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Player reportLigue 1 2026

Denis Zakaria

Monaco
Ball-winning 6 (destroyer) DM
11.9 defensive actions/90
Capability Analysis
Breaking Pressure
only 51 pressured-passing actions across 2 high-press matches -- not enough sample (needs 5+ matches and 12+ actions)
Progression36%vs 31 central mids
"Can he move the team forward with a pass, not just recycle it sideways?"
Progressive passes /902.1616%
Line-breaking passes /900.516%
Threat added by passing /900.73xT29%
Pass accuracy92.23%94%
Ball-Winning52%vs 31 central mids
"How actively does he win the ball back?"
Interceptions /901.4584%
Ball recoveries /903.9629%
Tackles /901.6142%
Duels won /900.5555%
defensive midtempo controllerpress resistancescreening
614
minutes
8 apps
314
passes
92% completed
92%
pass completion
314 passes
14
progressive passes
2.1/90
81
defensive actions
11.9/90
17
tackles + interceptions
50% tackle win
22
recoveries
3.2/90
11
line-breaking passes
1.6/90
Overview

The player

Who he is and how he compares with his peers.

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 (76% of his 314 passes)
92% completion · 314× in 8/8 matches
↓
ESCAPE PRESSURE
turn out of a tight central area
56% won · 9× in 4/8 matches
↓
PROGRESS CENTRAL
break a line through the middle
2.1 prog/90 · 11× in 6/8 matches
↓
SCREEN / WIN BALL
protect the back four
5.7 ball-wins/90 · 39× in 8/8 matches
↓
RECYCLE / PROGRESS
keep it ticking, feed the final third
3.5 f3-entries/90 · 24× in 8/8 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.
15

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 →
39
passes / match
11.9
def actions / 90
20–61
pass range (matches)
16
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (20 at the low end, 61 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

59 tracked carries (8.6/90, 8 progressive, 455m 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%3%5%10%14%5%24%27%5%
progressivelateral/short% of his 59 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 6m, longest 27m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
9Outside → Inside
39Inside → Inside
8Outside → Outside
3Inside → Outside
First (21)Second (16)Third (12)Fourth (10)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).

12
tackle duels
6
won
6
beaten · 50%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 83%
OUTSIDE 17%
Tackle-duel location — 10 inside · 2 outside
Right Wing
1 · 8%
Right Half-Space
1 · 8%
Central
5 · 42%
Left Half-Space
4 · 33%
Left Wing
1 · 8%
Vision AI beaten in 6 of 12 tackle duels (50% loss rate) — a real defensive leak worth flagging.
Every tackle duel, exact location
wonlost — dribbled pastown goal left, attacking →

Dribbles (1v1s)

Can he escape pressure on the ball? His carries/dribbles in tight central areas, by channel. Season rate: 1.32 dribbles attempted /90.

brighter band = more dribbles · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 100%
OUTSIDE 0%
Dribble location — 9 inside · 0 outside
Right Wing
0 · 0%
Right Half-Space
0 · 0%
Central
3 · 33%
Left Half-Space
6 · 67%
Left Wing
0 · 0%
Vision AI 100% of his carries are central — he receives and turns in congested midfield zones rather than out wide.
03

How does he build & move the ball?

How does he escape the first line?

8%
vertical passes
10×
2%
switches
2×
24%
carries
30×
66%
short circulation
83×
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 →RWRHSCLHSLWRW1258%733%48%1RHS2934%1038%1124%73%1C668%520%1341%2724%168%5LHS1357%1035%4730%4028%38LW469%448%2243%20FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: the left half-space in the middle third → central areas in the middle third — 3 progressive passes (16% of his progression) at 0.001 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 58% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 11% going wider — he cuts in rather than holding width.

Only 5% of his passes switch play, so his threat is same-side — contain the flank he occupies and the route closes.

Quality behind the volume: 7 line-breaking passes and 24 final-third entries, -0.4 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
0%2%6%2%1%7%12%13%4%0%4%16%27%5%0%
completedincomplete314 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
314
passes
92%
completed
26
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 92% season completion rate.
09

How does he create chances?

2 key passes (0.29/90), 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
05

Where does he become vulnerable?

30 times he gave the ball away. For a defender the danger is where — a loss in his own third can turn into a chance against; higher up it costs little.

11
attacking third (cheap)
16
middle third
3
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 37% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 1.19 danger-index/90 · 0.271 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
04

What is his passing profile?

314
passes attempted
36%
mostly sideways
61%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
98 · 31%
Sideways
112 · 36%
Backward
104 · 33%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
175 · 61%
Medium
105 · 36%
Long (>30m)
8 · 3%
06

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Denis Zakaria 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
36%
Primary
Left Half-Space, Middle third
15%
Secondary
Central, Middle third
13%
Third
Left Wing, 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 Denis Zakaria 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:
215508720121404120161862
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.

0%2%6%2%1%7%12%13%4%0%4%16%27%5%0%
own goal left, attacking →
10

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
1Cross
14Progressive
11Long ball
6Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
30Outside → Inside
172Inside → Inside
28Outside → Outside
58Inside → Outside
By direction
98Forward
104Backward
112Sideways
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 switches it out from the central to the right wing, advancing it forward in the middle third — 2 passes worth 0.21 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 2 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays inside from the left hs toward the central in the middle 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 half-space in the final third: 29% of his 14 touches there are lost (4 times).
—0 touches · too few—2 touches · too few17%2/12 lost0%0/18 lost—4 touches · too few0%0/8 lost7%2/27 lost6%3/50 lost4%5/112 lost14%6/43 lost—5 touches · too few—5 touches · too few0%0/9 lost29%4/14 lost—5 touches · too fewRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

11

How & where does he defend?

81 defensive actions across the season (11.9/90). 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 →
12
tackles · 50% won
5
interceptions · 0.7/90
22
recoveries · 3.2/90
16
clearances · 2.3/90
7
blocks
42
avg action height
22
won high (att 3rd)
23
middle third
36
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 39 proactive ball-wins (5.7/90), tackle success 50%. He defends high, stepping out to intercept — suits a high line.
12

Can he play under pressure?

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Can Denis Zakaria 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 ~2-4 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
completion
prog /90
line-breaks /90
xT /90
High press (PPDA 3.7, 2m)
90%
2.4
2.4
0.57
Mid press (PPDA 5.6, 2m)
89%
1.2
0.6
0.66
Low press (PPDA 8.7, 4m)
93%
2.2
1.6
0.62
Team

Team context

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

13

Impact on the Team

Insufficient sample: Denis Zakaria played nearly every Monaco match in the loaded data, so there is no meaningful "without him" comparison yet. This section fills in as more matches (and the rest of the season) are scraped.

14

His Share of the Team

Of everything Monaco produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Denis Zakaria specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
interceptions
12%
45 / 390
clearances
9%
82 / 894
final-third entries
8%
128 / 1613
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

16

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.

Tempo controller80%Deep-lying playmaker73%Ball-winning 638%
Why Tempo controller 80%: a weighted blend of retention 95 (weight 35%) + build-up 69 (weight 30%) + press resistance 75 (weight 20%) + progression 41 (weight 15%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
retention, passing directness
Strong
press resistance, carrying
Average
build-up, transition, dribbling, box threat, creativity, progression, receiving zones
Weak
ball-winning, final-third threat, territory (wide vs central), defensive aggression, line-breaking, through-balls, crossing
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Retention
95
Passing directness
88
Press resistance ~proxy
75
Carrying
74
Build-up
69
Transition ~proxy
68
Dribbling
55
Box threat
48
Creativity
43
Progression
41
Receiving zones
41
Ball-winning
39
Final-third threat
35
Territory (wide vs central)
35
Defensive aggression
29
Line-breaking
18
Through-balls ~proxy
16
Crossing
10
17

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: 191 cm / 76 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 Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga, 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.

Junior Mwanga Le Havre · 184 cm / 80 kg
82%
Driven by: crossing (16%), press resistance (11%), retention (10%). Different mechanism — Zakaria more via retention; Mwanga more via through-balls, crossing.
Maximilian Eggestein Freiburg · Bundesliga · 183 cm / 83 kg
79%
Driven by: crossing (28%), passing directness (12%), through-balls (12%). Different mechanism — Zakaria more via retention; Eggestein more via box threat, defensive aggression.
Alberto Grassi Cremonese · Serie A 25/26 · 183 cm / 75 kg
77%
Driven by: crossing (16%), defensive aggression (16%), press resistance (10%). Different mechanism — Zakaria more via territory (wide vs central), retention; Grassi more via crossing.
Nicolas Seiwald RBL · Bundesliga · 180 cm / 80 kg
77%
Driven by: crossing (25%), retention (22%), press resistance (13%). Different mechanism — Zakaria more via territory (wide vs central), carrying; Seiwald more via through-balls, receiving zones.
Sofyan Amrabat Real Betis · La Liga 25/26 · 185 cm / 77 kg
76%
Driven by: crossing (16%), retention (15%), build-up (11%). Different mechanism — Zakaria more via passing directness, box threat; Amrabat more via line-breaking, through-balls.
Axel Witsel Nice · 186 cm / 82 kg
76%
Driven by: retention (26%), through-balls (11%), build-up (10%). Different mechanism — Zakaria more via carrying, dribbling; Witsel more via crossing, receiving zones.
18

Summary

Denis Zakaria is a tempo controller / deep-lying playmaker: 92% completion, 11 line-breaks and 2.1 progressive passes /90, resisting pressure with 56% dribble success. A central controller. [Off-ball screening position and scanning need tracking data.]

Based on 8 matches (614 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as a tempo controller / deep-lying playmaker — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is progression — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall tempo controller 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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