Giovanni Leoni
Liverpool, 2025-
Signed for an initial £26m by Liverpool at the age of 18, Giovanni Leoni has experienced a rapid rise. Just a few weeks after joining the Premier League champions, the Italian centre-back was called up to Italy’s senior squad for the first time. But with the talent and experience of Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté and Joe Gomez as his centre-back teammates at Anfield, first-team opportunities won’t come easy. On the plus side, at the very least he will have the opportunity to learn from some of the Premier League’s best defenders, as well as testing himself regularly in training against the quality of his attacking teammates.
Born in Rome in 2006, Leoni made his senior debut for Padova in Serie C at the age of 16. In February 2024, he joined Serie B side Sampdoria on loan; he then signed for them in the summer, only to join Parma two months later. One season and 17 Serie A games later, Liverpool came calling.
Below, our UEFA-licensed coaches have examined his game, positions played and potential areas for improvement…
Technical analysis
Giovanni Leoni is a right-footed centre-back who played in different roles in a back three and four in Italian football, before signing for Liverpool. In doing so, he demonstrated his ability to compete in aerial duels and be aggressive against more experienced players.
His imposing 6ft 4in frame helps, while his willingness to compete is also important. Happy to make first contact, he moves out of the back line to aggressively attack direct, long balls, clearing with height and distance, using his momentum to put the ball into safer areas. To develop further, he could work on finding teammates from his aerial duels, rather than simply clearing the ball, or at best putting it into an area for the midfield unit to compete for (below).
Leoni can attack balls in the air from a standing start, as well as when running back towards his own goal. His technique to track, cover and move backwards as the opposition advances is already at a high level. And despite his imposing frame, there are no physical concerns around his ability to defend on the move – especially when working back to his own goal.
When he hasn’t won the first contact, he has been adept at ensuring his opponent doesn’t either, disrupting play as much as possible – a key skill for a central defender. He also has a good defensive instinct for when to retreat and protect space, which has helped him to cover teammates as they engage the ball. This instinct has been an asset when he is readjusting his role around the ball, in both a back three and back four.
As with his duelling in the air, Leoni is very aggressive on the ground. For example, he has been happy to move into midfield to compete with his direct opponent. There, he has locked attackers as they received, stopping them from turning. His ability to delay attackers in these instances can help others backpress, especially teammates from midfield (below). When secondary support hasn’t been available, he has poked and prodded at the ball to disrupt his opponent’s ability to receive, turn or link play. His ability to defend between the ball and the goal, meanwhile, has helped him block attempted efforts on goal, as he focuses on protecting the most dangerous scoring spaces.
Another area Leoni can focus on improving is his ability to defend both ways. At times he has been slightly vulnerable to a shoulder drop or knock and run – particularly when attacked on his left shoulder. When his opponent has the upper-body strength to push back, he needs to find ways to get back across his man earlier, and improve his ability to duel on the move, or jostle for possession as they carry it forward from this side. Leoni is much stronger when showing an attacker the other way, which explains why he has played as a right-back (albeit briefly), forcing the play along the touch line.
At times he has had problems with blindside runs from his left shoulder – something that regular scanning both ways would help with. But at the time of writing he had success rates of 64 and 68 per cent for his duelling in the air and on the ground, respectively. Both of these are impressive considering his relative lack of experience.
In possession
Leoni has often kept his passing range simple, passing to wider defensive teammates or deeper midfielders as early as possible. He does have a good range of passing, and has looked to hit the front line when needed – especially during transitional moments where he has been directly involved in winning the ball back. In those moments he has shown he can be pragmatic and direct, working the ball away from immediate pressure after a regain, to find the front line. However, the accuracy of this particular pass can be inconsistent, given it is a long pass in a transitional moment.
Leoni has also progressed the ball with reversed and disguised passes (below), finding his highest teammate. Although he has not done this often, he does have the ability to break lines. This includes passing from out to in, working the ball back into his central attacking teammates. It is something he should look to do more often, adding to his ability to circulate the ball into the midfield and advancing wide defenders.
Central role
When playing in a back three in Italy, Leoni mostly defended from the right side at Sampdoria, whereas at Parma he was in the centre. In the central role he had to show the versatility to defend all across the back line, with Parma being very aggressive when swinging round to press into wide areas. Both of Parma’s wing-backs and wide centre-backs would jump across, forcing Leoni to swing around, too. With space then available in different directions, the youngster had to track, mark, duel and, most importantly, cover this wider pressure (below).
In the middle of a three, Leoni had licence to jump out to duel and compete for the ball, not least in aerial battles. The other centre-backs would then narrow, providing cover and giving him free rein to go well into midfield to compete. The same applied when Parma were in a block and the opposition tried to find their centre-forward with central play. In these moments, Leoni often limited his opponent from turning, which allowed Parma’s block to collapse on the ball.
Leoni was also used in a back four, often as a right-sided centre-back. Here, again, he provided secondary cover when the full-backs jumped. Where possible, he also duelled high in the central spaces.
Right-sided centre-back
Leoni played in a back three at Sampdoria, most often as a right-sided centre-back. There he spent more time defending wide, locking play to the touchline, while supporting any wider press much earlier, compared with his central role. Although he could duel into midfield when a wide attacker narrowed and dropped, naturally he did this less in central areas. Instead, he faced more switches, passes around and wide 1v1 defending.
When Sampdoria’s middle centre-back engaged the ball, Leoni had to cover in behind, protecting the central spaces against runners. Instead of competing for the first phase, he had to cover, track and land on any secondary balls or flick-ons. This reduced the amount of aerial duelling he did as the first contact, but he still had to cover central access to goal – in particular blocking shots. Making recovery movements and providing secondary protection to his central-defensive partners no doubt prepared him for playing centrally himself, especially when covering against narrow runners.
Defending as one of the two wider centre-backs, he had to cover his right wing-back – not least when they jumped out to press. As such he had to defend 1v1 in bigger spaces, often without support from the other two centre-backs, who were focused on central protection (below).
At Sampdoria, Leoni’s defending on the angle, tracking of line passes and ability to lock play and defend on his right shoulder were very good. He used his body well, stepping across and applying his upper-body strength to disrupt and limit wide progression, and stopped attempted crosses. There were occasions, however, when attackers exposed him on or around his left shoulder. As he develops this will no doubt be an area to improve upon, no matter whether he plays in a back four or five.
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