Remember when almost every side would line up in a 4-4-2 formation with a big guy and a little guy up front?
The big guy would flick the ball onto the little pacy striker to score and it was very difficult for defences to deal with.
But teams very rarely play two up front these days.
You’re more likely to see a lone striker with two wingers either side of him or a No. 10 in support.
It means you don’t really get to see an Andy Cole/Dwight Yorke partnership too often with two strikers having a complete understanding with one another as they cause havoc for the opposition.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t prolific combinations in European football.
In fact, The Athletic has revealed the 12 best assist/goal combinations in Europe this season.
Let’s take a look:
4=
Assister: Christopher Nkunku
Goalscorer: Timo Werner
Club: RB Leipzig
Goals: 5
22-year-old midfielder Nkunku has produced five assists for the now Chelsea forward Werner. That combination helped Leipzig finish third in the Bundesliga.
4=
Assister: Harvey Barnes
Goalscorer: Jamie Vardy
Club: Leicester
Goals: 5
Vardy has notched 23 goals in the Premier League this season and five of them have come courteously of Barnes. Leicester could do with a few more of those two linking up again more often if they’re to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
4=
Assister: Philipp Max
Goalscorer: Florian Niederlechner
Club: Augsburg
Goals: 5
Max is actually a left-back who produced plenty of tasty crosses for his teammate, Niederlechner, this season. A pretty impressive combination considering Augsberg finished fourth from bottom this season.
4=
Assister: Christopher Trimmel
Goalscorer: Sebastian Andersson
Club: Union Berlin
Goals: 5
For an attacking player, Trimmel failed to score this season but provided 11 assists for his teammates. Five of those were for Andersson as Union Berlin finished 11th.
4=
Assister: Serge Gnabry
Goalscorer: Robert Lewandowski
Club: Bayern Munich
Goals: 5
Not the last time Lewandowski will feature on this list. Hardly surprising considering the Pole notched 34 league goals this season. Gnabry put five on a plate for him.
4=
Assister: Luis Alberto
Goalscorer: Ciro Immobile
Club: Lazio
Goals: 5
Considering Lazio still have six matches left to play, this duo could find themselves moving up the particular list before the end of the campaign. The league’s top goalscorer, Immobile, has benefited from five assists from former Liverpool midfielder, Alberto.
3=
Assister: Neymar
Goalscorer: Kylian Mbappe
Club: PSG
Goals: 6
Paris Saint-Germain only played 27 of their matches this season and have two different combinations on this list. Incredibly, Neymar only managed six assists this season and they were all for Mbappe.
3=
Assister: Angel Di Maria
Goalscorer: Kylian Mbappe
Club: PSG
Goals: 6
Di Maria also assisted Mbappe six times as the Frenchman managed 18 goals in his 20 appearances.
3=
Assister: Kevin De Bruyne
Goalscorer: Sergio Aguero
Club: Manchester City
Goals: 6
It’s 18 Premier League assists and counting for De Bruyne this season. But with Aguero out injured for the rest of the domestic campaign, the duo won’t be able to add to that tally.
2=
Assister: Lionel Messi
Goalscorer: Luis Suarez
Club: Barcelona
Goals: 7
Messi has equalled a La Liga record by registering 20 assists this season. If Suarez had played more than 26 matches this season, they would probably be top of this list.
2=
Assister: Adama Traore
Goalscorer: Raul Jimenez
Club: Wolves
Goals: 7
Traore embarrasses the left-back for pace and produces a brilliant cross for Jimenez to finish. We've seen that seven times already this season. Poetry in motion.
1
Assister: Thomas Muller
Goalscorer: Robert Lewandowski
Club: Bayern Munich
Goals: 8
Muller broke the Bundesliga assist record this season, while Lewandowski, as previously stated, managed 34 in 31. It was hardly a surprise to see these two top, was it?
