Pazzini never ever hit double figures for fiorentina in his five seasons with them. He joins Sampdoria & by some coincidence he scores 15 goals in his first season & 21 in the next.
Cassano overrated? Sure.
That's not being very fair, though. Pazzini barely played at Fiorentina. He got a lot more playing time in Samp and besides Cassano being there; Sampdoria was going through a very good period. It's not that he needs Cassano; he just needs service like any other striker in the world.
I don't like this whole 'Pazzini is worthless without Cassano' argument. It makes absolutely no sense to me. You can just as easily say Milito is worthless without Sneijder, for example. Point is, the fact that Pazzini scored all those goals means he's a very good player; what difference does it make if it was by getting 36 assists by Cassano alone or 10 by Cassano, 10 by Palombo, and 16 by the goalpost?