Ciro Immobile is name that football fans will likely have heard of in some capacity. The Lazio striker has been something of a household name within Italy for years after moving from Sevilla in 2016. The 32-year-old Italian is also remembered for his dangerous strike partnership with Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang at Borussia Dortmund. Fans quietly acknowledge Immobile’s ability, but few mention him in conversations regarding elite players – despite him only failing to score 20 league goals in the Serie A once in his six seasons at Lazio. So, the question is: just how good is Ciro Immobile?
Last season, his performances were at their regular high standard, as Lazio finished in an expectant 5th place. Immobile finished top scorer in the league with 27 goals as well – an accolade that Ciro has claimed in 3 of the past 5 seasons.
His goalscoring record this season is obviously impressive – ranking joint third across Europe’s top five leagues with the more popular Karim Benzema. However, Ciro’s finishing has been more clinical, scoring those goals from an expected goals total of 22.2 compared to Benzema’s 23.5. Referring to the scattergram above, Immobile is amongst the very top when it comes to both goalscoring and expected goals, signs of a player who can get himself into dangerous positions and take the chances that come from that movement.
Players above the faint diagonal line are those who score more than their expected goals output would suggest, and Immobile is well above that line – per 90 minutes, he scored 0.15 more goals than expected, putting him in the 87th percentile for xG overperformance amongst European based strikers.
Immobile isn’t much of a pressing forward. 15 pressures per 90 minutes and a success rate of around 22% is very average in terms of quantity (the median value for European strikers was 14.68), but very much off the pace in terms of quality (where the average was 27.5%). Lazio completed the third fewest pressures in Serie A last season, suggesting that Immobile’s low output could be down to a tactical fault rather than an individual one.
In terms of creative output, Immobile’s 2.26 shot creating actions per 90 minutes is just below the average. The fact that his only creative metric that stands out is his shot creating actions from shots suggests that he is a pure, focused finisher, who stays in and around the box as the endpoint of chances – not really engaging in build-up or in defence.
Obviously, it works for him – 150 goals for Lazio at a rate of 0.72 goals a game over six seasons is elite. But why isn’t this feat recognised? Perhaps it’s down to *where* he plays rather than how he plays. Immobile has only played in the Champions League in one season with Lazio. In the 2020/21 season, the team were knocked out in the Round of 16, losing 6-2 on aggregate to Bayern Munich. Individually, his 5 goals were the fourth highest in the competition, level with the likes of Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski. But Messi and Lewandowski play for teams who find themselves at the top of their domestic leagues very regularly and are consistently competing in the latter stages in the Champions League. Immobile’s Lazio, however, are more of a Europa League level team who fail to make headlines over the course of a season. Two Italian Super Cups and one Italian Cup isn’t enough to call him a serial winner.
Internationally, Immobile isn’t a freeloader. Making 6 appearances and scoring a team-high 2 goals in a winning Euro 2020 side is impressive, but not much noise was made about him, as focus was largely placed on the likes of Spinazzola, Barella and Jorginho (although English media aren’t well known for their praise of foreign players).
Realistically, Lazio’s status in the game is very much responsible for Immobile’s lack of attention. Popular domestically but forgotten internationally is a good description of himself and his team. At 32 years old, a big move to a different country is off the cards, but perhaps a couple of Europa League or Champions League runs before his retirement can cement Immobile’s position as not just an Italian icon, but a European one too.
