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Player reportLigue 1 2026

Niklas Schmidt

Toulouse
Ball-winning 6 (destroyer) DM
12.1 defensive actions/90
defensive middeep-lying playmakerpress resistancescreening
238
minutes
5 apps
222
passes
89% completed
89%
pass completion
222 passes
20
progressive passes
7.6/90
32
defensive actions
12.1/90
6
tackles + interceptions
25% tackle win
12
recoveries
4.5/90
22
line-breaking passes
8.3/90
Overview

The player

Who he is and how he compares with his peers.

Thin sample this season. Niklas Schmidt has played 5 matches (238 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 (66% of his 222 passes)
89% completion · 222× in 5/5 matches
↓
PROGRESS CENTRAL
break a line through the middle
7.6 prog/90 · 22× in 4/5 matches
↓
SCREEN / WIN BALL
protect the back four
6.8 ball-wins/90 · 18× in 5/5 matches
↓
RECYCLE / PROGRESS
keep it ticking, feed the final third
9.8 f3-entries/90 · 26× in 5/5 matches
Signature: Receive → Progress Central → Screen / Win Ball → Recycle / Progress — the only steps proven repeatable this season (4 of 5 in the full pattern). Not enough evidence yet for the rest of the chain below.
Not a pattern: escape pressure — 1× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
17

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 →
44
passes / match
12.1
def actions / 90
5–108
pass range (matches)
5
clearances
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (5 at the low end, 108 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.

10

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

56 tracked carries (21.2/90, 9 progressive, 432m 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.

4%7%12%7%2%7%14%11%9%16%7%2%2%
progressivelateral/short% of his 56 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 18m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
2Outside → Inside
42Inside → Inside
12Outside → Outside
First (21)Second (18)Third (12)Fourth (5)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).

4
tackle duels
1
won
3
beaten · 75%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 50%
OUTSIDE 50%
Tackle-duel location — 2 inside · 2 outside
Right Wing
2 · 50%
Right Half-Space
0 · 0%
Central
0 · 0%
Left Half-Space
2 · 50%
Left Wing
0 · 0%
Vision AI beaten in 3 of 4 tackle duels (75% loss rate) — a solid 1v1 defensive record.
Every tackle duel, exact location
wonlost — dribbled pastown goal left, attacking →

He attempted only 1 dribble 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?

18%
vertical passes
17×
5%
switches
5×
35%
carries
33×
41%
short circulation
38×
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 →RWRHSCLHSLWRW3557%2026%917%6RHS3931%1238%1526%105%2C5810%619%1136%2128%167%4LHS432%12%142%1826%1128%12LW2250%1150%11FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: central areas in the middle third → central areas in the final third — 3 progressive passes (11% of his progression) at 0.074 xT each. He keeps it in the same lane.

His progression is inward: 56% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 0% 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: 8 line-breaking passes and 26 final-third entries, 2.7 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%3%9%11%9%1%0%6%18%11%2%1%4%7%10%6%1%
completedincomplete222 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
222
passes
89%
completed
25
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 89% season completion rate.
04

How does he progress play?

How much he drives the ball forward. Progressive = completed pass advancing ≥15 toward goal.

20
progressive · 7.6/90
26
final-third entries · 9.8/90
2
box entries · 0.76/90
33
progression index /90
Progression index: one composite number — progressive passes + progressive carries + 2% of total distance progressed + 8× positive xT added, all per 90. Weights VOLUME and THREAT together rather than counting progressive actions alone.
11

How does he create chances?

5 key passes (1.89/90), 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:
20%40%40%
chance creation (5)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
05

Where does he become vulnerable?

26 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.

8
attacking third (cheap)
13
middle third
5
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 31% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 3.42 danger-index/90 · 0.348 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
06

What is his passing profile?

222
passes attempted
40%
mostly forward
58%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
89 · 40%
Sideways
83 · 37%
Backward
50 · 23%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
114 · 58%
Medium
70 · 36%
Long (>30m)
13 · 7%
07

Preferred Progression Routes — xT-weighted

His progressive passes as zone→zone routes, weighted by expected threat (xT) added — arrow width and the number are the total xT generated on each route, not just how often he plays it. This is where he actually moves the needle.

0.480.260.160.160.150.15
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
0.48
Right Half-Space Def third → Right Half-Space Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
0.26
Right Half-Space Att third → Central Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
0.16
Right Half-Space Mid third → Right Half-Space Mid third
2 passes
0.16
Right Wing Mid third → Central Mid third
1 passes
0.15
Left Wing Att third → Left Wing Att third
1 passes
0.15
Left Wing Mid third → Left Wing Att third
1 passes
08

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Niklas Schmidt 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
22%
Primary
Central, Middle third
13%
Secondary
Right Half-Space, Middle third
13%
Third
Left Half-Space, Middle third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
09

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Niklas Schmidt 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:
28152314221440247171925202
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%3%9%11%9%1%0%6%18%11%2%1%4%7%10%6%1%
own goal left, attacking →
12

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.

5Key pass
5Cross
1Cutback
20Progressive
22Long ball
8Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
26Outside → Inside
105Inside → Inside
31Outside → Outside
35Inside → Outside
By direction
89Forward
50Backward
83Sideways
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 right hs, advancing it forward in the defensive third — 1 passes worth 0.48 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 5 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays straight through the central, advancing it forward in the middle third — 2 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 defensive third: 22% of his 9 touches there are lost (2 times).
—3 touches · too few—7 touches · too few9%1/11 lost22%2/9 lost—3 touches · too few18%4/22 lost7%2/30 lost6%3/49 lost4%1/28 lost18%3/17 lost22%4/18 lost—6 touches · too few—2 touches · too few10%1/10 lost—7 touches · too fewRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
13

Crosses & Cutbacks

5 crosses (1.89/90, 0 completed) and 1 cutbacks (0.38/90, 1 completed) — two separate wide-delivery patterns into the box, each its own map with a completed/failed filter. Neither is a tagged event, so both are inferred from pass geometry — the intended end point of a failed attempt is still real data (an interception doesn’t erase where the ball was aimed): a cross is a pass aimed into the box starting from a wide channel; a cutback starts almost on the byline but is squared back rather than driven forward, aimed centrally around the box. The completed-cross count was checked against this platform’s own real match-level cross totals and lands within about 1 cross of the true count.

Crosses — close-up on the final third
Cutbacks — close-up on the final third
completedfailed (dashed)close-up on the box — attacking ↑ toward goal
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

14

How & where does he defend?

32 defensive actions across the season (12.1/90). 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 →
4
tackles · 25% won
2
interceptions · 0.8/90
12
recoveries · 4.5/90
5
clearances · 1.9/90
1
blocks
42
avg action height
5
won high (att 3rd)
17
middle third
10
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 18 proactive ball-wins (6.8/90), tackle success 25%. He defends high, stepping out to intercept — suits a high line.
Team

Team context

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

15

Impact on the Team

Toulouse's output per match with Niklas Schmidt (5 matches) versus without him (3 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 3 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 (5)
WITHOUT (3)
Δ
goals against /match
1.40
1.33
+0.07
points /match
0.60
2.33
-1.73
goals for /match
0.80
2.67
-1.87
xG for /match
1.50
1.51
-0.00
16

His Share of the Team

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

category
share
him / team
zone-14 entries
4%
7 / 192
progressive passes
2%
27 / 1317
final-third entries
2%
23 / 1157
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

18

Playing-Style Profile

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 302 defensive mids in the pool (min 180 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.

Deep-lying playmaker71%Tempo controller65%Ball-winning 646%
Why Deep-lying playmaker 71%: a weighted blend of progression 97 (weight 30%) + build-up 69 (weight 30%) + retention 62 (weight 20%) + press resistance 29 (weight 20%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
progression, line-breaking, final-third threat, creativity, passing directness
Strong
receiving zones, transition, carrying
Average
territory (wide vs central), build-up, through-balls, retention, defensive aggression, crossing, box threat
Weak
press resistance, ball-winning, dribbling
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Progression
97
Line-breaking
97
Final-third threat
90
Creativity
90
Passing directness
88
Receiving zones
83
Transition ~proxy
78
Carrying
77
Territory (wide vs central)
69
Build-up
69
Through-balls ~proxy
64
Retention
62
Defensive aggression
55
Crossing
47
Box threat
41
Press resistance ~proxy
29
Ball-winning
26
Dribbling
5
19

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: 184 cm / 89 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.

Exequiel Palacios Ipswich · Premier League · 176 cm / 69 kg
80%
Driven by: progression (14%), transition (13%), creativity (13%). Different mechanism — Schmidt more via territory (wide vs central), passing directness; Palacios more via crossing, ball-winning.
Marten de Roon Roma · Serie A · 186 cm / 76 kg
79%
Driven by: progression (15%), receiving zones (13%), line-breaking (12%). Different mechanism — Schmidt more via territory (wide vs central), box threat; Roon more via dribbling, ball-winning.
Leon Avdullahu Hoffenheim · Bundesliga · 185 cm / 79 kg
77%
Driven by: progression (16%), transition (12%), line-breaking (12%). Different mechanism — Schmidt more via creativity, territory (wide vs central); Avdullahu more via press resistance, dribbling.
Teun Koopmeiners Juventus · Serie A · 185 cm / 84 kg
75%
Driven by: progression (17%), final-third threat (13%), line-breaking (12%). Different mechanism — Schmidt more via creativity; Koopmeiners more via dribbling, press resistance.
Rodri Barcelona · La Liga · 190 cm / 90 kg
73%
Driven by: progression (15%), creativity (14%), final-third threat (12%). Different mechanism — Schmidt more via territory (wide vs central), passing directness; Rodri more via ball-winning, box threat.
Granit Xhaka Sunderland · Premier League · 186 cm / 80 kg
69%
Driven by: progression (16%), final-third threat (15%), creativity (15%). Different mechanism — Schmidt more via defensive aggression, build-up; Xhaka more via dribbling, through-balls.
20

Summary

Niklas Schmidt is a deep-lying playmaker / tempo controller: 89% completion, 22 line-breaks and 7.6 progressive passes /90, resisting pressure with 0% dribble success. A central controller. [Off-ball screening position and scanning need tracking data.]

Based on 5 matches (238 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as a deep-lying playmaker / tempo controller — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is press resistance — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall deep-lying playmaker 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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