العربيةSeason2025/262026 · this seasonAll seasons
Building the full report
Combining every season — this one is larger, give it a moment.
Vision AI ← BACK TO SEARCH
Player reportSerie A 2025/26

Nikola Krstovic

Atalanta
Complete forward ST
4.7 shots/90 with 0.99 key passes/90
Capability Analysis
Finishing41%vs 21 strikers
"Does he finish better than the quality of chance he gets?"
Goals above expected0.39goals33%
Placement quality vs xG-2.91index0%
Shots on target71.090%
Box Threat85%vs 21 strikers
"Is he a genuine goal threat by shot volume and quality?"
xG /900.59xG90%
Shots /904.5695%
xGOT /900.48xGOT71%
Ball-Carrying72%vs 21 strikers
"Does he advance the ball himself when the pass isn't on?"
Progressive carries /902.2676%
Carry distance /9068.82m81%
Successful take-ons /900.7962%
Take-on success42.86%67%
Aerial Threat0%vs 21 strikers
"Is he a genuine aerial outlet -- can he win headers, not just occupy space?"
Aerial duels won /900.00%
Aerial win rate: 0.0%
strikertransition runnerbox threatfinishing
1907
minutes
33 apps
10
goals
12.84 xG
12.8
xG
99 shots
99
shots
0.13 xG/shot
6
box entries
0.28/90
21
key passes
0.99/90
41
dribbles
41% won
73%
pass completion
509 passes
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.

LINK
lay-off and combine
21 key passes · 73% completion · 509× in 33/33 matches
↓
FINISH
shoot from central zones
12.84 xG · 99× in 30/33 matches
↓
CONVERT
goals vs expected
10 goals (-2.8 vs xG) · 10× in 30/33 matches
Signature: Link → Finish → Convert — the only steps proven repeatable this season (3 of 4 in the full pattern). Not enough evidence yet for the rest of the chain below.
Not a pattern: receive / move — 6× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
21

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 →
15
passes / match
2.0
dribbles / match
1–32
pass range (matches)
1–4
dribble range (matches)
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (1 at the low end, 32 at the high) — a measure of match-to-match involvement, not pass distance. Dribble range works the same way, for dribbles/carries per match.
In possession

In possession

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

11

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

141 tracked carries (6.7/90, 31 progressive, 1311m 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.

5%4%16%7%1%5%11%15%4%4%11%13%5%
progressivelateral/short% of his 141 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 35m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
12Outside → Inside
96Inside → Inside
23Outside → Outside
10Inside → Outside
First (42)Second (40)Third (33)Fourth (26)grouped by carry pattern (start + end position), largest group first
startendown goal left, attacking →

Dribbles (1v1s)

Does he drop to link or stay central? Touches by channel. Season rate: 1.93 dribbles attempted /90.

brighter band = more dribbles · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 68%
OUTSIDE 32%
Dribble location — 28 inside · 13 outside
Right Wing
10 · 24%
Right Half-Space
8 · 20%
Central
14 · 34%
Left Half-Space
6 · 15%
Left Wing
3 · 7%
Vision AI His touches are central and high — a penalty-box striker.
16

How does he build & move 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 →RWRHSCLHSLWRW4571%3224%114%2RHS7923%1851%4025%201%1C1479%1318%2748%7018%267%11LHS713%27%525%1837%2628%20LW329%322%769%22FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: the right half-space in the middle third → central areas in the middle third — 2 progressive passes (12% of his progression) at 0.019 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 59% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 6% 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: 3 line-breaking passes and 16 final-third entries, -4.6 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
1%3%6%13%6%3%11%10%17%4%0%0%5%7%8%6%
completedincomplete509 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
509
passes
73%
completed
135
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 73% season completion rate.
14

How does he progress play?

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

18
progressive · 0.8/90
16
final-third entries · 0.8/90
6
box entries · 0.28/90
6
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.
07

How does he create chances?

21 key passes (0.99/90), 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:
19%10%24%38%5%5%
chance creation (21)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
Box deliveries — key passes reaching the final third, by flank
from the left (9)from the right (12)of 21 key passes landing in the final thirdattacking ↑ toward goal
02

Can he finish?

99 shots · 12.84 xG · 10 goals (-2.84 vs xG). Mostly right-footed. Circle size = xG.

shots  99
on target  58
goals  10
xG  12.84
xG on target  10.04
xG / shot  0.130
Where he shoots from — click an area of the box
06

Where does he become vulnerable?

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

91
attacking third (cheap)
58
middle third
10
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 57% of losses are in the attacking third — he gambles where a turnover costs little.
Mistake danger (proxy): 1.56 danger-index/90 · 0.207 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
08

What is his passing profile?

509
passes attempted
49%
mostly sideways
69%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
131 · 26%
Sideways
247 · 49%
Backward
131 · 26%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
258 · 69%
Medium
103 · 28%
Long (>30m)
13 · 3%
15

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.

0.400.290.220.180.170.14
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
0.40
Right Wing Att third → Right Wing Att third
3 passes · 1 to a shot
0.29
Right Wing Mid third → Right Wing Att third
2 passes
0.22
Right Half-Space Att third → Right Half-Space Att third
1 passes
0.18
Left Half-Space Mid third → Left Wing Att third
2 passes
0.17
Central Mid third → Left Half-Space Att third
1 passes
0.14
Central Att third → Left Wing Att third
2 passes
09

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Nikola Krstovic 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
18%
Primary
Central, Middle third
16%
Secondary
Central, Attacking third
14%
Third
Right Half-Space, Attacking third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
10

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Nikola Krstovic 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:
122638453119595411090419367540
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.

1%3%6%13%6%3%11%10%17%4%0%0%5%7%8%6%
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.

21Key pass
1Cross
18Cutback
18Progressive
18Long ball
9Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
23Outside → Inside
233Inside → Inside
54Outside → Outside
64Inside → Outside
By direction
131Forward
131Backward
247Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
03

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 wing in the final third — 3 passes worth 0.40 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 21 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays straight through the central in the final third — 6 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: 34% of his 53 touches there are lost (18 times).
—1 touch · too few—3 touches · too few33%4/12 lost—3 touches · too few—1 touch · too few29%4/14 lost24%9/37 lost15%14/93 lost31%16/51 lost33%6/18 lost22%10/45 lost31%22/70 lost28%23/83 lost34%18/53 lost24%6/25 lostRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
05

Does he carry inside or outside — his ball-carries across the pitch

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.

own goal left, attacking →
Across 141 ball-carries, his dominant tendency is that he carries through central areas (68%). He carries from outside into the middle 12 times and out toward the touchline 10 — balanced between cutting in and holding width.
04

What happens right after he carries the ball

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.

Shot
16 · 11%
Progressive / key pass
8 · 6%
Simple pass
86 · 61%
No clean link
31 · 22%
Of 141 carries, 11% flow straight into a shot of his own, 6% into a key or progressive pass — a genuine end product to the carry, not just ball retention. 22% have no clean link to a next touch of his own close to where the carry ended.
13

Crosses & Cutbacks

1 crosses (0.05/90, 0 completed) and 18 cutbacks (0.85/90, 7 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.

18

How & where does he defend?

238 defensive actions across the season (11.2/90). 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 →
15
tackles · 73% won
3
interceptions · 0.1/90
66
recoveries · 3.1/90
16
clearances · 0.8/90
7
blocks
57
avg action height
91
won high (att 3rd)
104
middle third
43
own third
Vision AI A front-foot / high defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 84 proactive ball-wins (4.0/90), tackle success 73%. He defends high, stepping out to intercept — suits a high line.

Defensive work in the attacking half

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.

157
attacking-half actions · 7.41/90
17

Against Different Pressing Intensities

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Does Nikola Krstovic keep producing when the game is tight and the press is high? Tiers of ~11-11 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
xT /90
prog /90
key P /90
dribble%
High press (PPDA 4.7, 11m)
0.23
0.7
0.54
46%
Mid press (PPDA 6.4, 11m)
0.30
0.5
1.10
31%
Low press (PPDA 10.1, 11m)
0.32
1.3
1.34
50%
Team

Team context

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

19

Impact on the Team

Atalanta's output per match with Nikola Krstovic (33 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. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.

WITH (33)
WITHOUT (5)
Δ
goals for /match
1.39
1.00
+0.39
xG for /match
1.51
1.44
+0.07
goals against /match
0.88
1.40
-0.52
points /match
1.64
1.00
+0.64
20

His Share of the Team

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

category
share
him / team
goals
20%
10 / 50
expected goals (xG)
19%
15.6 / 80.1
shots
16%
121 / 751
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

22

Playing-Style Profile

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.

Transition runner85%Poacher84%Target man82%Pressing forward79%
Why Transition runner 85%: a weighted blend of transition 75 (weight 45%) + box threat 91 (weight 25%) + defensive aggression 74 (weight 30%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
box threat, receiving zones
Strong
carrying, transition, defensive aggression, creativity, dribbling
Average
press resistance, final-third threat, retention, ball-winning, progression, build-up, passing directness, through-balls, crossing
Weak
line-breaking, territory (wide vs central)
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Box threat
91
Receiving zones
86
Carrying
81
Transition ~proxy
75
Defensive aggression
74
Creativity
73
Dribbling
72
Press resistance ~proxy
69
Final-third threat
67
Retention
65
Ball-winning
65
Progression
60
Build-up
56
Passing directness
54
Through-balls ~proxy
45
Crossing
42
Line-breaking
27
Territory (wide vs central)
15
23

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: 185 cm / 83 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.

Charalampos Kostoulas Brighton · Premier League · 185 cm
76%
Driven by: defensive aggression (23%), box threat (13%), transition (10%). Different mechanism — Krstovic more via through-balls, crossing; Kostoulas more via territory (wide vs central), defensive aggression.
Lassine Sinayoko Paris FC · Ligue 1 · 186 cm / 81 kg
71%
Driven by: box threat (15%), receiving zones (13%), creativity (11%). Different mechanism — Sinayoko more via line-breaking, territory (wide vs central).
Hamza Igamane Lille · Ligue 1 25/26 · 181 cm / 77 kg
69%
Driven by: box threat (15%), receiving zones (12%), transition (11%). Different mechanism — Igamane more via line-breaking, through-balls.
Adam Hlozek Hoffenheim · Bundesliga · 188 cm / 84 kg
65%
Driven by: box threat (20%), carrying (12%), press resistance (11%). Different mechanism — Krstovic more via defensive aggression; Hlozek more via line-breaking, territory (wide vs central).
Álvaro Rodríguez Bournemouth · Premier League · 192 cm / 81 kg
64%
Driven by: defensive aggression (21%), receiving zones (16%), creativity (13%). Different mechanism — Krstovic more via retention, box threat; Rodríguez more via line-breaking, territory (wide vs central).
Gabriel Jesus Barcelona · La Liga · 175 cm / 73 kg
64%
Driven by: box threat (23%), receiving zones (14%), defensive aggression (11%). Different mechanism — Krstovic more via passing directness, creativity; Jesus more via territory (wide vs central), crossing.
24

Summary

Nikola Krstovic is a transition runner / poacher: 10 goals from 12.84 xG (-2.84 vs expected), 99 shots, 6 box entries. Under-performing his chances. [Off-ball runs, aerials and hold-up under contact need tracking/aerial data.]

Based on 33 matches (1907 minutes) this season — a reliable read. He profiles as a transition runner / poacher — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is defensive aggression — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall transition runner 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.

Vision AI · building report