Kristjan Asllani: A regista for the future

Inter currently have one of the best registas in the world in Hakan Calhanoglu after converting him from a more advanced midfield role last season when Marcelo Brozovic was nearing the end of his Inter tenure. His 22 year-old backup, Kristjan Asllani, is lesser known to the wider football world but he is looking like an intriguing regista prospect. The Albanian international started his Serie A career coming through Empoli's academy which he joined at the age of 10. Empoli are famed for the players they've developed and sold in recent years including Ismael Bennacer, Guglielmo Vicario, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Fabiano Parisi. 

Asllani excels in the first phase buildup where he can drop into the wide CB slots to allow Pavard and Bastoni to push higher and wider to create more passing angles to play the ball back inside, as he's also a very useful 3rd man passer. Perhaps it was more noticeable during his Empoli career, but he can be very vocal when organising his midfield line in and out of possession to create and close angles. Asllani's progressive passing and carrying numbers don't stand out only being in the 38th and 73rd percentiles (fbref) but he has good ball-retention when in the defensive half through his two-footedness and ability to use ball fakes to quickly evade his opponent.

It's very noticeable that he's also incredibly confident passing and receiving the ball on his "weaker" left foot which opens up many more passing options when he's being pressed. When he's further up the pitch, he's capable of playing his teammates through with good crossing technique (on both feet) from half-space positions or corners (these are not especially frequent but still a string to his bow). He's able to adjust his body position, by opening his body out to even switch his passing foot, so quickly that it allows him to disguise his passes to break defensive lines open, allowing his teammates to be in on goal. 

He does mostly come off the bench for Inter, for half an hour at most, although he has started 7 games at club level this season. His in-possession numbers are indicative that he could make a good level #6 as a starter for Inter or elsewhere with 85 touches and 65 passes per 90 being among the 93rd and 94th percentile respectively. 

He's a bit of a non-factor defensively at this stage of his career, which isn't ideal as a #6, and he does get caught too high up the pitch when Inter lose possession, leading to gaps in midfield. This is also shown by him being in the lowest percentiles for tackles and interceptions (fbref, as of May 9th 2024). When you have the energetic combination presence of Nicolo Barella, Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Davide Fratessi as midfield partners, and a very solid back 5 presence behind him, his defensive deficiencies are covered a fair bit but it's certainly something that he can look to improve upon. 

At 5'10 and with a fairly slim frame, he's not the strongest presence physically so protecting passing lanes and improving defensive timing will be good ways for him to improve. He has made a fair few errors leading to goals in recent seasons due to poor concentration or execution when passing the ball upfield or simply not being aware enough of players around him. Although these errors can also be cut down, as he generally is a very aware player and will scan behind him most times before receiving the ball to give himself a clear picture of the space behind him. 

Personally, I'm pretty high on him to keep improving and think there's already the foundations there of a very talented player. Being Calhanoglu's understudy is a pretty good role to have for Asllani at this age but I'd be curious to see if he was to be sold to a club where he'd get starting minutes. At 22 he's hopefully got a long career ahead of him and being at one of the biggest clubs in the world already shows just how highly he has been thought of.