Just for fun let’s throw in another pretty decent attacking mid for comps. To be comparable let’s again go with a two season span, this one starts when the player was 23yo (2011-2013): Messi 96 goals, 27 assists in 69 games, a goal or assist every 0.56 games.
Again I wasn’t referring to you. I was asking the rhetorical question “is it any wonder we don’t win more when our attacking mids are averaging 2-4 assists per season?” We clearly do have different solutions though. My view is we don’t score more because we usually play only one proven finisher (who is currently in a scoring slump) and secondly our most used midfielders - Cabral, Grandsir, Vasquez - aren’t good passers in the final third. So to me the obvious way to increase our goal scoring is to play our best goal scorer alongside Chich. Joveljic is scoring more goals per minute than Ibra but he struggles to get playing time? In what bizarro world does this make any sense? And the argument that he only scores against tired legs doesn’t hold up under inspection for too many reasons to go into now. But I would begin with the fact he was a great starting scorer before we picked him up. My second solution is to play Cabral less. Yes he runs a lot but he produces nothing. An attacking mid/forward with 1 goal (gifted to him) and 1 assist for the season is still a regular starter?? 3 assists in two years and almost 50 games but he just needs more chances? I don’t understand Vanney’s logic at all. tldr ver: I would bet my house that if Joveljic played more and Cabral played less we wouldn’t be below the playoff line right now.