Best Alternatives to Manuel Akanji

Playing Style Analysis

Akanji builds play with the precision of a midfielder wearing a centre-back's shirt—his 92.2% pass accuracy sits in the top 10% of Serie A defenders, and his 67.5 passes per 90 ranks in the top 5%, making him one of the league's most active distributors from deep. His 6.43 passes into the final third per 90 places him in the top 20%, meaning his value isn't just in keeping possession clean but in genuinely advancing it. The counterintuitive read here: his aerial win rate of 44.1% looks soft, yet he wins 1.62 aerials per 90 above the positional average—he's simply not seeking duels he can avoid, which speaks to intelligence rather than deficiency. The three closest DNA matches to Manuel Akanji:

• 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.
• Evan Ndicka(80% match) — Ndicka has quietly become one of Serie A's most complete left-sided centre-backs — a defender who wins headers, reads danger early, and still finds time to score goals that matter. His 91.1% pass accuracy places him in the top fifth of defenders in the league, yet he's no mere recycler; his pressing intensity ranking tells the real story of a man who hunts possession rather than waits for it.
• Mario Gila(80% match) — A Ball-Playing CB. Statistically, he stands out as active in the tackle (2.1 tackles/90), commanding in the air (4.8 clearances/90), meticulous in distribution (91% pass accuracy), wins the physical battle (71% duel success), heavily involved in possession (64 passes/90), central to possession (78 touches/90), switches play with precision (6.6 long balls/90, 69% accuracy) and active off the ball (2.8 press score/90), contributing to defensive transitions.

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