As the 2018/19 Serie A season draws ever closer, fans are quite rightly getting excited to see what this year will bring. Last term saw some simply stunning attacking football from many different sides and what follows is a look at the three players with the most assists in that campaign.
Luis Alberto - 14
Luis Alberto may have flopped at Liverpool, but the Lazio forward is certainly enjoying life in Italy’s capital city. The Spaniard provided no less than 14 assists for the side that scored the most goals in the entire league last term, with four of those helpful balls falling to last season’s joint top-scorer Ciro Immobile.
The last player to reach this number was Napoli’s Marek Hamsik in the 2013/14 campaign and Luis Alberto also became the first player to reach ten goals and ten assists in Serie A last year.
Both Immobile and his Spanish team-mate look to be staying at Lazio for the forthcoming campaign and the latter will no doubt be looking to reach a high assist total once again as Simone Inzaghi’s men make a fresh attempt to reach Europe. Boasting 11 strikes of his own last season, it may prove to be difficult for Lazio to hang onto their star man for too much longer.
Douglas Costa - 12
This Brazilian sensation was often used as an impact substitute by Juventus boss Max Allegri last term, and the prospect of Douglas Costa being deployed more often in the coming campaign must strike fear into the hearts of Serie A defences across the country. Quick, skillful and almost impossible to mark, the former Bayern Munich man only registered two less assists than Luis Alberto, despite the Lazio man having benefited from 884 minutes more playing time.
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Indeed, Costa delivered no less than eight assists as a substitute last term, more than double the number managed by any other player in Europe’s top-five leagues.
This term his lightning pace and accurate crossing will be met by none other than Cristiano Ronaldo in the centre of the park, a clear recipe for more assists for Costa and even more goals for Juve. “I’ve played with Neymar, so it’s not totally new for me to play with someone at [Ronaldo’s] level,” admitted the Brazil international to ItalianFootballTV. “Everyone has welcomed him and we know how much he can improve us. We can’t hide it, it’s clear.”
Lorenzo Insigne - 11
One Napoli player who was never linked with a move to join former boss Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea was home-grown talent Lorenzo Insigne. The pint-sized star was once again consistent in a high number of assists, his tally of 11 beating nine and ten recorded during the last two seasons and that tally of 30 is the most of any player during that three-year spell.
Four of his total of 11 aided Dries Mertens last season, but now that Carlo Ancelotti is in charge, this may be set to change. While Sarri deployed Mertens in the striker role as part of his 4-3-3, the new man in charge looks set to switch to 4-2-3-1 with Mertens, Insigne and Jose Callejon supporting Arkadiusz Milik.
The 2017/18 campaign saw four of Insigne’s assists come from a cross, and the height advantage supplied by Milik in the striker role could see Napoli profit from the winger’s deadly accurate right foot even more. The Poland international only managed five goals last season due to a long injury layoff, yet three of that total were assisted by Insigne.
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