Nicolo Zaniolo blamed for goal as Aston Villa star guilty of super-low Italy stat
Aston Villa midfielder Nicolo Zaniolo played 45 minutes for Italy in their 1-1 draw with North Macedonia, struggling to make an impact as a half-time substitute.
The 24-year-old was part of Luciano Spalletti’s first match day squad, but the new Italian coach wasn’t able to register his first win on Saturday (9 September), with the European Champions throwing away their lead in the final ten minutes.
While none of the Italian side played particularly well, Zaniolo was heavily criticised for his performance, with some believing he failed to have an impact from the bench and even a suggestion he was at fault for North Macedonia’s goal.
Cult of Calcio were particularly harsh in their player ratings (9 September) giving Zaniolo a 4.5, the lowest of any of Italy’s players, writing: “A below-par outing from the Aston Villa man who was noticeably wasteful on the ball. He was also the culprit on the equaliser.”
It feels as though the home side’s equaliser may well have clouded the judgement of the Cult of Calcio writers as on the whole, the Aston Villa midfielder didn’t have a terrible game even if he ultimately was slightly ineffective in the final third like several Italian players.
Zaniolo completed the most dribbles in the game of any player, with two and got stuck in on the defensive side winning the most duels in the match with eight as he put in a combative midfield display (Fotmob).
However, with the final ball, he was wasteful, failing to complete any of his attempted crosses and only making one of his nine accurate passes in the final third, leaving the 24-year-old with a super-low expected assists of 0.01.
Zaniolo isn’t particularly creative at the best of times, lying in the bottom one per cent of attacking midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues for attempted passes, with an incredibly low average of 20.78 per 90 minutes [Fbref]. Therefore his assist record is by no means great, averaging 0.11 expected assists per game, a worse record than 86 per cent of his positional peers.
Typically, the Italian international makes up for his lack of creativity through his goalscoring record, his record of 3.43 shots a game placing him in the 95th percentile of all attacking midfielders in Europe, but in the draw with North Macedonia, he only had one shot.
While he hasn’t been brought in to directly replace Coutinho, the 24-year-old is a very different player than the Brazilian, operating more like a centre-forward than a creative midfielder. Coutinho sits in the 91st percentile for progressive passes per game, compared to Zaniolo in the seventh.
One performance alone will not change Zaniolo’s career, but it must be slightly worrying for Unai Emery to see his new attacking midfielder failing to be involved in his national side’s build-up play for the majority of the game.
Villa as a side often rely on a variety of players to create chances, whether it be through Ollie Watkins chasing long balls or Leon Bailey and Moussa Diaby dribbling in tight areas, but Zaniolo doesn’t fit the profile of a player whatsoever.
His second-half appearance for Italy in North Macedonia didn’t show enough quality to make Emery think twice about starting the Italian following the international break and it feels as though much more work needs to be done for him to displace the likes of Diaby or John McGinn.
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