A quick, creative, elegant, and agile player, with excellent technical ability, Dybala is known for his dribbling skills, balance, and close control in limited spaces, as well as his ability to beat opponents in one on one situations and protect or hold up the ball for teammates with his back to goal. Due to his speed on the ball, positioning, intelligent movement, and ball skills, he excels during counter-attacks and at beating the offside trap when making attacking runs. A hardworking player, he is also known for his stamina and defensive contribution off the ball. Dybala is capable both of creating chances for teammates, as well as scoring goals himself, due to his vision, passing, link-up play, and ability to drop deep and play off of other players, as well as his powerful and accurate ball-striking ability from both inside and outside the area. Despite his diminutive stature, Dybala is also effective at scoring with his head, due to his acceleration over short distances, and his ability to anticipate defenders inside the box.
A versatile forward, he is capable of playing in any offensive position: he has been deployed as a main striker, as a centre-forward, as a supporting forward, as an attacking midfielder, as a playmaker, as a false-9, or even as an inverted winger on the right flank, where he is able to cut into the centre and curl shots on goal with his stronger left foot. Because of his work-rate and involvement in the build-up of his team's attacking plays, in addition to his goalscoring ability, Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri has even deployed Dybala as an offensive-minded central midfielder on occasion (known as a "mezz'ala", in Italian), and described him as a "box-to-box player" ("tuttocampista", in Italian) in 2018. He has also operated in a deeper playmaking role on occasion. Dybala is also accurate from both free kicks and penalties.
His playing style has drawn comparisons with compatriots Sergio Agüero, Javier Pastore, Carlos Tevez, Omar Sívori, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi, as well as former Italian forwards Vincenzo Montella, Alessandro Del Piero, and Roberto Baggio, the latter of whom described Dybala as the number 10 of the future in 2017. Widely considered to be a highly talented prospect in world football, in 2014, Don Balón named him one of the 100 most promising young players in the world born after 1993. Despite his talent, however, his mentality has come into question at times in the media.
