Best Alternatives to Ivan Toney

Top 3 Alternatives to Ivan Toney

1. 1.Enes Ünal88% DNA match·AFC Bournemouth€8.0M
2. 2.Lukas Nmecha87% DNA match·Leeds United€10.0M
3. 3.Taiwo Awoniyi 87% DNA match·Nottingham Forest€12.0M

Ranked by AI DNA similarity — 768 dimensions across playing style, pressing intensity, and tactical fit.

Playing Style Analysis

Toney is the rare striker who makes defenders feel the game before they even touch the ball—a physical presence that converts pressure into goals at a rate that puts him in the top 5% of his league. His 1.10 goals per 90 is the headline, and it earns it. Aerial dominance—top 20% in win rate, top 30% in volume—makes him a constant threat from set pieces and crosses alike. The three most similar players to Ivan Toney by playing style are:

• Enes Ünal(88% match) — Ünal is the kind of striker Premier League defenders quietly dread—a physical menace in the air who backs it up with real end product. His aerial win rate sits in the top 5% of forwards in this division, and crucially, those duels are translating: 5.68 aerials won per 90 is not a volume stat, it's dominance. His goals and assists numbers place him comfortably in the top 20% and top 10% respectively, which is the counterintuitive truth here—a player often dismissed as a target-man throwback is actually contributing to chance creation at an elite rate.
• Lukas Nmecha(87% match) — A Target Man. Statistically, he stands out as a constant goal threat (2.7 shots/90), a proven goalscorer (0.58 goals/90) and top 10% scorer in the league.
• Taiwo Awoniyi (87% match) — Awoniyi is the kind of striker who makes a Premier League defence work for every yard — a relentless, physical presence built around disruption as much as destruction. His press intensity ranks in the top 20% among forwards in this league, which tells you something important: this is a striker who hunts, not just waits. The counterintuitive read here is his aerial numbers — 2.43 wins per 90 and an above-average win rate suggest a more dominant aerial threat than his overall duel statistics imply; he picks his battles intelligently in the air, even if ground duels expose him.

Similarity is calculated using per-90 performance data across multiple playing style dimensions. How Player DNA matching works →