We unwrap the top five assists of 2016

MILAN – While goals decide games, an assist can have equal aesthetic appeal. When a player tees up the ball at the perfect moment, finds that space you didn’t think was there, he can create something out of nothing. We bring you our favourites from Inter players this year.

We all know about Gary Medel’s passion and dedication, his willingness to run and fight, but he offers more than that. During Inter’s clash with Napoli at the San Siro on 16 April, the Pitbull played a wonderful deft ball, from just inside the Napoli half, putting Mauro Icardi in a perfect position in front of goal, right in the middle of the penalty box. He controlled the ball and did what he does best, making it 1-0 to the hosts.

The Argentinian may be known for his goal-scoring prowess, but as our ranking shows he is capable of an incisive assist too. In the home game against Udinese, he collected a pass from Juan Jesus and with his back to goal, created some space to fire a low ball across the face of goal. Stevan Jovetic was left with the simple task of tapping home.

Icardi features again in our list, this time for a piece of play he produced in the win earlier this season over Juventus. We all know the Inter captain loves playing the Bianconeri, and it was his strike that levelled the scores at 1-1. Shortly after his goal, Icardi picked up a pass from Antonio Candreva. He rounded Gianluigi Buffon, bringing the ball to the touchline; from there he picked out Ivan Perisic with a beautiful cross with the outside of his boot. The Croat’s header made it 2-1.

Three days later the Argentinian had his scoring boots on again, bagging a double to down Empoli. To set up the winner, Joao Mario won the ball in midfield and with his second touch sliced open the hosts’ defence with a carefully weighted through ball. Icardi was one-on-one with Lukasz Skorupski and he stuck away his sixth goal in five games.

Our final assist is another from the Portuguese midfielder. On 11 December against Genoa, Christmas came early for Marcelo Brozovic. The Croat played the ball to Joao Mario, who skipped past Armando Izzo on the left-hand side. He fought off the challenges of Genoa defenders, bursting into the area to tee up Brozovic, with a pass using the tip of his outstretched toe. Our man Brozo controlled the ball in the heart of the penalty area and buried the finish, making it 2-0.