Como's Diao Tops Serie A Ball-Carrying Stats; Kolo Muani, Touré Struggle

With Serie A due back within a week, carry-based numbers from the first five matchdays show which players turn runs with the ball into chances — and which do not.

Serie A is scheduled to resume in less than a week, and the opening five matchdays of the season have already produced a meaningful set of numbers to study before play restarts. A review of carry-based data from those rounds separates the league's most productive ball carriers from the players who cover plenty of ground with the ball at their feet yet generate almost nothing from it.

The categories measured — chances created, shots, goals and assists — count only what players produced directly from carrying the ball forward, not their overall season totals. That distinction isolates the players who move attacks ahead by running with possession themselves rather than by passing.

Assane Diao sits well clear at the top of the chart. The Como winger has created 12 chances from his carries, more than anyone else in the league, and added three shots and one assist. He also ranks third among all Serie A players for total distance covered with the ball at his feet, the profile of a wide player who repeatedly starts attacking moves on his own.

Paulo Dybala actually attempts more carries than Diao, though he covers fewer meters on average each time he takes the ball, pointing to a game built on close control in tight spaces rather than long sprints. The return from those runs is six chances created, two shots and two assists — smaller in volume than Diao's output but rated higher in quality by the analysis.

Giorgi Kvernadze is the league's biggest volume carrier. He leads Serie A in total distance covered with the ball at 1.15 kilometers and also ranks first for shots generated from carries, with nine. Six of his runs have produced dangerous chances, including one goal; his other league goals this season have come from different game situations.

The least productive group was measured only among players with at least 20 ball-carrying progressions, so the comparison covers regular carriers rather than occasional ones. Even with that threshold applied, the returns are strikingly thin.

Randal Kolo Muani, setting aside his most recent match against Atalanta, has produced almost nothing from his carries: one chance created, one shot, no goals and no assists. What makes the line especially poor is the distance involved — his average run with the ball covers 14.7 meters, the fifth-highest average in Serie A. The numbers indicate he can carry the ball a long way but struggles to turn those advances into a concrete opportunity.

Roberto Piccoli has attempted fewer carries than Kolo Muani and matched his output exactly: one chance created, one shot, no goals and no assists. When the forward does decide to drive forward he holds the ball even longer, averaging 15.2 meters per carry, and the analysis notes that those extended possessions have not produced a shot.

El Bilal Touré completes the bottom three. He has recorded 23 ball-carrying progressions at an average of 12.1 meters, a figure that places him among the top 15 forwards in the league in that category, yet every attacking measure reads zero from his runs: no shots, no chances created, no assists and no goals.