The Best Wingers for Crossing & Dribbling Across Europe

As a round-up of WhoScored.com's feature on Europe's best attacking wingers from each of the top 5 divisions, we have collated the leading 5 players per category based on crossing and dribbling levels from each of the leagues, with some interesting conclusions to be drawn.

As a reminder, all players to have played fewer than 20 games from the wing were filtered out in order to prove who had repeated strong performances and wide-man relevant statistics on a consistent basis.

The following results not only help to pinpoint individual excellence, but also elude to the differing styles of play across the continents best league's, with some exceptional statistics on show. The findings are based upon the top 5 players for attacking-based wing statistics in the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 and therefore compile the best scores in terms of a combination of crossing and dribbling- not separating the two;

Crossing

Crossing figures were collected in terms of total attempts made, attempted deliveries per game, as well as the all-important cross accuracy rates. It becomes immediately evident that crossing has become a key component in certain divisions, with the Premier League in particular being one of those to exploit their wide men to the fullest.

It is therefore just as obvious that wingers are utlized far less in league's such as the Serie A, particularly when it comes to getting balls into the box, with the Italian's more measured, tactical game attributing to this.

Total Crosses Attempted
In terms of total crosses made by any winger in the top 5 leagues, Liverpool's new signing Stewart Downing tops the pile. His figure in this regard is a key facet to his game and was equally important in Kenny Dalglish's decision to sign the former Aston Villa-man, forking out around £20m to provide service for his new target man Andy Carroll.

Three representatives from the Premier League make their way onto the list, with Wolves' Matt Jarvis and Man United's Nani proving their worth to their respective clubs. Ranking in third and disrupting the English dominance is PSG's Nene, whose all-round attacking prowess earned him excellent scores leading to a Ligue 1 high WhoScored.com rating of 7.67. The fact that Nani also led the way in the Premier League with his rating of 7.58 is indicative of a winger's importance in the modern game. Xabi Prieto of La Liga's Real Sociedad completes the top 5 in this regard having attempted 181 crosses over the course of the 2010/11 season.

Crosses Per Game
The English game's stress on the value of wingers to a team's play is further strengthened by the fact that all of the top 5 players in the Premier League for crosses per game make the top 5 based on all of the analysed divisions combined.

Downing ranks third this time having played more games than both Jarvis (2nd) and PFA Player of the Season Gareth Bale (1st). The Tottenham man was lauded last term for barnstorming displays on the left of Harry Redknapp's midfield with his dribbling and crossing abilities shining all season. Having attempted 6.88 deliveries per match, Bale's ability to make the extra yard needed to get a cross away is unrivalled across Europe, while the appearance on the leader board of young Villa winger Marc Albrighton is also of huge testament to the 21-year-old's displays in his debut league season.

Cross Accuracy
While the feature of crossing is bar far the most prominent in the Premier League, none of its representatives were able to break into our top 5 when it came to accuracy with their attempted deliveries. However, along with the elite English division, both the Bundesliga and Serie A fail to see a player make the top 5 once again, indicating a weakness in this department. The French Ligue 1 certainly doesn't suffer from a lack of talent when it comes to crossing with 3 players making the leader board, while Spain's La Liga also has 2 wingers in the list.

A crossing accuracy of 28% may not sound remarkable but is a spectacular figure nonetheless when you consider that deliveries can easily go astray, be blocked, or attackers can be dominated by bigger, stronger defenders. The feat is one that only Yohan Mollo could manage, and for a 22-year-old, this is exceptional. The Frenchman played on-loan at Caen last season, and helped assure the side of survival with some superb displays from wide. Real Sociedad's Antoine Griezmann, interestingly a Frenchman, was just pipped to first place having gained a success rate of 27% and he is just 20, with the list leaders proving that French coaches are doing something right at youth level when training wingers! Kanga Akale, Gael Danic and Xabi Prieto all make the leader board having reached their target with a quarter of their attempted crosses.

Dribbling

It is interesting to see that when it comes to wingers being afforded the freedom to run at defenders, some of the league's that were less represented in the crossing statistics start to appear, especially from the German Bundesliga.

The representation from the Premier League is still in place, but restricted significantly, while Spain's La Liga has no players in the top 5 for dribbling statistics including total attempts, dribbles per game and dribble success rate.

Total Dribbles Attempted
Serie A's first and only inclusion in any of the categories analysed comes from Milos Krasic, highlighting just how much more he offers Juventus in an attacking sense from out wide than any other player in the league. The Serbian attempted a huge 165 dribbles over the course of last season, just 1 ahead of Nene, whose inclusion in both the crossing and dribbling leader boards backs up his excellent WhoScored.com rating.

France international Franck Ribery was arguably the best dribbling winger across the European league's coming third for total attempts, followed by Nani and Bale, who like Nene, should be applauded for their fantastic statistics in crossing and dribbling combined.

Dribbles Per Game
Of wingers to have made a combined high of crossing and dribbling statistics, Ribery ranks first in the latter in terms of attempts per game by a significant margin. In having the confidence to try and take on opponents almost 7 times a match (6.95), he ranks way away of second placed Jefferson Farfan with 5.3, with both of our top dribblers flying the flag for the Bundesliga. Unsurprisingly Bale, Krasic and Nene crop up again having attempted a huge number of dribbles, with only the latter trying below 5 per game.

Dribble Success Rate
It is obvious that any player can bomb up and down the flanks attempting to take on everyone in their path but the real trick is in beating the opponent in question, determining the men from the boys when it comes to dribbling prowess. For this reason it may come as surprise that Frenchman Gael Danic of Valenciennes comes out on top having outfoxed his opponent with a magnificent 64% of his dribbles attempted. Although the fact that he attempted far less than the likes of Ribery should be taken into account, his ability to go past a defender is unquestionable, as is that of 21-year-old Konstantin Rausch. The young German beat his opponent on a hugely impressive 58% of occasions, proving his maturity in picking his opportunities to take on a full-back.

Manchester United's Nani and Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery both make the top 5 despite also featuring in the total dribbles attempted leader board with 138 and 153 respectively. Therefore, their respective figures for dribble success rate of 56% and 53% show that they are the real-heavyweights of European football when it comes to dribbling. The third Bundesliga player to make the top 5, indicative of the league's glut of dribbling talents, is Frankfurt wide man Patrick Ochs, who is the only other player to be more successful than not when it comes to taking on opponents with 51%.