Best Alternatives to Marli Salmon

Playing Style Analysis

Salmon is a technical anomaly operating within a Tier C backline, functioning less as a traditional defensive anchor and more as a high-security ball-carrier. While a 90% pass accuracy puts him in the league’s elite top 20%, his bottom-decile volume of 13.3 passes per 90 reveals a player trapped in a system that starves him of the ball, rather than a limited distributor. The counterintuitive reality is that despite his low activity, his top 10% dribbling frequency suggests a defender who prefers to break lines with his feet when the passing lanes are congested. The three closest DNA matches to Marli Salmon:

• William Saliba(80% match) — Saliba has quietly become the most complete ball-playing centre-back in the Premier League—a defender who makes the game look administrative. His 92.7% pass accuracy and 76 passes per 90 place him in the top 5% of defenders in the division, yet the more revealing figure is his 6.81 passes into the final third per 90, putting him in the top 20%—this isn't a man simply recycling possession, he's actively driving attacks from deep.
• Gabriel Magalhães(80% match) — A Ball-Playing CB. Statistically, he stands out as naturally left-footed, commanding in the air (6.0 clearances/90), meticulous in distribution (88% pass accuracy), wins the physical battle (65% duel success), central to possession (71 touches/90), strong in aerial duels (3.2 aerials won/90) and uses long balls frequently (5.7/90).
• Josko Gvardiol (80% match) — A Ball-Playing CB. Statistically, he stands out as naturally left-footed, commanding in the air (4.0 clearances/90), meticulous in distribution (89% pass accuracy), wins the physical battle (56% duel success), heavily involved in possession (69 passes/90), penetrates with forward passing (9.2 final-third passes/90), central to possession (82 touches/90) and uses long balls frequently (5.1/90).

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