Finding the most creative players in Serie A – data analysis

The 2022/23 Serie A campaign has thrown us a few surprises already – Napoli dominating proceedings and becoming one of the most feared forces in Europe is arguably the biggest headline, and there may be a reason for that. Often, the key to success in elite football is having creative players in your team that can feed your strikers on a consistent basis. These creative players, who range from central midfielders to wingers, to full-backs, to strikers, also have to perform in other areas of possession, showing a good passing range for example, or being generally reliable on the ball.

In this data analysis, we will look to uncover some of the most creative players from the opening thirteen fixtures in Italy’s top flight, Serie A. We will use data to analyse their passing game as well as look at their statistics in other areas – dribbling for example. As the aim of this analysis is to shed some light on the creative ability of the players involved, we won’t be including any data relating to defending or goalscoring.

Involved in the data set is one player from each club – the player who currently has the highest number of Serie A assists for their club this season. In some cases, clubs have multiple players tied for that crown – this has been rectified by first looking at the number of assists this season in all competitions, and if there is still a tie, then we looked at data from last season to select our player. The data used in the analysis itself is taken from Serie A football only – no other competitions are involved.

Chance creation

We start this analysis with the segment that highlight’s the ability to create chances – starting with the most important, arguably! It also gives us a chance to introduce some of the players who stand out in assists and key passes.

Straight away, one name jumps out. Lazio’s talismanic midfielder Sergej Milinković-Savić has been vital for his club for a number of years now, and only seems to be getting stronger each year – we could be seeing him enter his peak years as a player. Already this season, the Serbian midfielder has seven assists – the most by any player in the league so far. He is two clear of Filip Kostić (Juventus) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Napoli) who both have impressed with five assists each.

All on four assists are AC Milan star Rafael Leão, Roberto Pereyra (Udinese), and Lorenzo Pellegrini of Roma. Between the three of them, they are a good advert for assists coming from a range of positions. Rafael Leão offers great technical ability either as a striker or winger, while former Watford man Pereyra can be an important link between midfield and attack. Pellegrini offers his creative ability from a deeper area in central midfield.