The New Maradona?
Brief: The last time a Scudetto was paraded through the streets of Naples was in the 1989–1990 season. The mercurial Diego Maradona had led the Partenopei to their second Scudetto in four years. Of course, the Argentine was their top scorer and helped Napoli clinch the title by only two points with his 16 goals during the campaign.
Maradona was etched in the hearts of Napoli fans forever. His close control, burst to get away from defenders with such ease, and penchant to create moments of brilliance such as a mazy dribble, a through ball out of nowhere, or an audacious shot at goal—he had it all; perhaps no one who knows football needs any introduction to Maradona.
Napoli, sadly, have not really hit the dizzying heights they reached with their iconic number 10. It is true that they have won some cup competitions here and there, but the prestigious Scudetto has eluded them ever since. Maurizio Sarri came close in 2017–2018, with Napoli winning 91 points in 38 games but still falling 4 points short of the winners, Juventus. Aurelio de Laurentiis, Napoli’s infamous president, commented saying "sometimes somebody steals what belongs to you," after being asked why the Partenopei have consistently failed to win the Scudetto under his leadership, hinting at not only off field but on field incidences and suggesting other clubs, in particular Juventus, get better decisions awarded to them and have it much easier than Napoli.
Of course, De Laurentiis is a controversial figure who will tell you a lot of things, but this season, one wonderful player has consistently won the hearts of Napoli fans, and not just Napoli fans but football purists around the world. A player who can burst past opponents, a player who is technically gifted and can do anything with the ball at his feet A player who can create a moment of magic, the one player who keeps fans at the edge of their seats, the player who everyone cannot wait till the ball gets to his feet, the player whose ability on the ball has wowed and captured the imagination of fans and opponents alike, the one player you SHOULD pay any amount of money to watch, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is his name.
The Georgian has hit sensational strides after Napoli signed him from Dinamo Batumi for only €10m. Now, Kvaratskhelia, or Kvicha as he is affectionately called, has been a bit of a journeyman, having played for 6 clubs in the last five years; however, it is at Napoli that the mercurial Georgian has found his feet, and perhaps it is so fitting and prophetic that, the Georgian maestro is strutting his stuff at, guess where? The Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples!
This article seeks to analyze Kvaratskhelia’s performance in the Serie A this season and contextualize it with respect to other attackers in the league to highlight the Georgian’s brilliant vein of form.
In 16 games this season, Kvaratskhelia has scored 7 goals and provided 8 assists in Serie A. That is a combined goals + assists total of 15 goal involvements in 16 games, ranking him second in Serie A only to fellow teammate Victor Osimhen.
He has been guilty of missing the odd big chance, but thanks to his teammate, Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen,'s red-hot form in front of goal, those chances he has missed have not been as detrimental to Napoli's ascent.
From the shotmap above, he has scored all but one of his goals from inside the penalty area, and despite being a two-footed player, he has shown a tendency this season to shoot from the left more than from the right. That could also be explained by his playing position, as he is primarily a left forward for the Partenopei.
To limit Kvaratskhelia’s game to only goals would be very unfair. His skillset is very diverse, and we would analyze the various aspects of his game. His ambidexterity with both feet has been one of his selling points, as he is a very very unpredictable attacker.
First off, we will analyze the progressiveness of all forwards in Serie A. In the course of this article, we will only include forwards who have played at least 13 league games as of the time of writing, so we have an exclusive dataset.
Kvaratskhelia is tied for third in the league for progressive carries, or movement of the ball forward into the opponent's defensive third.
Gerard Deulefou is the most progressive player in Serie A in terms of progressive passes completed and progressive carries into the opposition’s defensive area. Kvaratskhelia came in third in terms of progressive carries but 13th in terms of progressive passes, indicating that, for Napoli’s style of play, his vertical dribbling ability is prioritized more.
Indeed, it is quite telling that despite being behind all these players in this metric, he has made the most assists in Serie A alongside Lazio’s Sergej Milinković-Savić, highlighting the emphasis on dribbling to create danger rather than relying heavily on his passing ability.
Here we can further see that Deulefou's exceptional progressive passing has been utilized more for creating chances, as he ranks higher than the league average for assists made but he ranks below average for goals scored.
Kvicha Kvaratskhelia’s performance here is quite exceptional, as the Georgian is the most dangerous attacker in the league in terms of both assists created and goals scored. Only five attackers have scored more goals than him, and no attacker has created more goals than him, accentuating his all-round game.
When it comes to goal creation, Kvaratskhelia’s performance stands out again. He has an expected assists score of 3.9 out of just 26 passes, compared to 4.0 expected assists from 48 key passes for Gerard Deulefou, showing Kvaratskhelia does not need to make too many passes to hit a pass that can result in a goal at any point in the game.
People who watch Kvaratskhelia will notice he dribbles a lot, as it is a very key part of his game. We cannot help but wonder how effective that is or how much that helps Napoli’s tactical set-up.
We look at how many take-ons led to a shot on goal for all of Serie A’s attackers, and the plot below highlights how important that aspect of Kvaratskhelia’s game is to the way Napoli set up.
He is again the most dangerous attacker in the league in terms of his dribbling. He has embarked on 11 dribbles that led to a direct shot on goal, the next highest in the league are 6 dribbles that led to a shot, a clear insight that the Georgian is not only dangerous from passing, but he is even more lethal if he is allowed to dribble.
Kvaratskhelia has been a standout performer for Napoli this season, and his dribbling and passing ability have been proven to be effective and a key part of Napoli’s play. He has the highest figure on the expected assists rating, indicating he makes the top most dangerous passes in Serie A. He is also the riskiest player to allow to dribble from a defensive point of view, as his take-ons have produced the highest number of shots in the entire league.
Napoli’s resurgent title charge has been so entertaining to watch because their playing style embodies so many fundamentals football purists enjoy, and many are rooting for them to win their first Scudetto in 33 years. Hopefully they can get past the line and win it this time, and with five star performances from their star players like Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen, they should land the title by the end of the season.
This article was written by Jeffrey Ohene, a performance analyst with an avid interest in football analytics. All the vizzes in this article were created by me. If you enjoyed the read, follow me for more articles and football insights.