Top 10 U23 Goal Creating Players in Serie A

 

Image from Getty Images/Giuseppe Cottini/NurPhoto

Short piece this week on the top 10 U23 goal creating players in Italy so far this season.

(The data used for this work is from fbref.com): GCA90 standing for "Goal Scoring Actions per 90 minutes", with each player having played minimum 30 minutes.

 

1. Andreas Skov Olsen - RW - Bologna/Denmark (21) - 1.29 GCA90

2. Ivan Ilic - CM - Verona/Serbia (20) - 1.24 GCA90

3. Alexis Saelemaekers - RW - AC Milan/Belgium (22) - 1.0 GCA90

4. Musa Barrow - CF - Bologna/Gambia (22) - 0.9  GCA90

5. Theo Hernandez - LB - AC Milan/France (23) - 0.8 GCA90

6. Federico Chiesa - RW - Juventus/Italy (23) - 0.79 GCA90

7. Dejan Kulusevski - RW - Juventus/Sweden (21) - 0.73 GCA90

8. Yayah Kallon - SS - Genoa/Sierra Leone (20) - 0.7 GCA90

9. Andrea Pinamonti - CF - Empoli/Italy (22) - 0.68 GCA90

10. Federico Dimarco - LB - Inter Milan/Italy (23) - 0.64

 

Some fascinating talented young players on this list. Let's also take a look at what portion of their club's goal scoring actions they play part in. 

Clubs on this list: Bologna, Verona, AC Milan, Juventus, Genoa, Empoli, Inter Milan.

(GCA90 per team out of all 20 Serie A teams)

1. Inter Milan - 5.43 GCA90

3. Verona - 3.86 GCA90

6. AC Milan - 3.71 GCA90

7. Bologna - 3.14 GCA90

8. Genoa - 2.86 GCA90

10. Juventus - 2.43 GCA90

15. Empoli - 2.00 GCA90

 Looking at these numbers we can determine the impact (by %) each of the players on the list had on their club's overall GCA90. We can calculate this percentage with:

100%  x  Player GCA90 / Club GCA90 = % Impact of Player on Club GCA90

If we were to rank this list now based on the above we would get:

1. Andreas Skov Olsen - 41% Impact of Player on Bologna GCA90

2. Andrea Pinamonti - 34% Impact of Player on Empoli GCA90

3. Federico Chiesa - 33% Impact of Player on Juventus GCA90

4. Ivan Ilic - 32% Impact of Player on Verona GCA90

5. Dejan Kulusevski - 30% Impact of Player on Juventus GCA90

6. Musa Barrow - 29% Impact of Player on Bologna GCA90

7. Alexis Saelemaekers - 27% Impact of Player on AC Milan GCA90

8. Yayah Kallon - 25% Impact of Player on Genoa GCA90

9. Theo Hernandez - 22% Impact of Player on AC Milan GCA90

10. Federico Dimarco - 12% Impact of Player on Inter Milan GCA90

Looking at the data this way we can see how vital these players are to their clubs goal scoring as a whole. We can also see how different the list is in terms of placement. Skov Olsen remains at the top of both, seemingly a promising player and a vital one for Bologna. Most interesting player in my opinion is Andrea Pinamonti with 34% yet the 2nd lowest GCA90 for himself compared to the other players. This figure really shows how crucial his role is in an Empoli side that only musters up 2.0 GCA90. 

These figures of course don't tell the full story to the value in these players for their teams, but are meant to be used as an indicator of what they can bring in regard to creating goals. I am excited to see how these numbers and potential players on the list will evolve come the half way and end point of the season.