FC Barcelona is blessed to have at their disposal a variety of talented youngsters that possess varying strengths and qualities in their game. Chief among them that are currently a part of Xavi’s “Gala XI” are the likes of Alejandro Balde, Pablo Gavi, and Pedri.
Surprisingly, while both Golden Boy winner Gavi and emerging star Alejandro Balde have recorded numerous assists this season, with 6 and 7 being their respective number of assists this season across all competitions, Pedri was still yet to record a singular assist across the season thus far.
Following the 4-2 win against Espanyol that guaranteed FC Barcelona their league title and finally gave Pedri his much-awaited assist courtesy of the goal by Balde, an interesting statistic by OPTA showcases an in-depth look into the quality that Pedri provides to Barcelona.
According to the analysts at OPTA, the former Golden Boy winner was the player who had recorded the most chances created without an assist across all top 5 European Leagues. His tally of 39 puts him above the rest of Europe’s elite in what encompasses just how vital the 20-year-old is to Xavi Hernandez even without direct goal involvements.
The assist against Espanyol marks the first of the season, but it also marks his 7th assist in his 75 games for FC Barcelona. The player continues to showcase his elite abilities even without needing to be directly involved in the finishing touches of a goal.
Apart from assists, however, Pedri’s goalscoring has been quite phenomenal this season. Despite primarily being deployed as an interior or central midfielder, the youngster has 7 goals to his name this season across all competitions.
This is also a substantially bigger tally than Gavi’s 2 goals and Balde’s 1 that he scored against Espanyol in Barca’s most recent 4-2 victory.
