Gazzetta dello Sport are full of praise for Antonio Candreva, who against Atalanta shined again. The winger, who has 6 goals to his name served Ever Banega twice to raise his assists tally to 7 for the season. He had 7 crosses and created 4 chances in the 7-1 thrashing. Candreva showed what a difference in system can do and when he’s not covering the whole flank like against Juventus in a 3-4-2-1, he can shine.
Source: FCInterNews.it
He played not just well but wonderfully versus Atalanta.
And he is our leader in assists.
I think a lot of the people who criticize Candreva really heavily have no clue about this sport.
Candreva deserves most of the criticism he gets. His numbers are misleading if you only look at assists because he is very wasteful in the final third, particularly his crossing, and is often eventually saved by Icardi’s excellent finishing. Look at Candreva’s stats according to WhoScored compared to other wingers who lead Serie A in assists:
Candreva –
47 accurate crosses (1.7/game)
208 inaccurate crosses (7.4/game)
28 key crosses (1/game)
4 assists (0.1/game)
F. Anderson –
34 accurate crosses (1.3/game)
91 inaccurate crosses (3.5/game)
16 key crosses (0.6/game)
6 assists (0.2/game)
Callejon –
23 accurate crosses (0.9/game)
101 inaccurate crosses (3.7/game)
11 key crosses (0.4/game)
3 assists (0.1/game)
Ljajic –
9 accurate crosses (0.4/game)
51 inaccurate crosses (2.1/game)
5 key crosses (0.2/game)
3 assists (0.1/game)
Essentially, these players are putting up similar assist totals to Candreva while making, at most, about half the amount of crosses. Also, these numbers are showing we should buy F. Anderson!
They have a point there. Even more against Roma where Piola played Perisic in midfield. He’s in top form and shouldn’t be wasted. As we all saw, our attack lost it’s edge and became quite predictable. If that risk was absolutely necessary, then might as well gamble all the way and play Gabi up front instead of Brozovic. At least we’d have had the element of surprise.