Best Alternatives to Evan Ndicka

Top 3 Alternatives to Evan Ndicka

1. 1.Odilon Kossounou86% DNA match·Atalanta€22.0M
2. 2.Malick Thiaw86% DNA match·Newcastle United€45.0M
3. 3.Isak Hien86% DNA match·Atalanta€22.0M

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

Playing Style Analysis

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. The counterintuitive detail here is his tackles won figure, which sits below average — but that's less a weakness than a reflection of his anticipation. The three most similar players to Evan Ndicka by playing style are:

• Odilon Kossounou(86% match) — Kossounou has carved out a rare niche in Serie A's defensive landscape: a centre-back who builds play with the precision of a deep-lying midfielder while quietly contributing to the scoresheet. His 92.7% pass accuracy places him in the top 5% of defenders in the division—not just neat sideways passes, but 5.27 progressive balls into the final third per 90, suggesting genuine intent to break lines. His goal contribution rate sits in the top 20%, a counterintuitive figure that reveals an underrated offensive threat from set-pieces that opponents routinely underestimate.
• Malick Thiaw(86% match) — 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.
• Isak Hien(86% match) — Hien has quietly built one of the most complete defensive profiles in Serie A without ever becoming a household name—which is precisely why this report matters. Operating in Italy's most tactically demanding league, his pass accuracy sits in the top 5% among defenders, meaning he isn't just recycling sideways balls but executing under genuine pressure. His tackles won rate lands in the top 10%, yet the counterintuitive story is his pressing intensity—also top 5%—which suggests those tackles are earned through intelligent positioning rather than reactive lunging.

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