Best Alternatives to Pio Esposito

Playing Style Analysis

Esposito has carved out a niche in Serie A that few young attackers manage: a physically dominant, assist-generating forward who makes defenders work harder off the ball than on it. His aerial win rate sits in the top 5% of the league—not a marginal edge but a genuine weapon, the kind that changes how opponents set up defensively. The assists figure (top 10%) is the counterintuitive detail worth unpacking: for a striker logging only 924 minutes, that combination of shot volume and creative output suggests a player who operates between the lines rather than as a pure finisher. The three closest DNA matches to Pio Esposito:

• Marcus Thuram(80% match) — Marcus Thuram is a Poacher. Clinical finisher who lives for goals inside the box.
• Rasmus Højlund(80% match) — Højlund arrived in Serie A carrying the blueprint of a modern target forward — raw, physical, and still being written. His goal return of 0.43 per 90 places him comfortably in the top 30% of Serie A attackers, a figure that flatters a player whose broader offensive contribution remains frustratingly thin.
• Moise Kean(80% match) — A Complete Forward. Statistically, he stands out as a constant goal threat (4.3 shots/90) and a regular goalscorer (0.35 goals/90).

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