Who are the best young creators in Europe’s top five leagues?

Scoring goals is how you win matches in football. However, too often the focus is on the scorers of those goals instead of those who create the chances.

Goalscorers will always be the most valuable players in football, as the saying goes ‘the hardest job in football is putting the ball in the net’. Having an elite goalscorer can make all the difference to a team and it’s why the question of where Erling Haaland would end up next season was one of the biggest in football. 

However, goalscorers alone can’t win football matches. It takes a special type of goalscorer to regularly create their own shots, so if a team is going to truly benefit from an elite forward, they need an elite creator as well. 

The problem with identifying elite creators is that if we use the go-to metric of assists, it only tells part of the story. In fact, assists are the ‘noisiest’ statistic in football. Take the example of Lionel Messi’s goal against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final of 2010/11. Messi received the ball from Sergio Busquets before taking on several Madrid defenders and finishing past Iker Casillas. It was a majestic solo goal but under some definitions of assists, Busquets could be awarded credit which he wouldn’t really deserve. On the other hand, there are also highly creative players who make chance after chance for their teammates but will have few assists due to poor finishing. The metric relies far too much on the performance of the player taking the shot. 

That’s why analysts will generally use expected assists to judge creativity as that metric quantifies the quality of chances created, similarly to expected goals, rather than whether a goal was scored or not. With that in mind, here are the best young (23 and under) creators in Europe’s top five leagues in 21/22 according expected assists per 90:

Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) - 0.37

Unfortunately, the teenage German suffered a major injury recently so will be set for a long period on the sidelines but beforehand, he was having a spectacular season. 

His expected assists per 90 figure suggests that he was creating chances at a rate deserving of almost two assists in every five games, which is an astonishing number. He finished with 10 assists, which was a little above his total expectation of 7.7. This suggests that he did benefit from some clinical finishing but it’s unquestioned that the 19-year-old is one of the elite creators in Europe right now and has a huge future ahead of him. Don’t expect him to remain at Leverkusen for long. 

Kylian Mbappe (PSG) - 0.35

Funnily enough, Mbappe is one of those aforementioned special players who create a lot of their own shots, through excellent dribbling to get into goalscoring positions. However, that same dribbling also gets him into positions to cut the ball back for his fellow forwards, meaning he is an elite creator as well as a goalscorer. 

His 0.35 expected assists per 90 leads to a total of 11.4 expected assists over the Ligue 1 season but his total assists far exceed that as he has 18. This is likely due to the quality of players he plays with as they will be much more clinical in their finishing than many others. 

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) - 0.34

No list of top creators is likely to miss the Liverpool full-back. Alexander-Arnold has continued to create chances at a ridiculous rate, with his crossing from the right almost unrivaled in the modern game. 

0.34 xA per 90 summed over his 30.7 90s gives a total expected assists of 10.5 but again, the full-back boasts a slightly inflated figure when it comes assists, as he has laid on 12 goals for the likes of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Dio Jota, Roberto Firmino and Luis Diaz. 

Moussa Diaby (Bayer Leverkusen) - 0.3

Leverkusen are blessed with young attacking talent as they have another player on this list in 22-year-old Diaby. The Frenchman has created chances at a rate of 0.35xA per 90 and his total expected assists for the season is an impressive 9.1. Again, his teammates have finished clinically from the chances he has made, as he has been rewarded with 12 assists. He is another player that Leverkusen will surely be fielding large bids for in the coming seasons. 

Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid) - 0.27

Before this season, Vinicius Jr was seen as one of the most exciting forward in Europe but with hugely inconsistent end product. However, in 21/22 he has exploded as a goalscorer and a creator. That’s shown by the fact that only four young players have created chances at a better rate than him, with his 0.27 xA per 90 leading to a total of 7.7. Karim Benzema’s clinical finishing has helped him to 10 La Liga assists, with several more coming in the Champions League, where the Brazilian has supplied the bullets for the French marksman to score vital goals on Madrid’s run to the final. 

Considering Madrid’s relentless pursuit of Mbappe, it will be interesting to see how the club intends to fit Vinicius and the Frenchman into the same team, considering that both favour the left side of the attack.