Best Alternatives to Diego Costa

Playing Style Analysis

Diego Henrique Costa Barbosa is a Ball-Playing CB. Progressive defender comfortable on the ball. Statistically, he stands out as commanding in the air (4.4 clearances/90), meticulous in distribution (89% pass accuracy), wins the physical battle (59% duel success) and heavily involved in possession (64 passes/90). The three closest DNA matches to Diego Costa:

• Alessandro Bastoni(80% match) — Bastoni has quietly become the most dangerous defender in Serie A that no one talks about in those terms—a left-sided centre-back who functions, in practice, as a deep-lying playmaker wearing the wrong shirt number. His passing volume sits in the top 5% of defenders in the league, and his passes into the final third rank similarly elite, meaning Inter's attacking phases are frequently being *authored* from the back.
• Alessandro Buongiorno(80% match) — Buongiorno has quietly become one of Serie A's most complete defensive operators — a centre-back who wins the ball without fanfare and moves it with purpose. His interception numbers place him in the top 10% of defenders in the league, which tells you something important: this isn't a defender who simply reacts, he anticipates.
• Yann Bisseck(80% match) — Bisseck is the rare centre-back who threatens to embarrass your striker and your midfielder in the same passage of play. Playing in Serie A's top tier, the German-Ivorian defender sits in the top 5% for pass accuracy at 92.9% — a number that reflects genuine composure in tight spaces, not just sideways recycling.

Similarity uses per-90 performance across playing-style dimensions. How Player DNA matching works →