Profiling with Data: ft. A. Nusa, Y. Diomandé, S. El Mala & K. Yıldız

Four of the top U23 forwards linked with Liverpool and a host of top clubs across Europe

Written on 12/01/2026 | Europe’s top-5 leagues means top-flight leagues from England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France.

Although we are in the middle of the January transfer window, clubs are already lining up potential summer moves by speaking to player agents and understanding their stance on switching teams at the end of the current season.

Back in November, I published a detailed piece looking at some of the under-22 forwards and wingers from Europe’s top five leagues who had started the 2025/26 season well, highlighting those to keep an eye on for potential market moves in either the January window or the summer. You can read the piece on the TransferHub Substack here:

Analysing some of the top under-22 forwards and wingers from the 2025/26 season

A couple of months on from that, four players from the list of under-23 forwards and wingers have been linked with moves to Liverpool or other top clubs across Europe: Yan Diomandé, Kenan Yıldız, Said El Mala and Antonio Nusa. Three of them are playing in the Bundesliga, while Yıldız is currently at Italian giants Juventus.

We will profile the four players using data to gain a better understanding of the type of forwards they are. I have taken raw numbers from Europe’s top-five leagues, developed a few custom metrics from them, kept others as they are, and calculated each player’s percentile rank among forwards and wingers who have played at least 650 domestic league minutes so far this season (101 players).

Let’s take a look at the numbers and go into them for each player, starting with Yan Diomandé (19) of RB Leipzig. He has played 10 games on the right wing and six on the left this season for the Bundesliga side.

With over 0.8 non-penalty goals and assists per 90, Diomandé ranks in the top 10% of under-23 forwards so far this season. That is an impressive return for a player in his first Bundesliga campaign, having only moved to Spain with Leganés last January from DME Academy in the USA after beginning his youth professional career in 2022.

The Ivory Coast international ranks between the 60th and 70th percentile for non-penalty expected goal or assist involvement, shot attempts, quality of chances received (non-penalty xG per shot) and average shot distance. This suggests that his current non-penalty goal contribution rate may involve some degree of overperformance.

Whether his 98th-percentile xG over-performance is the result of statistical skewness or genuinely strong finishing will be explored later in this piece through further analysis.

His involvement in games is high, ranking in the 90th percentile for touches and the 89th percentile for open-play shot-creating actions (3.13 per 90). He also ranks above the 90th percentile for take-ons attempted, shot-ending take-ons, take-on success rate, and carries into the opposition half or the final third, with a notably progressive carrying distance profile.

The previous paragraph shows that Diomandé is not just a finisher who may be overperforming his xG to some extent. He is an all-round winger who contributes to chance creation, completes a high volume of dribbles with a strong success rate, and carries the ball from deeper areas into dangerous positions, among other qualities.

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