The most clinical finishers in Europe in 2023-24: Kane, Bellingham, Guirassy…

The likes of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe are up there with the top goalscorers in European football this season, but that’s more to do with the volume of chances they get as opposed to how clinical they are with their finishing.

We’ve taken a closer look into the underlying data that tells us which players across Europe’s top five leagues – Bundesliga, Ligue 1, La Liga, Serie A & Premier League – have been the most clinical finishers.

Here are the 10 players across Europe’s major leagues that have most overperformed their rate of expected goals (xG) in 2023-24 – with statistics via FBref.

Wolves’ South Korea international has now surpassed his tally from the last two seasons combined. He’s up to 10 Premier League goals in 2023-24 so far, overperforming his xG by a rate of 4.1.

Gary O’Neil’s side have been a great watch of late, having won their last three matches and their No.11 has been in fine form himself.

A relatively lesser-known name, 21-year-old winger Dinkci has scored six goals for Bundesliga minnows Heidenheim so far this season. To have done so from just 1.9xG – ranking him about 400th of all players in Europe’s leagues for expected goals – is pretty good going.

The youngster is on loan from Werder Bremen and will be worth keeping an eye on.

The German midfielder is enjoying his best scoring season to date with six goals for Darmstadt 98 from an xG of just 1.8.

Skarke is currently on loan from Union Berlin, who will have been closely monitoring his progress this season.

The La Masia academy graduate joined Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen from Benfica, and he’s undoubtedly proven one of the signings of the season.

Grimaldo’s performances for the Bundesliga table-topper have earned him long-overdue Spain call-ups, and in this kind of form he looks a decent bet to start at Euro 2024 for La Roja.

He’s scored seven goals (from just 2.4xG!) and notched a further six assists in 17 appearances. Him and Jeremie Frimpong on the opposite flank have ripped apart Bundesliga defences in 2023-24 so far.

The Icelandic forward has scored more than double the amount of any other Genoa player this season. He’s managed to bag eight goals and has overperformed his xG by 4.7.

Gudmundsson scored 11 goals during Genoa’s promotion season from Serie B last season and he’s currently on course to surpass that tally in the top flight.

Ange Postecoglou has managed to get Son back to his scoring best. Whether he’s played on the left-hand side or through the middle, he’s been absolutely prolific.

He’s managed to score 12 goals from an xG of 7.1 which is the biggest overperformance by any Premier League player.

The Stuttgart forward has enjoyed the most prolific season of his career to date, having already scored 17 goals from just 11.6xG.

Guirassy reportedly has a €17.5million release clause, and several Premier League clubs are reportedly eyeing up a potential January transfer.

Time will tell whether the striker – who is 27, who has tended to average 10 league goals a season prior to this season – has suddenly blossomed into an elite-level forward, or whether this is just the hottest of hot streaks that’s destined not to last.

Some might remember Krzysztof Piatek, who was ridiculously prolific for Genoa and Milan in 2018-19, but failed to keep it up. Nowadays the Polish striker is turning out for Istanbul Basaksehir.

Stats nerds will tell you all about regression to the mean and that Bellingham can’t possibly keep up this kind of output throughout the season.

There’s probably something in that, given that the 20-year-old is on to score 28 La Liga goals if he can maintain this rate. He’s scored 13 goals from just 39 shots, 23 (58%) of which have been on target, totting up to just 7.2xG.

But then again, he just keeps scoring every week – so maybe he can? England should have no trouble converting chances at Euro 2024, especially given Bellingham’s set to line up alongside…

The England captain has been ridiculous at Bayern this season. He’s already scored more goals in the Bundesliga than any player managed in the entirety of last season.

It’s his debut season in Germany and he’s on track to smash the records set by Gerd Muller and Robert Lewandowski.

Kane is the early frontrunner for the European Golden Shoe in 2023-24, with 22 goals scored. He’s done so from 15.9xG, which is higher than any other player in Europe has managed. Frequent chances and deadly finishing is an unstoppable combination.

The Argentinian World Cup winner has given serious competition to Victor Osimhen’s claim to be Serie A’s best striker.

Martinez is playing the best football of his career right now. He’s proven he can be Inter’s main man up top, having notched 18 goals from as many Serie A appearances, overperforming his rate of expected goals by 6.5.

The highlight of his season so far came with a substitute appearance against Salernitana. He appeared off the bench in the second half, played 36 minutes, and scored all four of Inter’s goals in a 4-0 win – coming from just four attempts and 1.5xG.