What stands out right away is Daka's enormous attacking output, even at a Premier League standard. It's so high that he may supply a boost of 0.13 expected goals per match above the output of a median Premier League striker. We can also see that Daka is very good in the air on dead balls and is a great tackler.
But Daka has some weaknesses, too. He's poor in ground duels on the ball, which helps to explain his low ball retention, and our algorithms make him a mediocre finisher in open play for the Premier League. He'll find the GKs in England to be quite a bit better than the ones he's used to facing.
In the Premier League, strikers also have much less time on the ball, so being able to win a 1v1 in possession can be a pretty important skill. That said, Daka has modified his game somewhat to protect his weakness. Here's how his style evolved over the past two seasons:
His propensity to dribble went way down in 2020-21. You can also see that even though his defending quantity fell, he was able to disrupt more opposition moves and recover more balls. Indeed, his defending quality rose as he polished up that part of his game.
The part of Daka's style that didn't change was his profile as a target man. He received a huge number of balls in the box and got his shots off at an outstanding rate, showing the sort of numbers Robert Lewandoski puts together across the border in the German Bundesliga. And the quality of Daka's shots is astronomically high:
