enough to play for a top-half team but when Llorente is ruled out there is nobody to feed off Sigurdsson’s superb supply line.
“In Clement’s three games in which Llorente has not started, Swansea have scored just once. They do not have the same presence up front when Jordan Ayew leads the line — as was the case in the first half at the London Stadium on Saturday.
“With Llorente fit and firing, Swansea have a fighting chance of beating the drop. Without him, they go down.”
Ayew joined Villa in the summer of 2015 from French club Lorient for £8.5million and had a mixed time in the Midlands.
He scored 10 goals and supplied five assists in 58 matches for Villa before securing a move back to the Premier League.