Mariano Díaz

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

26 tracked carries (4.9/90, 10 progressive, 367m total) — the ball moving with his touches, a different signal from dribbles below (beating an opponent 1v1). this counts every touch-carry, not just his dribble attempts below — a fuller picture of how much of his ball-carrying is control-and-move rather than beating a man.

Does he drop to link or stay central? Touches by channel. Season rate: 2.99 dribbles attempted /90.

5 key passes (0.93/90), 0 of them assists — where his chance creation specifically comes from, 18 zones (6×3), showing his share of key passes originating there.

13 shots · 1.13 xG · 3 goals (+1.87 vs xG). Mostly right-footed. Circle size = xG.

31 possessions lost. Directness has a cost — the question is where. Attacking-third losses are cheap; deep ones are dangerous.

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.

Four arrows, one per movement class of his ball-carries: outside→inside (cutting in with the ball), inside→outside (carrying wide), outside→outside (down the touchline) and inside→inside (through the middle). Each count is measured from the carry's real start and end coordinates.

Every carry's end point matched against his own very next pass or shot in the same match, when one starts almost exactly there — the direct continuation of that touch, not a separate stat. “No clean link” means no pass or shot of his own started close enough to count (often the carry ended in a tackle or a loss); it isn't a claim about exactly what happened, only that nothing traceable followed.

55 defensive actions across the season (10.3/90). 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.

Ball-wins in the attacking half only (own half vs. attacking half, a simple 2-way split, not the usual thirds) — the clearest single signal of how much he presses and recovers the ball high up the pitch.

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Does Mariano Díaz keep producing when the game is tight and the press is high? Tiers of ~3-4 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

Insufficient sample: Mariano Díaz played nearly every Alaves 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.

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

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 299 strikers 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.

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: 180 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 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.

Mariano Díaz is a pressing forward / transition runner: 3 goals from 1.13 xG (+1.87 vs expected), 13 shots, 3 box entries. A clinical finisher. [Off-ball runs, aerials and hold-up under contact need tracking/aerial data.]