This debate on Luis Alberto is similar to the Candreva debate a few years ago where it was argued he was a top player because of his production.
At the time, I argued that because Candreva took penalties and our gameplan was about getting the ball to him in wide areas and getting crosses into Klose, the numbers were flattering him. Now Candreva's at Inter - and they haven't built the team around him or given him penalty-taking duties - his production has fallen off a cliff and now he's seen as a more ordinary player.
Luis Alberto's great numbers - to a greater or lesser extent - is because (a) he takes set-pieces and aims that at giants like SMS and de Vrij and (b) our gameplan revolves around getting the ball to him and asking him to supply a player of Ciro Immobile's quality.
That's not to take anything away from Luis Alberto - he's an excellent set-piece taker and playmaker - but his numbers should be placed in that context.
For example, going by WhoScored's numbers, Luis Alberto has assisted or scored 28.5% of Lazio's Serie A goals. If you look at similarly-offensive players at other clubs, LA's ability to contribute to goals no longer looks special. Perisic has directly contributed to 33% of Inter's goals. Ilicic has contributed to 33% of Atalanta's goals. Dybala has been involved in 32% of Juve's goals.
The extraordinary number is the amount of goals Lazio has scored this season and the real question is: how much of that is Luis Alberto, and how much of that is the 10 teammates that surround him every week?
As I was alluding to in Luis Alberto's thread, Mauri often had to create opportunities for the Libor Kozak's and Filip Djordjevic's of this world and Hernanes spent much of his Lazio career playing for a renowned defensive-minded manager in Edy Reja. We can only speculate what they might have achieved with Simone Inzaghi as their manager and Ciro Immobile as their teammate.