In a game like football, the importance of teamwork is huge. It always helps to have players who can read and understand each other very well. This, of course, comes with hours of practice on and off the pitch. Such a telepathic understanding, especially between the attacking players, can be fruitful for the team as players can create better chances and score more goals.
Over the years, there have been many famous trios in football and their fame stemmed from the success of their partnership. Some of the most famous trios in football include Manchester United’s holy trinity of George Best, Sir Bobby Charlton and Denis Law or the Brazilian trio of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.
Similarly, many trios in Europe are making headlines this season for their performance. So here is a look at the Top 10 trios of this season based on their goal involvement (goals and assists) in league games.
#10 Dybala, Pogba and Mandzukic – 62
Juventus were slow to get into their stride this season but still managed to win the league title by 9 points thanks to some impressive performance from the likes of Paul Pogba, Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic.
Pogba stepped up in midfield after the departure of Pirlo and Vidal by scoring 8 goals and providing 12 assists. His 12 assists make him the joint highest assists provider in Serie A along with Miralem Pjanic.
Juventus replaced their outgoing Argentine striker, Carlos Tevez, with another Argentine striker, Paulo Dybala. The youngster has been heaped with praises for his amazing debut season with the club as he has the second highest number of goals in the league with 19 and provided the sixth highest number of assists in the league with 9.
The last member of the trio, Mario Mandzukic, was not as effective as the other two, but nevertheless, he contributed to the team with 10 goals and 4 assists.
Paul Pogba – 8 goals & 12 assists
Paulo Dybala – 19 goals & 9 assists
Mario Mandzukic – 10 goals & 4 assists
Total goal involvement – 62
#9 Vardy, Mahrez & Okazaki – 63
England International, Jamie Vardy, was the biggest contributor for Leicester this season with 24 goals and 6 assists. During the season, he broke the record for scoring in the most consecutive matches. He was named the Premier League Player of the Season as well.
While Vardy scored a lot of goals, he shared the limelight with Riyad Mahrez throughout the season. The Algerian won the PFA Player of the Year after he contributed 17 goals and 11 assists. The most impressive thing about Mahrez was that he stepped up his game in big and crucial fixtures and scored in many such fixtures as well.
The third member of the trio, Shinji Okazaki, didn’t make a huge contribution in terms of goals or assists as he only had 5 goals at the end of the season. However, the Japanese international’s pressing and work rate were vital for Leicester to help make space and time on the ball for the likes of Vardy and Mahrez.
Jamie Vardy – 24 goals & 6 assists
Riyad Mahrez – 17 goals & 11 assists
Shinji Okazaki – 5 goals & 0 assists
Total goal involvement – 63
#8 Ozil, Sanchez & Giroud – 64
Arsenal may have endured an up and down season, but the Gunners were still a treat to watch while going forward and one of the main reasons was Mesut Ozil. Some below par finishing from Arsenal cost him many assists, but the German still has 19 assists to his name and no player in Europe has more to their name.
In addition to his assists, Ozil has contributed with 6 goals as well.
Alexis Sanchez, on the other hand, couldn’t replicate the heroics of his debut season, but nevertheless, the Chilean scored 13 goals and provided 4 assists. Giroud, on the other hand got off to a flying start this season but struggled in front of goal for most of the second half of the season.
Despite this, the Frenchman has scored 16 goals and also provided 6 assists.
Mesut Ozil – 6 goals & 19 assists
Alexis Sanchez – 13 goals & 4 assists
Olivier Giroud – 16 goals & 6 assists
Total goal involvement – 64
#7 Kane, Eriksen & Alli – 64
The dream season for Spurs faded away towards the end, but the North London club had a season to remember for many reasons and one of them was the performance of some of their attacking players.
Local lad Harry Kane cast aside any doubts of him being a one-season wonder by scoring 25 goals and winning the Golden Boot. While his compatriot Dele Alli was one of the revelations of the season as he scored 10 goals and provided 9 assists. Alli was awarded the PFA Young Player of the Year award for his contributions.
Pulling the strings from midfield was Christian Eriksen. The Dane scored 6 goals and provided 13 assists as well. Only Mesut Ozil was able to provide more assists than Eriksen in the Premier League.
Dele Alli – 10 goals & 9 assists
Harry Kane – 25 goals & 1 assist
Christian Eriksen – 6 goals & 13 assists
Total goal involvement – 64
#6 Lewandowski, Muller & Costa – 70
Bayern Munich cruised to yet another league title this season and like in their previous seasons under Guardiola, their forwards banged in goals left, right and centre. The major architect behind their rich goalscoring run was their import from Dortmund – Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski scored 30 goals this season and in the process, he became the first player to score 30 goals in a Bundesliga season since 1976-77. This was also the second time in three seasons that the Pole won the top scorer award in Germany.
Aiding Lewandowski was the ever reliable Thomas Muller and the flamboyant Douglas Costa. Muller scored a personal best 20 goals this season and in the process became the third highest goal scorer in the league.
Meanwhile, Costa proved to be one of the best acquisitions of the summer and he held down a regular starting role in the side ahead of the likes of Ribery and Gotze. The Brazilian contributed to the team with 4 goals and 9 assists.
Robert Lewandowski – 30 goals & 2 assists
Thomas Muller – 20 goals & 5 assists
Douglas Costa – 4 goals & 9 assists
Total goal involvement – 70
#5 Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan & Reus – 71
Borussia Dortmund had a very poor season last time around and it was necessary for them to bounce back strongly under Thomas Tuchel in order to keep some of their best players and that’s exactly what they did.
Dortmund scored 82 goals this season which is the most in Bundesliga and 48 of those goals have come from Aubameyang, Reus and Mkhitaryan. In fact, if their combined goals and assists are taken, the trio was involved in 71 of the 82 goals the club scored!
Leading the way for Dortmund was Gabonese striker Aubameyang who stepped into the vacant boots of Lewandowski by scoring 25 goals and his tally is bettered only by Lewandowski. However, the pick of three was the Armenian, Mkhitaryan, who was roped in to replace Mario Gotze.
Mkhitaryan scored 11 goals and provided 15 assists and only Ozil, Di Maria, Messi and Suarez have more assists than him in Europe. Last but not least – Marco Reus. The German finally managed to have a season where injuries didn’t limit his appearances adversely and he showed his class by scoring 12 goals and setting up a further three more.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 11 goals & 15 assists
Marco Reus – 12 goals & 3 assists
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 25 goals & 5 assists
Total goal involvement – 71
#4 Higuain, Insigne & Hamsik – 77
Midway through the current season it looked like Napoli might end the dominance of Juventus in Serie A as they were propelled by goals from their hitman – Gonzalo Higuain.
Higuain has managed to cast aside the horror of missing a crucial penalty in the final of the Copa America and bounced back from it with arguably one of the finest individual performances in Serie A history.
The Argentine broke a 66-year-old record to become the highest scorer in a single Serie A season by scoring 36 goals! What’s more incredible is that he achieved this feat by scoring a hat-trick in the final 20 minutes of the league season.
The former Real Madrid man wouldn’t have achieved this feat if it wasn’t for the support he received from his teammates Insigne and Hamsik in particular.
Insigne has finally come of age by scoring 12 goals and providing 10 assists. This makes him the ninth highest scorer and the fourth highest assister in the league. Hamsik, on the other hand, has found his best form after a couple of subdued seasons for his standards.
The Slovakian scored 6 goals and provided 11 assists. Only Pogba and Pjanic have more assists than the Napoli captain this season in Serie A.
Gonzalo Higuain – 36 goals & 2 assists
Lorenzo Insigne – 12 goals & 10 assists
Marek Hamsik – 6 goals & 11 assists
Total goal involvement – 77
#3 Ibrahimovic, Cavani & Di Maria – 103
French Champions, PSG, bolstered their attacking line-up this season by adding the South American flair of Angel Di Maria and the results are there for everyone to see. The side from the French capital has amassed 96 goals and of these 96 goals, 67 were scored by their attacking trio of Ibrahimovic, Cavani and Di Maria.
The star man Ibrahimovic has had his best season in terms of goals scored at the age of 34. The Swede has 38 goals to his name in just 31 games and this makes him the second highest goalscorer in Europe behind Luis Suarez. In addition to his goals, he has provided 13 assists which is the second highest in the league and only seven players from the top five leagues have more assists than him.
While Ibrahimovic hogged the limelight, PSG’s South American pair of Di Maria and Cavani contributed effectively. Di Maria scored 10 goals and assisted 18 in his debut season and only Mesut Ozil has more assists than him in Europe. Cavani, on the other hand, didn’t have the greatest of seasons, but still scored 19 goals which is the third highest in Ligue 1.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 38 goals & 13 assists
Angel Di Maria – 10 goals & 18 assists
Edinson Cavani – 19 goals & 5 assists
Total goal involvement – 103
#2 Bale, Benzema & Ronaldo – 106
The Real Madrid trio have not been able to play together as much as they would have liked owing to injuries to one or the other throughout the season. Bale and Benzema have played just 50 games combined and yet they have scored 43 goals and provided 17 assists.
These statistics highlight how important they are to Real Madrid and one has to wonder how much better Real Madrid’s season could have been if they were available for more games.
While Bale and Benzema were battling long-term injuries, Cristiano Ronaldo was as lethal as ever. He has 35 goals this season. He also has 11 assists to his name and it is the joint fourth highest in the league along with Neymar.
Gareth Bale – 19 goals & 10 assists
Karim Benzema – 24 goals & 7 assists
Cristiano Ronaldo – 35 goals & 11 assists
Total goal involvements – 106
#1 Messi, Suarez and Neymar – 134
Barcelona’s South American trio picked up from where they left at the end of last season. They tore into the opposition defence on most occasions and are on course to winning a domestic double this season.
Like last season, most of the credit for Barcelona’s brilliant season goes to their forward trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar. However, unlike last year, when Messi was the main man, it is the Uruguayan, Luis Suarez, who has topped all the charts this time.
Suarez has 40 goals to his name this season and no player has scored more than him in Europe’s top five leagues. In addition to this, he has provided 16 assists which is the joint highest in La Liga.
Lionel Messi had a few injury problems early on in the season and missed a few games through the same. Despite this, the Argentine has a league highest 16 assists with Luis Suarez and has also scored 26 goals which is the third highest in the league.
Neymar had a flying start to the season and was even top of the goals and assists charts in La Liga at one point. Despite this, he has still managed to score 24 goals and provide 12 assists for Barcelona.
Luis Suarez – 40 goals & 16 assists
Lionel Messi – 26 goals & 16 assists
Neymar – 24 goals & 12 assists
Total goal involvement – 134
