Italy’s Rising Defenders: Scouting The Next Alessandro Bastoni – Data Analysis

For a number of years now, Alessandro Bastoni has been an established part of Inter Milan’s defensive unit and looks to remain a key player for the club for years to come.

Bastoni has gained some attention in recent months for his consistent quality performances for Inter and is thought of by many as one of the best central defenders in world football today.

At 25 years of age, it is highly likely that we are still yet to see Bastoni’s prime, which is an exciting thought—he could still be playing elite-level football in 10 years!

Italy has been blessed with some truly iconic figures in central defence down the years – frankly, too many to name, and Bastoni has all the attributes to become the next one to join that illustrious group.

While the defender still has years to go before his career starts to wind down, Inter will undoubtedly be on the lookout for a replacement at some point, and other clubs will be scouting the market for a centre-back that fits a similar profile to that of Bastoni.

This data analysis aims to identify the ‘next Bastoni’, with that label being applied loosely.

The analysis utilises TFA’s player similarity tool xGold to highlight players in Serie A and B who offer a similar style of play to Bastoni.

We then use that list of players as the basis for data analysis, using various statistics to see who could be destined to become an elite-level defender down the line.

Alessandro Bastoni Player Profile

For this analysis, we searched for defenders who resembled Alessandro Bastoni’s style of play statistically.

Every player in the analysis meets the criteria below:

• Have an xGold similarity rating of 70 (on the xGold scale, 100 would mean the player is extremely similar to Bastoni).
• Be a centre-back, right centre-back, or left centre-back, primarily.
• Be contracted to a Serie A or B club as of right now – players who belong to a club in Serie A or B but who are currently on loan elsewhere have been included.
• Be aged 25 and under at the time of writing.
• Played a minimum of 1200 minutes of league football in the last calendar year.

This search gave us 22 defenders to include in the analysis, and we have used data that dates back a calendar year.

But who is Alessandro Bastoni, and what is his style of play?

Alessandro Bastoni Radar Map

Let’s examine the Italy international’s style of play for those who may not be familiar with it.

Defensively, Bastoni may not be as involved as teams further down the league or teams with less possession on average, but when called on, he is more than reliable, as we’ll explore later.

In possession, Bastoni adds real value to Inter’s tactics with his attacking style.

As you can see from the graph above, Bastoni has a real knack for providing a variety of important passes and carrying the ball forward – especially last campaign.

Alessandro Bastoni Heatmap

Bastoni’s heatmaps from last season and this season to date give us more insight into his attacking involvement.

Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan deploys a back three or back five more often than not, with Bastoni primarily playing as the left centre-back in that setup.

Inzaghi’s Inter tactics encourage the left centre-back and right centre-back to step into midfield and contribute to important build-up phases and some moments of advanced attacks.

That is reflected in Bastoni’s heat maps above.

Serie A & Serie B Centre-Back Defensive Stats Analysis

While Bastoni is known for his technical ability on the ball, he is more effective when it comes to defensive contributions.

Therefore, we must see which defenders xGold gave us (in line with the previously mentioned criteria) who offer a similar defensive presence.

We start by providing an overview of the number of successful defensive actions each included defender makes per 90—this also gives us a chance to list each defender involved.

Initially, it may be a bit of a shock to see Bastoni rank so low compared to the 22 defenders, but that is not a reflection of his individual talent but of how, due to a number of tactical factors, his role involves less defending.

That said, a high average in this metric can be an indicator of an effective defender…

Players like Cagliari’s Adam Obert and Reggiana’s Lorenzo Lucchesi (on loan from Fiorentina) match that description, offering 11.5 and 11.31 successful defensive actions per 90, respectively.

Other strong performers include Andrea Papetti (Brescia), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), and Matteo Angeli (Cittadella), who all average over 10 successful defensive actions per 90.

Drilling a little further into the defensive bedrock, we now examine how each defender performs in defensive duels.

As you can see, Bastoni again has a low engagement but offers a strong success rate of 65.32%.

There are many players who offer better numbers here

6.61 defensive duels per 90 and a very impressive success rate of 72.3%.

Lucchesi and Obert both impress again, while Cas Odenthal (Sassuolo) offers a similar output to Bastoni.

Being dominant in the air and offering an aerial presence can be invaluable traits for a central defender.

Bastoni (again) offers low engagement but is clearly an aerial talent.

Angeli deserves another mention, this time thanks to his incredible success rate of 62.6% from 6.12 aerial duel attempts per 90 – an indication that he is a consistent aerial presence for Cittadella.

Honourable mentions for this metric include Matteo Gabbia, who plays for Inter’s fierce rivals AC Milan, and Natan, who is currently at La Liga side Real Betis, on loan from Napoli, Scalvini, and Frosinone’s Ilario Monterisi.

Serie A & Serie B Centre-Back In Possession Stats Analysis

As we’ve mentioned, Alessandro Bastoni is more than a tough defender – he also offers technical excellence from the back in various build-up scenarios.

If a player is to be the ‘next Bastoni’, i.e. an elite central defender, they’ll have to be more than competent in possession.

This graph of overall passing data is here to give us some tactical insight more than anything.

As you can see, Bastoni has a high engagement and success rate with passes – similar can be said of Gabbia, AS Roma’s Evan Ndicka, Lazio’s Mario Gila, and Bastoni’s Inter teammate Yann Bisseck.

It is not a coincidence that all of those players play for clubs that generally try to dominate possession—central defenders in those tactical systems often get more time on the ball, more time while under less pressure, hence the higher number of passes along with the higher success rate.

Bastoni’s passing range is another crucial quality of his, as evidenced by his accuracy rate of 62.46%, from a high engagement of 7.24 long passes per 90.

Bastoni is capable of playing long balls into the final third and channels and diagonal passes.

Ghilardi earns more praise for his high long pass accuracy of 66.67%, while SPAL’s Edoardo Sottini offers a similar output to Bastoni.

Progressive passing is a key trait of a technical centre-back—the ability to see and execute passes that move their team’s possession forward significantly can really elevate a defender to another level.

We’re now starting to see why Bastoni is so important to Inter and their tactics.

10.88 progressive passes per 90 with an accuracy rating of 78.02% is an example of fantastic technical influence from a central defender; Bastoni’s ability to play forward passes into more advanced areas is a key part of Inter’s tactics.

Sottini shines again – while offering a slightly lower engagement than Bastoni, he can be extremely accurate with his progressive passes, offering a higher accuracy rate than the Inter man.

Valentin Antov also shows promise in this area—the Cremonese defender averages 9.4 progressive passes per 90, a high engagement, and he offers a strong accuracy rate of 76.92%.

Passing isn’t the only way Bastoni influences Inter’s attacking tactics – he also provides an attacking boost by carrying the ball forward, often into midfield spaces from the backline.

Bastoni makes 2.23 progressive runs per 90 minutes—that’s over two occasions in a match when he carries the ball forward a significant distance, bringing his team closer to the opponent’s goal.

Obert, Antov, and Palermo’s Salim Diakité all offer 2+ progressive runs per 90 minutes, showing signs of being effective in carrying possession forwards themselves.

Conclusion – Top Selections

A number of defenders impressed in various metrics in this data analysis, and we are now going to reveal our top two options in the search for the ‘next Alessandro Bastoni’ (in no particular order).

Adam Obert – Cagliari: 80% Similarity Rating

One of the most impressive players in this data analysis was Adam Obert, who first joined the Cagliari first team during the 2021/22 campaign.

As our data has shown, Obert offers strong overall defensive ability while also showing the capability to carry the ball forward.

As his radar above shows, last season, he was influential in providing progressive and dangerous passes.

Daniele Ghilardi – Hellas Verona: 78% Similarity Rating

Daniele Ghilardi was plying his trade in Serie B for Sampdoria just last season and impressed Hellas Verona enough to warrant a transfer.

Ghilardi has played in four Serie A games so far this season, so it looks as though his new club is interested in his qualities this season rather than loaning him out to gain experience, for example.

Ghilardi’s statistics show that he is reliable defensively and effective in possession, especially with long passes.

His 2023/24 radar also indicates that he has plenty of potential in various in-possession areas and some key defensive areas.

These two show potential to continue impacting Serie A and could one day be as important to their respective clubs as Bastoni is to Inter.

Other players from this analysis who deserve an honourable mention include Lucchesi, Angeli, Scalvini, Gabbia, Sottini, and Antov, who proved effective in more than one metric.