Serie A striker the fourth best attacking player in the world according to stats
Napoli forward Dries Mertens is the fourth best attacking player in the world if you go by stats.
Mertens has scored 27 goals and assisted 9 making him involved in a total of 36 goals in the Serie A for Napoli this season. This total of goals and assists makes him the fourth most productive attacking player in all of Europe’s top leagues.
Messi is first, unsurprisingly, after being involved in 44 league goals- scoring 35 goals and making nine assists.
While Suarez takes second place after being involved in 41 goals- 28 goals and 13 assists.
PSG’s Edinson Cavani is third after being involved in 39 goals- 35 goals and four assists.
Mertens, 30, has been under the radar for most of his career. He started out at Belgian club Gent before moving on to various Dutch teams. He eventually made his mark at PSV between 2011-2013 scoring 37 goals in 62 appearances.
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A winger by trade, coach Maurizio Sarri spotted his potential as a fast counter-attacking striker and moved him there.
Since then he’s excelled as a striker at Napoli, and at 30-years-old he’s finally flourished after realizing his true position and potential.
Mertens was rewarded for his good form by winning the Belgian footballer of the year award in 2016 beating Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Roma’s Radja Nainggolan.
The Belgian maverick was also the first player to score successive league hat-tricks since Juventus star Pietro Anastasi in 1974.
His change of position has truly done wonders for him. In the previous 2015/16 season, Mertens only scored five goals. Prior to that, he scored only six goals. A jump from an average of five or so goals a season to 27 goals is remarkable.
Now all the top clubs are prowling. Manchester United, Chelsea and even West Ham have been linked with the dynamic attacker.
Mertens was spotted having lunch recently with Chelsea’s Nathaniel Chalobah, Nathan Ake and Ola Aina. Chalobah used to play alongside Mertens while he was on loan at Napoli. So meeting up for lunch is understandable, but of course this fueled a lot of transfer speculation.
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But it’s highly unlikely Napoli will let him go after such a stellar season. The club are also notoriously difficult to negotiate with after Chelsea’s long and unsuccessful transfer saga for Kalidou Koulibaly.