Thin sample this season. Malick Fofana has played 2 matches (71 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
Left Wing, Attacking third — mostly in the attacking third (65% of his 26 passes)
0% of touches wide left · 26× in 2/2 matches
↓
CARRY / BEAT MAN
dribble past the full-back, cut inside
67% won · 3× in 1/2 matches
↓
CREATE / FINISH
cut-back or shot from inside
1.27 key passes /90 · 1 goals · 4× in 1/2 matches
Signature: Receive → Carry / Beat Man → Create / Finish — 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: progress — 1× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
Team
Team context
How much of the team runs through him, and what changes without him.
Sunderland's output per match with Malick Fofana (2 matches) versus without him (6 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 6 matches; treat every Δ below as noise until more games exist. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.
WITH (2)
WITHOUT (6)
Δ
goals for /match
1.50
1.67
-0.17
xG for /match
1.20
0.00
+1.20
goals against /match
0.50
1.00
-0.50
points /match
2.00
1.67
+0.33
03
His Share of the Team
Of everything Sunderland produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Malick Fofana specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.
category
share
him / team
successful take-ons
6%
12 / 188
shots
6%
26 / 410
expected goals (xG)
6%
2.8 / 48.2
Recruitment
Style and verdict
Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.
Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 180 wingers 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.
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Box threat
74
Territory (wide vs central)
72
Carrying
56
Final-third threat
44
Retention
41
Build-up
40
Creativity
40
Progression
39
Press resistance ~proxy
39
Transition ~proxy
38
Ball-winning
34
Dribbling
32
Receiving zones
32
Defensive aggression
31
Line-breaking
24
Passing directness
24
Through-balls ~proxy
24
Crossing
22
05
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: 169 cm / 61 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.
Jones El Abdellaoui Celta Vigo · La Liga · 184 cm / 72 kg
78%
Driven by: crossing (18%), defensive aggression (13%), passing directness (11%). Different mechanism — Fofana more via final-third threat, box threat.
Gustav Isaksen Lazio · Serie A · 181 cm / 68 kg
75%
Driven by: crossing (17%), passing directness (14%), through-balls (12%). Different mechanism — Fofana more via final-third threat; Isaksen more via defensive aggression.
Joel Roca Girona · La Liga 25/26 · 176 cm / 72 kg
69%
Driven by: crossing (20%), defensive aggression (17%), passing directness (15%). Different mechanism — Fofana more via final-third threat, territory (wide vs central); Roca more via receiving zones, dribbling.
Gaetano Oristanio Torino · Serie A · 175 cm / 62 kg
68%
Driven by: through-balls (14%), crossing (12%), receiving zones (11%). Different mechanism — Fofana more via final-third threat, territory (wide vs central); Oristanio more via passing directness, dribbling.
Zito Luvumbo Cagliari · La Liga 25/26 · 171 cm / 65 kg
63%
Driven by: crossing (14%), line-breaking (11%), ball-winning (10%). Different mechanism — Fofana more via territory (wide vs central), build-up; Luvumbo more via passing directness.
Romaine Mundle Sunderland · Premier League · 172 cm / 61 kg
62%
Driven by: crossing (19%), passing directness (12%), through-balls (12%). Different mechanism — Fofana more via box threat, carrying; Mundle more via retention, build-up.
06
Summary
Malick Fofana is a wide, outside-first left carrier: 0% of dribbles in the wing lane, 81% of passes from wide — but 17% land inside. 1.3 progressive passes and 1.27 key passes /90 plus 1 goals from 0.30 xG. A carry-and-deliver threat.
Based on 2 matches (71 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as an inside forward — best used in a system built around that identity.
His biggest room for growth is dribbling — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall inside forward 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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