Best Alternatives to Malick Thiaw

Playing Style Analysis

Thiaw has quietly become one of the Premier League's most complete defensive profiles — a towering centre-back who doesn't just win his battles, he wins them cleanly. His aerial win rate of 65.1% and duel success of 64.2% both sit in the league's top 20%, but the counterintuitive story is his attacking output: 0.16 goals per 90 and 0.98 shots per 90 place him in the top 10% among defenders, suggesting a genuine threat from set-pieces that opponents routinely underestimate. His pass accuracy of 90.6% reflects a ball-player comfortable in possession-heavy systems, and his above-average delivery into the final third adds genuine build-up value. The three closest DNA matches to Malick Thiaw:

• 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 →