Written by Umberto Pelà (06.12.2022)
Piotr Zieliński: the most underrated midfielder in the world?
Born in Ząbkowice Śląskie – a Polish town with a population of just over 15000 – on the 20th of May 1994, Piotr Sebastian Zieliński now plays for Italian giants S.S.C. Napoli. Even though he is widely recognised as a good player, the more I watch him the more I feel like he is slowly asserting himself as one of the most dominant midfielders in world football. I would even dare say that if the ‘Partenopei’ win this year’s scudetto with Zieliński playing like he has for the past few months, he can easily be considered as one of the top five midfielders in Europe.
From the day of his arrival to Udinese at age 17 in 2012, Zieliński had shown great promise but little end product throughout his first few seasons. He was that player that would catch your eye occasionally, but you never thought could make the jump to a big club. In fact, in 19 appearances over two years, Zieliński didn’t manage to find the net at all and tallied only one assist.
Despite that, his performances at such a young age had started to show some promise.
His raw talent was developed intensively with a two year loan spell to Tuscan team Empoli, which in hindsight proved to be an extremely smart decision for his career, as he made 63 Serie A appearances, netting five times and assisting six. Under infamous manager Marco Giampaolo, Zieliński attracted attention from Italy’s giants. earning him a €16 million move to S.S.C. Napoli on the 4th of August 2016.
Aged 22, Zieliński quickly asserted himself as one of the starters for that Napoli side managed by Maurizio Sarri. Sarri’s style, “ball possession, but at a very high speed” fit Zieliński perfectly. His unrivaled ability to play with both feet, understanding of tempo, and capabilities to beat the opposing press we now know of started to show. These granted him 36 appearances (18 starts) in Serie A that season at what is considered to be a young age in Serie A. It is safe to say Zieliński took no time to adapt to a big team, as that year Napoli finished 3rd.
In his first year with a big club, his offensive production was notable as he was involved in five goals and seven assists in a total of 1868 minutes played: a goal contribution of 0.58 per 90 minutes. If we look at the midfielders present the 2016/2017 team of the year, only Napoli teammate Marek Hamsik outdid Zieliński’s 0.58 per 90 with 0.65 per 90, whilst Roma’s Radja Nainggolan (0.45 per 90 minutes) and Juventus’ Miralem Pjanic (0.58 per 90 minutes) did not outdo him. Whilst it is important to recognise that the other three midfielders mentioned played more than 2000 (Pjanic) and 3000 (Hamsik and Nainggolan) minutes, Zieliński’s raw potential should’ve undoubtedly been taken into account as we all were starting to witness excellence.
The following seasons were some of ‘establishment’, if you may, for Piotr Zieliński. He cemented himself as a remarkable offensive threat and a key piece to Napoli’s puzzle. Whilst his goal and assist production oscillated between two and eight goals and one and ten assists in the following five seasons, Zieliński is only now finally reaching his peak maturity.
This 2022/2023 season, Zieliński has undisputedly proven to be one of best attacking midfielders in Italy for a variety of reasons. His offensive production has been quite unreal – but that feels like an understatement. At the time of writing, Zieliński leads Serie A for xAG, a measure that “indicates a player’s ability to set up scoring chances without having to rely on the actual result of the shot or the shooter’s luck/ability”. He ranks first for xAG at 4.3 for the season, and is 3rd on the xAG per 90 with 0.42 per 90, just behind Fiorentina’s Riccardo Saponara (0.44 per 90) and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia (0.43 per 90).
Zieliński also leads the league for xA – a measure of “the likelihood that a given pass will become a goal assist” – per 90 with 0.35. He is also 3rd for Key Passes (“pass leading to the recipient of the ball having an attempt at goal without scoring”) with 35 so far this season, and 4th for Shot-Creating Actions (“offensive/attacking actions that directly lead to a shot on goal”) per 90 minutes.
It might also be worth mentioning that he is in the top 10 for Goals + Assists per 90 metric, with 0.79 contributions per 90. How many other midfielders in that list? None. Curiously, Napoli hold three members in this list – Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen with 1.14 and 1.10 respectively – which is quite frankly flabbergasting.
If we then compare Zieliński’s stats against other midfielders around the world, the statistics simply speak for themselves. As shown in the table provided by FBREF Zieliński finds himself in the Global Top 6% when compared to other midfielders for Non-Penalty Goals, Non-Penalty xG, Shots Total, Assists, xAG, non-penalty xG + xAG, and Shot-Creating Actions.
For comparison, here are the same statistics for arguably unanimous best midfielder in the world, Kevin De Bruyne.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Zieliński is Kevin De Bruyne. However, it is time that we start respecting his name on a global level. The percentiles between the two players are extremely similar and Zieliński is showing his quality on the global stage now.
Zieliński has a crucial role within this Napoli team. With Stanislav Lobotka, Zieliński steers Luciano Spalletti’s ship in the right direction. He reads the game like few other midfielders in Serie A and global football, which in turn also makes players around him prosper. It can’t be a coincidence that the Napoli forwards Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen are having their best season production-wise. Perhaps the reincarnation of former Napoli captain Marek Hamsik, Zieliński connects midfield and attack so smoothly as he can go any direction thanks to his innate ability with both feet. His movement off the ball is also worth mentioning, as he recognises when to support and when to allow wingers Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, Hirving Lozano, Matteo Politano and Eljif Elmas to take on opposing fullbacks.
Overall, watching him play football is pure pleasure, and I invite you to do so soon enough. He’s so good that Napoli fans are even starting to worship him as as a saint, as they fest their eyes on his plays at the sacred Stadio Diego Armando Maradona
His performances at the World Cup thus far have already seen him bag a goal against Saudi Arabia, stepping up to a stage which many expected to see only Robert Lewandowski on. For Zieliński, the World Cup will hopefully prove to be a stage where he gains exposure and manages to display the qualities I definitely know he holds. At 28 years of age, Zieliński is undoubtedly in his prime, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Premier League clubs splurged big amounts of money to secure his talents this summer.
References
https://www.statsperform.com/opta-analytics/#:~:text=Expected%20assists%20(xA)%20measures%20the,point%20and%20length%20of%20pass.https://twitter.com/sofascoreint/status/1105940139396792320
CBS Sports Golazo – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e52JzwIO6_o: Underrated Episode 1: Piotr Zieliński