I've wanted to write about crosses for a while. They're notoriously not a great way to create chances — and they'd need better data than what I have available to be properly analyzed (ahem ahem, that tweet) — but I was curious enough to look at the numbers anyway, mostly because I had this perception that Italian teams cross a lot and create very little from it.
Well, I was wrong.
Data updated through matchday 26 of Serie A 2025/26.
Serie A crosses less — and creates more
Among the top 5 European leagues, Serie A is the one where teams cross the least per game. Yet it produces the highest number of shots within 5 seconds of those crosses, behind only the Premier League.
The picture gets even more interesting when you look at the quality of those shots: Serie A's xG per shot trails only La Liga and the Premier League. In short, Italian teams cross less, generate more shots, and those shots are of relatively high quality — a picture I really wasn't expecting.
My perception was completely off. And I have to say I'm also surprised by which teams cross the most — at least in terms of volume — in Italy: Inter, Juventus (!), Bologna, and Fiorentina (?!). Inter clearly dominate both in crossing volume and in the number of shots generated, while Juventus rank second for volume with solid numbers in terms of shots created too.
The picture changes, though, when you look at the quality of those shots. High volume doesn't necessarily mean better chances — and in fact, the xG per shot distribution reshuffles the rankings quite a bit.
The player focus
This wouldn't be something written by me without a focus on individual players — after all, I'd like to work in club recruitment someday (hey Torino, I'm from Turin!).
Let's start with a name you might not expect: Sebastian Walukiewicz. Among the players — ignore the "wingbacks" label, that's a leftover — who have crossed at least 30 times in Serie A and Serie B, he has the highest percentage of crosses that generate a shot, goal, or own goal within 5 seconds. And it's not close: 34.2% of his crosses produce a dangerous action within seconds, well clear of Álex Valle (30.3%) and Mërgim Vojvoda (27.5%).
To better understand his profile, I clustered his cro
sses. His preferred delivery zones and per-zone effectiveness show a clear pattern: two clusters of 7 crosses each with a 42.86% conversion rate into a dangerous action are impressive numbers for a defender.
Walukiewicz also ranks 2nd among Serie A crossers for average value added relative to the Atomic VAEP model within five seconds of the cross — meaning the highest value among his teammates' actions after receiving the ball compared to the value of the cross itself. This tells us that not only do his crosses land in dangerous areas, but they also generate high-value follow-up actions.
Who's on the receiving end at near and far post?
To wrap things up: who receives the most crosses aimed at the near post in Serie A? The Italian wonderkid, Francesco Pio Esposito, with 16 open-play receptions at the near post — ahead of Scamacca (14) and Santiago Castro (11).
And at the far post? Marcus Thuram leads with 16 receptions, followed by Lautaro Martínez (14) and Moise Kean (12). Inter, as you might have guessed from the team-level volume data, feature multiple players in both rankings.
