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Player reportSerie A 2026

Nicolò Casale

Bologna
Stopper centre-back CB
21.1 defensive actions/90 · 2.9 progressive/90 — defends first
centre-backstopper centre-backbuild-upline-breaking
282
minutes
3 apps
96
passes
85% completed
85%
pass completion
96 passes
9
progressive passes
2.9/90
12
line-breaking passes
3.8/90
66
defensive actions
21.1/90
11
tackles + interceptions
50% tackle win
17
clearances
5.4/90
Overview

The player

Who he is and how he compares with his peers.

Thin sample this season. Nicolò Casale has played 3 matches (282 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
in the first line of build-up — mostly in the defensive third (57% of his 96 passes)
85% completion · 96× in 3/3 matches
↓
BREAK A LINE
vertical pass past the opponent midfield
2.9 prog/90 · 12× in 3/3 matches
↓
SWITCH PLAY
diagonal to the far side
cross-field balls · 6× in 3/3 matches
↓
PROGRESS
entries into the final third
2.2/90 · 7× in 3/3 matches
Signature: Receive → Break A Line → Switch Play → 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: carry out — 2× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
In possession

In possession

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

04

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

25 tracked carries (8.0/90, 5 progressive, 216m 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%4%52%16%8%12%4%
progressivelateral/short% of his 25 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 17m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
22Inside → Inside
3Outside → Outside
First (18)Second (7)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).

6
tackle duels
3
won
3
beaten · 50%
brighter band = more tackle duels · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 67%
OUTSIDE 33%
Tackle-duel location — 4 inside · 2 outside
Right Wing
0 · 0%
Right Half-Space
2 · 33%
Central
1 · 17%
Left Half-Space
1 · 17%
Left Wing
2 · 33%
Vision AI beaten in 3 of 6 tackle duels (50% 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.

05

How does he create chances?

0 key passes (0.00/90), 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:
chance creation (0)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
03

Where does he become vulnerable?

15 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.

1
attacking third (cheap)
7
middle third
7
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 7% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 2.43 danger-index/90 · 0.508 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
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 middle third — 2 passes worth 0.32 xT.
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 middle third: 30% of his 10 touches there are lost (3 times).
—2 touches · too few11%1/9 lost7%2/28 lost0%0/10 lost—6 touches · too few—1 touch · too few—4 touches · too few0%0/17 lost30%3/10 lost22%2/9 lost—0 touches · too few—0 touches · too few—0 touches · too few—0 touches · too few—0 touches · too fewRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

06

How & where does he defend?

66 defensive actions across the season (21.1/90). 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 →
6
tackles · 50% won
5
interceptions · 1.6/90
14
recoveries · 4.5/90
17
clearances · 5.4/90
3
blocks
23
avg action height
0
won high (att 3rd)
17
middle third
49
own third
Vision AI A deep-defending defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 25 proactive ball-wins (8.0/90), tackle success 50%. He defends deep, protecting his box — a last-line stopper.
Team

Team context

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

07

Impact on the Team

Bologna's output per match with Nicolò Casale (3 matches) versus without him (5 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 5 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 (3)
WITHOUT (5)
Δ
goals against /match
1.33
1.20
+0.13
points /match
2.00
0.40
+1.60
goals for /match
1.67
0.60
+1.07
xG for /match
1.40
0.40
+1.00
08

His Share of the Team

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

category
share
him / team
goals
17%
1 / 6
clearances
7%
76 / 1077
interceptions
3%
12 / 352
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

09

Playing-Style Profile

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 515 centre-backs 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.

Stopper centre-back51%Ball-playing centre-back35%
Why Stopper centre-back 51%: a weighted blend of defensive aggression 59 (weight 35%) + ball-winning 45 (weight 40%) + transition 68 (weight 10%) + retention 33 (weight 15%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
passing directness
Strong
—
Average
transition, box threat, line-breaking, defensive aggression, build-up, carrying, ball-winning, progression, crossing
Weak
final-third threat, retention, receiving zones, creativity, territory (wide vs central), press resistance, through-balls, dribbling
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Passing directness
90
Transition ~proxy
68
Box threat
65
Line-breaking
61
Defensive aggression
59
Build-up
52
Carrying
49
Ball-winning
45
Progression
44
Crossing
43
Final-third threat
35
Retention
33
Receiving zones
26
Creativity
25
Territory (wide vs central)
25
Press resistance ~proxy
20
Through-balls ~proxy
11
Dribbling
8
10

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 / 84 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 Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Premier League, 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.

Andreas Hanche-Olsen Mainz · Bundesliga 25/26 · 185 cm / 79 kg
80%
Driven by: press resistance (23%), dribbling (22%), through-balls (14%). Different mechanism — Casale more via line-breaking; Hanche-Olsen more via creativity.
Jan Ziólkowski Roma · 194 cm / 76 kg
73%
Driven by: dribbling (17%), press resistance (16%), creativity (12%). Different mechanism — Casale more via line-breaking, carrying; Ziólkowski more via defensive aggression, ball-winning.
Facundo Garcés Alaves · La Liga 25/26 · 191 cm / 82 kg
71%
Driven by: press resistance (21%), dribbling (18%), creativity (13%). Different mechanism — Casale more via carrying, line-breaking; Garcés more via through-balls.
Nikola Katic Schalke · Bundesliga · 194 cm / 90 kg
70%
Driven by: press resistance (21%), dribbling (17%), passing directness (13%). Different mechanism — Casale more via line-breaking, carrying; Katic more via through-balls.
Stefan Bell Mainz · Bundesliga · 192 cm / 88 kg
69%
Driven by: press resistance (19%), dribbling (13%), passing directness (11%). Different mechanism — Casale more via line-breaking, carrying; Bell more via through-balls, box threat.
Robin Le Normand Atletico · La Liga · 187 cm / 80 kg
69%
Driven by: dribbling (23%), through-balls (15%), passing directness (13%). Different mechanism — Casale more via line-breaking, box threat; Normand more via retention.
11

Summary

Nicolò Casale is a stopper centre-back: 85% pass completion, 12 line-breaking passes and 2.9 progressive passes /90. A build-and-progress centre-back whose value is in beating the first line with the pass, not in raw defensive volume. [Aerial duels, marking, line-height and 1v1 recovery need aerial-event + tracking data, absent here.]

Based on 3 matches (282 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as a stopper centre-back — 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 stopper centre-back profile.
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