Using Hudl Statsbomb data, we analyze the young Argentinian playmaker’s impactful start to the season.
In his second year in Italy, Nico Paz has now established himself as one of the bonafide stars of Serie A. To illustrate the point, after spending last season with the number 79 on his back, Como have now handed him the coveted number 10 shirt.
To persuade head coach Cesc Fàbregas to stay on the shores of lake Como, the club strengthened the squad considerably this summer, bringing in a host of players full of promise and technical quality: Martin Baturina and Nicolas Kühn were two of the revelations of last season’s Champions League group stage, while Jayden Addai and Jesús Rodríguez are two players under the age of 21 capable of making their mark straight away with their dribbling and directness.
Yet despite the overall rise in quality, Nico Paz has remained the team’s beacon: even alongside such gifted teammates, it’s clear he is a player of superior technique.
It’s impossible not to be captivated by Nico Paz — by the way the quality in his feet combines so uniquely with his 1.86m frame: a truly unusual blend for a trequartista, supported by the kind of coordination and body control that belong to a top-class player.
But Nico Paz isn’t just about the aesthetics of his football. What makes him one of the best players in the league, in fact, is the way he manages to drag Como forward with him.
The start of the season hasn’t been entirely smooth for the Lariani. After their opening-day victory over Lazio, only one more win followed in the next five matches — away to Fiorentina, secured by an Addai goal in the 90th minute.
Aside from that, I Biancoblù suffered a defeat to Bologna — a team that, on paper, should be of similar stature — a couple of unexpected draws against Genoa and Cremonese, and a 1–1 result that was, all things considered, a positive one in a difficult away trip to Atalanta.
And Nico Paz — how has he started his season amid all this? Pretty well, it must be said. Last year, after all, he finished with six goals and nine assists; this season, he’s already found the net three times.
His goals have come from 0.98 expected goals — quite a noticeable gap, one that will probably even out as the season goes on. What explains the difference between expected and actual goals, though, is above all his technical quality: that gorgeous free-kick against Lazio and the missile from 25 metres out against Genoa, where he struck the ball after a pirouette, are the kind of goals that probably only he can score in Serie A.
Still, the fact remains that those goals have come as a reward for a spell in which the Argentine has been looking to score with real intent and consistency: as per Statsbomb data, he’s joint top in the league for total shots taken (20), alongside Moise Kean, Giovane, and Gift Orban.
Goals are, of course, the most important part of the game. But Nico Paz is the leading light of his team in every phase of play.
Despite being only twenty years old, the former Real Madrid man is already a universal player — one who embodies the Argentine ideal of the number 10, the enganche: not a modern trequartista who only makes the difference in the final thirty metres, but a footballer used to stepping in at any zone of the pitch and deciding in which direction the play will flow. His heatmap proves it.
His starting positions are those of a right winger, central playmaker, and striker, but his influence stretches far beyond that. You can see that on the right side of the pitch he also likes to drop deeper, where the pressure is lighter and it’s easier for him to face the goal and decide what to do next.
Nico Paz is left-footed, so by dropping into that right-central area, on his inverted side, once he turns he can see the whole pitch in front of him and open up every possible option.
The fact that he prefers to play from an inverted-foot position doesn’t mean he can’t shift over to his natural side, the left. He does so mainly when Como’s play has already moved into the attacking third, and by drifting closer to the ball, with his quality, he can unlock tight situations in confined spaces.
To show just how wide his influence is on the game and on his teammates, among all the attacking players in Serie A who have played more than 90 minutes in these first six matches, Nico Paz ranks second for passes received: 32.54 every 90 minutes.
Using Statsbomb 360 metrics – which are now bundled in with our event data at no extra charge – we can gain deeper insight into these ball receipts.
It is notable not just how many passes he receives but in what situations and where on the pitch. Paz ranks second in Serie A for line-breaking passes in at least five metres of space, demonstrating his ability to find pockets of space between the lines and put himself in positions to advance the ball.
