The next Okazaki, Lanzini or Kubo: the best offensive players currently in Asia – data analysis

In the fourth section of a data analysis series looking at the best players in Asia, we’ll focus on attacking players.

The leagues selected for this analysis are the following: Qatar Stars League, United Arab Emirates Pro League, Saudi Professional League, Japanese J1 League, South Korean K League and Chinese Super League. The Iranian Gulf Pro League would have been an interesting one to include but it lacks complete data on Wyscout and others like the Indian and Australian leagues missed out as their level is considered slightly lower. 

We have considered players whose main position was winger, attacking midfielder or striker and who played at least 900 minutes in the aforementioned leagues in the last calendar year so the statistics are significant and representative.

The players whose circles are filled are those who made the final shortlist. We provide this information beforehand so readers can see how they performed and why they were selected as they read the data analysis. A deeper analysis of them is available at the end of the piece.

Scoring

The first thing we’ll look at is scoring goals. To do that, we have taken non-penalty goals (y-axis) and non-penalty xG (x-axis). The colour shows how players are over or underperforming their xG, with green being scoring more than expected. 

On top of both metrics, we find Baghdad Bounedjah (29, Algeria) of Al Sadd. Bounedjah scored 1.17 non-penalty goals from 0.98 non-penalty xG per 90 in the last calendar year (11 goals in 9 league games this season so far). Close to Bounedjah, we have another of our shortlisted players: Michael Olunga (27, Kenya) of Al Duhail. Olunga is second in both metrics with 0.99 goals from 0.8 xG per 90 (12 goals in 7 league games so far this season).

Another great goalscorer is Júnior Negão (34, Brazil) of Changchun Yatai in China. Negão scored 0.94 goals from 0.56 xG per 90, showing excellent finishing. In his journeyman career, Negão has played for 20 teams in Brazil, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, South Korea, Thailand and China, scoring a total of 174 goals in 335 appearances. In the 2019/20 season, he was the top goalscorer of the K1 League and won the AFC Champions League with Ulsan Hyundai. His other title came with SCG Muangthong United, with whom he won the Thai League Cup in 2016.