Best Alternatives to Manuel Locatelli

Top 3 Alternatives to Manuel Locatelli

1. 1.Sandro Tonali88% DNA match·Newcastle United€80.0M
2. 2.Khéphren Thuram88% DNA match·Juventus€40.0M
3. 3.Weston McKennie87% DNA match·Juventus€22.0M

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

Playing Style Analysis

Locatelli has spent years being the midfielder that makes everything work without ever making the highlight reel—and the numbers finally prove why that matters. Operating in Serie A's congested midfield battles, he ranks in the top 5% for passes per 90, tackles won, press intensity, and passes into the final third simultaneously; finding a player who dominates all four categories at once is genuinely rare. The counterintuitive read here is his goal contribution figures, which look pedestrian until you understand he's essentially the engine redistributing possession upward—those 15-plus progressive passes per 90 are what create the chances others finish. The three most similar players to Manuel Locatelli by playing style are:

• Sandro Tonali(88% match) — A Ball-Winner. Statistically, he stands out as a capable chance creator (1.1 key passes/90), penetrates with forward passing (9.0 final-third passes/90), central to possession (71 touches/90), uses long balls frequently (5.3/90) and active off the ball (2.7 press score/90), contributing to defensive transitions.
• Khéphren Thuram(88% match) — Thuram carries the genetic burden of a famous name with surprising ease — not by mimicking his father's grace, but by imposing himself through sheer physical and technical authority in the middle of Serie A's most demanding environments. His passing volume places him in the top 20% of midfielders in the league, and that volume comes with 86.6% accuracy — this isn't a recycler, it's a driver. The counterintuitive read on his 0.86 key passes per 90 is that it undersells his progression: his passes into the final third rank top 30%, meaning he's threading the needle further up the pitch than the creativity numbers suggest.
• Weston McKennie(87% match) — McKennie is the American who made Serie A believers out of skeptics—a box-to-box engine who wins aerial duels at a rate that puts him in the top 10% of Italian midfielders, a remarkable feat for someone operating in one of Europe's most physically demanding leagues. His 1.44 key passes per 90 and consistent presence in the final third suggest a midfielder who genuinely influences the game's decisive moments, not just its connective tissue. The counterintuitive truth, though, is that his passing accuracy sits at dead average—which for a player asked to carry and progress the ball in tight spaces, is a quiet limitation that compounds under pressure.

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