Best Alternatives to Nikolas Ioannou

Playing Style Analysis

Ioannou is a tactical anomaly who functions less as a traditional defender and more as a chaotic, high-impact secondary attacker disguised in a backline. While his 71.4% pass accuracy sits in the bottom 10% of the league—a figure that would usually terrify a modern coach—it masks a high-risk, high-reward mentality that produces 1.76 key passes per 90. He is not interested in recycling possession; he is looking to kill. The three closest DNA matches to Nikolas Ioannou:

• Dimitrios Giannoulis(87% match) — A Active Full-Back. Statistically, he stands out as naturally left-footed, an elite creator (1.7 key passes/90), a reliable supplier (0.24 assists/90), wins the physical battle (56% duel success) and active off the ball (2.6 press score/90), contributing to defensive transitions.
• Calvin Verdonk(83% match) — A Active Full-Back. Statistically, he stands out as naturally left-footed, a capable chance creator (1.0 key passes/90), active in the tackle (1.8 tackles/90), reads the game exceptionally (1.9 interceptions/90), wins the physical battle (65% duel success), heavily involved in possession (64 passes/90), penetrates with forward passing (8.8 final-third passes/90), central to possession (88 touches/90) and a high-intensity presser (press score 3.0/90), constantly disrupting opposition build-up.
• Mitchell Weiser(83% match) — A Active Full-Back. Statistically, he stands out as a capable chance creator (1.3 key passes/90), a prolific assist provider (0.28 assists/90), active in the tackle (2.0 tackles/90) and creates high-quality scoring opportunities (0.75 big chances/90).

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