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Player reportLa Liga 2026

Dani Ceballos

Real Betis
Ball-winning 6 (destroyer) DM
19.3 defensive actions/90
defensive midball-winning 6press resistancescreening
229
minutes
6 apps
156
passes
95% completed
95%
pass completion
156 passes
13
progressive passes
5.1/90
49
defensive actions
19.3/90
14
tackles + interceptions
38% tackle win
19
recoveries
7.5/90
7
line-breaking passes
2.8/90
Overview

The player

Who he is and how he compares with his peers.

Thin sample this season. Dani Ceballos has played 6 matches (229 min) so far, so sections that need a bigger sample to say anything reliable are not shown here — they are missing on purpose, not broken. See all seasons combined →
01

What Patterns Define Him?

His repeatable signature. A step only appears if its reliability score (sample size × match coverage) reaches at least Medium confidence — pattern mining, not anecdotes.

RECEIVE
drop between the centre-backs — mostly in the middle third (58% of his 156 passes)
95% completion · 156× in 6/6 matches
↓
ESCAPE PRESSURE
turn out of a tight central area
50% won · 4× in 2/6 matches
↓
PROGRESS CENTRAL
break a line through the middle
5.1 prog/90 · 7× in 5/6 matches
↓
SCREEN / WIN BALL
protect the back four
13.0 ball-wins/90 · 33× in 6/6 matches
↓
RECYCLE / PROGRESS
keep it ticking, feed the final third
6.3 f3-entries/90 · 16× in 4/6 matches
Signature: drop to receive → escape the press on the turn → progress centrally or recycle → screen the counter. Block the central lane and press his first touch to force him backwards.
14

Where is he influential — vs where is he merely present?

Red fill = raw touch territory. Gold rings = zones where his influence (xT added, progression, line-breaks, key passes) outweighs how often he's actually there — one combined map instead of two separate maps to compare by eye. Red with no ring: present but not dangerous. A ring on faint red: rare touches, outsized impact.

own goal left, attacking →
26
passes / match
19.3
def actions / 90
6–75
pass range (matches)
3
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (6 at the low end, 75 at the high) — a measure of match-to-match involvement, not pass distance.
In possession

In possession

What he does with the ball: build-up, progression, creation, carrying and finishing.

08

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

41 tracked carries (16.1/90, 8 progressive, 410m total) — the ball moving with his touches, a different signal from dribbles below (beating an opponent 1v1). even a player who rarely dribbles past a man can still carry the ball forward constantly in build-up; this is that.

7%2%7%5%10%10%12%5%12%17%10%2%
progressivelateral/short% of his 41 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 32m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
4Outside → Inside
29Inside → Inside
7Outside → Outside
1Inside → Outside
First (18)Second (15)Third (8)grouped by carry pattern (start + end position), largest group first
startendown goal left, attacking →

Beaten in the tackle

How often an attacker gets past him in a 1v1 defensive duel — the closest signal the data has to "dribbled past" (no attacker-beat-defender field exists directly, so this counts tackles he attempted and lost).

8
tackle duels
3
won
5
beaten · 62%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 75%
OUTSIDE 25%
Tackle-duel location — 6 inside · 2 outside
Right Wing
0 · 0%
Right Half-Space
2 · 25%
Central
2 · 25%
Left Half-Space
2 · 25%
Left Wing
2 · 25%
Vision AI beaten in 5 of 8 tackle duels (62% loss rate) — a real defensive leak worth flagging.
Every tackle duel, exact location
wonlost — dribbled pastown goal left, attacking →

He attempted only 4 dribbles of his own all season — dribbling is not part of this role; his ball-carrying is covered above, his defending against the dribble below.

03

How does he build & move the ball?

How does he escape the first line?

14%
vertical passes
10×
3%
switches
2×
34%
carries
24×
49%
short circulation
35×
Answer: he escapes the press primarily through carrying — stepping out with the ball.

How he moves the ball — his 4 busiest progression routes, not where every pass starts and ends separately. Arrow width = how often, colour = xT gained, dashed = switch of play. The full breakdown is in the lane matrix below.

own goal left, attacking →
Lane transition matrix — when he receives in a lane, where does it go?
TO →RWRHSCLHSLWRW1090%910%1RHS1822%444%828%56%1C3212%428%928%919%612%4LHS454%22%136%1627%1231%14LW4316%740%1744%19FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: the left wing in the middle third → the left half-space in the middle third — 3 progressive passes (25% of his progression) at 0.007 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 58% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 25% going wider — he cuts in rather than holding width.

Only 7% of his passes switch play, so his threat is same-side — contain the flank he occupies and the route closes.

Quality behind the volume: 2 line-breaking passes and 16 final-third entries, 2.1 total xT added.

Origin and destination are measured on the same event row — no receiver inference. Receiver identity is not recoverable from this data source.
All passes — origin zone share
Filter: from to
2%3%6%4%1%6%9%6%6%11%16%18%10%1%
completedincomplete156 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
156
passes
95%
completed
8
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 95% season completion rate.
05

How does he create chances?

2 key passes (0.79/90), 0 of them assists — where his chance creation specifically comes from, 18 zones (6×3), showing his share of key passes originating there.

Chance creation — key pass origin zone share
Filter:
50%50%
chance creation (2)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
04

What is his passing profile?

156
passes attempted
42%
mostly sideways
59%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
58 · 37%
Sideways
65 · 42%
Backward
33 · 21%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
87 · 59%
Medium
54 · 36%
Long (>30m)
7 · 5%
06

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Dani Ceballos gets on the ball — his top three ball-collection areas highlighted (gold = primary). Reception is proxied by where his on-ball actions begin (no explicit receiver is recorded).

123
1 = primary, 2 = secondary, 3 = third · own goal left, attacking →
His collection zones
19%
Primary
Left Wing, Middle third
16%
Secondary
Left Half-Space, Middle third
12%
Third
Central, Middle third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
07

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Dani Ceballos actually gets on the ball. Hover any zone for its breakdown by action type, its share of all touches, and the exact coordinate range it covers.

Filter:
1725281522101810103597
own goal left, attacking → · brighter + higher number = more touches

Passes only — completed vs incomplete, by zone

Same zone grid, restricted to passes so completed/incomplete and match filters actually mean something — a shot or a dribble has no "completed" in the pass sense.

2%3%6%4%1%6%9%6%6%11%16%18%10%1%
own goal left, attacking →
09

Every Pass This Season — completed vs incomplete

Every pass this season, plotted individually — green = completed, grey (dashed) = incomplete, gold = key pass. Filter by outcome or isolate one match below.

2Key pass
13Progressive
7Long ball
3Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
25Outside → Inside
66Inside → Inside
28Outside → Outside
29Inside → Outside
By direction
58Forward
33Backward
65Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
02

Tactical patterns — how his football actually looks

Three clustered sequence diagrams from his own event data — his three busiest routes: the way he progresses, the pattern behind his chances, and where a turnover turns dangerous.

own goal left, attacking →
How does he progress the ball forward?
His most common route for progressing play: he plays straight through the left wing, advancing it forward in the defensive third — 1 passes worth 0.30 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 2 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he switches it out from the central to the right hs in the final third — 1 times. The receiver isn't identifiable in this data, only where the pass started and ended.
Where does he lose the ball most?
This is a RATE, not a raw count — the share of his touches in each zone that end in a turnover, so a zone he simply plays in more often doesn't automatically look riskier. His weakest zone is the left wing in the defensive third: 11% of his 9 touches there are lost (1 times).
—1 touch · too few—4 touches · too few0%0/8 lost10%1/10 lost11%1/9 lost—6 touches · too few0%0/11 lost6%1/17 lost8%2/25 lost0%0/31 lost—4 touches · too few—3 touches · too few11%1/9 lost0%0/13 lost—5 touches · too fewRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

10

How & where does he defend?

49 defensive actions across the season (19.3/90). Where he wins the ball, and how — the core question for a defender. Aerial duels are not recorded for this competition, so aerial dominance is not measured here.

click a card to isolate that action type · own goal left, attacking →
8
tackles · 38% won
6
interceptions · 2.4/90
19
recoveries · 7.5/90
3
clearances · 1.2/90
2
blocks
37
avg action height
7
won high (att 3rd)
11
middle third
31
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 33 proactive ball-wins (13.0/90), tackle success 38%. He defends mostly around the middle third.
11

Can he play under pressure?

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Can Dani Ceballos still play out when the opponent presses high? His build-up quality split by press intensity — the key question for a ball-playing defender. Tiers of ~2-2 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
completion
prog /90
line-breaks /90
xT /90
High press (PPDA 4.1, 2m)
94%
1.1
2.2
0.59
Mid press (PPDA 5.9, 2m)
95%
12.4
4.7
3.06
Low press (PPDA 6.5, 2m)
95%
4.0
2.0
1.22
Team

Team context

How much of the team runs through him, and what changes without him.

12

Impact on the Team

Real Betis's output per match with Dani Ceballos (6 matches) versus without him (4 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 4 matches; treat every Δ below as noise until more games exist. What his own defending should move — goals conceded and results — leads; attacking output (largely out of a defender's hands) is shown after, for context. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.

WITH (6)
WITHOUT (4)
Δ
goals against /match
1.50
1.25
+0.25
points /match
1.83
2.25
-0.42
goals for /match
1.83
1.25
+0.58
xG for /match
1.73
0.00
+1.73
13

His Share of the Team

Of everything Real Betis produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Dani Ceballos specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
final-third entries
5%
93 / 1932
half-space entries
4%
52 / 1383
tackles
3%
26 / 772
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

15

Playing-Style Profile

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 258 defensive mids in the pool (min 450 min). This is what separates players who post similar numbers but play differently. Proxy dimensions are inferred from on-ball data; true off-ball running / under-pressure context is not measured.

Ball-winning 691%Deep-lying playmaker76%Tempo controller74%
Why Ball-winning 6 91%: a weighted blend of ball-winning 92 (weight 40%) + defensive aggression 90 (weight 30%) + progression 92 (weight 15%) + retention 78 (weight 15%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
final-third threat, carrying, ball-winning, progression, through-balls, transition, defensive aggression, crossing
Strong
line-breaking, receiving zones, retention, passing directness, territory (wide vs central)
Average
creativity, build-up, press resistance, dribbling
Weak
box threat
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Final-third threat
98
Carrying
93
Ball-winning
92
Progression
92
Through-balls ~proxy
91
Transition ~proxy
91
Defensive aggression
90
Crossing
85
Line-breaking
84
Receiving zones
80
Retention
78
Passing directness
74
Territory (wide vs central)
74
Creativity
62
Build-up
60
Press resistance ~proxy
55
Dribbling
51
Box threat
33
16

Similar Players — in style space

Closest comparables measured on the style scores above, within the same position family — so it separates how players are alike, not just how much they touch the ball. Each line explains the shared strength and the divergent mechanism. A light physical-profile term (height / weight; this player: 179 cm / 70 kg) is included at a quarter of one style axis's weight — enough to break ties between stylistic twins, not to override style. Scope: pooled across the La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League and Serie A, percentiled within each player's own league before comparing — a match from another league is marked with its league name.

Style, not quality: a high match here means two players tend to produce the ball in similar ways — it is not a ranking, a scouting recommendation, or a claim that they are equally good.

Tom Krauß Koln · Bundesliga · 182 cm / 72 kg
89%
Driven by: ball-winning (24%), transition (13%), defensive aggression (12%). Different mechanism — Ceballos more via passing directness, final-third threat.
Elliot Anderson Man City · Premier League · 179 cm / 69 kg
83%
Driven by: transition (15%), final-third threat (12%), progression (10%). Different mechanism — Ceballos more via retention, ball-winning; Anderson more via box threat, dribbling.
Manuel Locatelli Juventus · Serie A · 185 cm / 75 kg
81%
Driven by: transition (15%), ball-winning (11%), final-third threat (11%). Different mechanism — Ceballos more via territory (wide vs central), defensive aggression; Locatelli more via box threat, creativity.
Johnny Cardoso Atletico · 186 cm / 78 kg
79%
Driven by: defensive aggression (19%), ball-winning (12%), carrying (12%). Different mechanism — Ceballos more via territory (wide vs central), crossing; Cardoso more via dribbling.
Youri Regeer Werder Bremen · Bundesliga · 177 cm / 68 kg
79%
Driven by: crossing (13%), final-third threat (12%), ball-winning (10%). Different mechanism — Ceballos more via territory (wide vs central), transition; Regeer more via build-up, press resistance.
Bryan Cristante Roma · Serie A · 186 cm / 80 kg
79%
Driven by: transition (21%), defensive aggression (15%), final-third threat (12%). Different mechanism — Ceballos more via ball-winning, retention; Cristante more via box threat, passing directness.
17

Summary

Dani Ceballos is a ball-winning 6 / deep-lying playmaker: 95% completion, 7 line-breaks and 5.1 progressive passes /90, resisting pressure with 50% dribble success. A central controller. [Off-ball screening position and scanning need tracking data.]

Based on 6 matches (229 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as a ball-winning 6 / deep-lying playmaker — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is retention — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall ball-winning 6 profile.
✨ This report is interactive

Click any stat card to filter its map, hover a dot for the exact match, and use the dropdowns to slice passes zone-to-zone. Nothing here is static.

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