Newcastle Jets defeated Melbourne Victory on penalties in Australia Cup action. Newcastle was in control for most of the game as Melbourne fielded a very young side with hardly any A-League experience. However, Melbourne snatched two goals in added time to come back from 2-0 down, force extra time, and eventually penalties.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be a strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Lucas Mauragis
- Nationality: Australian
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 04/09/2001
- Current club: Newcastle Jets
- Career: Newcastle Jets (Y), Wellington Phoenix (Loan)
- Position: Left-back
- Preferred foot: Left
Lucas Mauragis played as a left-back in this match. His greatest strength by far is his crossing and ability to make plays from wide areas. Mauragis has a wand of a left foot and really good vision. He also has very strong off-the-ball movement which makes him good at finding space for himself and connecting with teammates. But, even though he was an effective attacking force overall, sometimes his decision-making was not quite there. Although he can play some amazing passes, sometimes he waits too long to make a decision and then the chance is gone. But this is also exciting because Mauragis is very productive already so there’s clearly even more room for him to grow. He looks comfortable carrying the ball and can beat players from time to time with dribbling. But again, Mauragis is sometimes a little slow to go for openings and misses out on chances. Mauragis is a fairly good passer, at least over short distances. He is capable of playing short passes under a certain amount of pressure to keep the ball. Newcastle spent most of the game on the attack so there was not a huge amount of opportunity to assess Mauragis’ defensive game. He did show a strong work ethic to close the ball down and win it high up the field. But he was not tested very much on 1v1. I didn’t see anything particularly concerning but I would need to watch more of him to say for certain. Mauragis is of a fairly average size but seems fairly strong and is a little quicker than average.
Rating: A2
Mauragis is a bit frustrating at times but he’s been extremely productive in his young A-League career and has a lot of impressive attacking skills. So if he gets a little more incisive with his decision making it’s not hard to see him making a modest step up. He has Lithuanian citizenship which would make a move to Europe easier, though it wouldn’t help him move to Scotland where a lot of A-League players end up. Other common destinations for Australians are the Greek or Polish leagues and I think Mauragis could do well somewhere like that.
Clayton Taylor
- Nationality: Australian
- Age: 19
- Date of birth: 01/03/2004
- Current club: Newcastle Jets
- Career: Sydney FC II
- Position: Winger
- Preferred foot: Right
Clayton Taylor played as a left winger in this match. He looked quite dangerous throughout the match, although he still has some work to do on becoming more efficient. Taylor is a high-volume dribbler who does not hesitate to run at players. He is very smooth on the ball with very strong close control. However, he showed a tendency to dribble into blind alleys and lose the ball. He could do a better job overall of turning threatening runs and locations into shots. He is very quick with the ball at his feet which helps support his dribbling ability. Taylor was very good at combining with Lucas Mauragis down the left-hand side. Taylor is good at picking passes in tight spaces and using his off-the-ball movement to link up with teammates. He was also quite good at playing short-range through balls behind the opposing defence. His off-the-ball movement also made him good at getting himself free to receive the ball in the left half-space and on the left side of the penalty area. He was able to generate a couple of decent chances this way. Taylor does track back a lot defensively and puts in a lot of effort. But at the same time he’s not particularly good at defending so there were lots of times he tried to close a player down but the player just blew past him. He also committed a fair number of fouls by leaving a leg in.
Rating: A2
Taylor still has some room to grow but he looked very strong in this game. He is only 19 so there is still a ton of room to grow. I am keen to see if he can nail down regular A-League minutes this season. I think I have not seen enough (and he hasn’t played enough at this level) to make a firm call on what his potential is, but I like a lot of what I see.
Archie Goodwin
- Nationality: Australian
- Age: 18
- Date of Birth: 07/11/2004
- Current club: Newcastle Jets
- Position: Striker
- Preferred foot: Right
Archie Goodwin came on at half-time of this game (therefore playing 70 minutes in total) and played as a striker. Goodwin scored a goal and generally looked quite dangerous. Goodwin’s strength is his off-the-ball movement and his speed to get behind defences. He does not touch the ball very often but his touches to dangerous chances ratio is very high. Goodwin is very good at evading markings in the box, consistently appearing unmarked in dangerous areas or making quick runs to create some space for himself. Goodwin is fairly small at 5’8 but he has a broad frame for his size and could fill out a bit more as he gets older. Goodwin did a pretty good job at winning physical battles for his small stature. However, if he had to hold up the ball for an extended period of time then he was not very well positioned to hold on to the ball. Goodwin has the ability to beat isolated players 1v1 but he is not the sort of player that is going to run at defences with the ball at his feet. He could play simple passes to retain the ball but he’s not really the sort of player to split defences open. That said, he did show some flashes of creativity to retain the ball in tight spaces. Goodwin did not do a lot of pressing but the match was played at quite high temperatures and neither team was defending very aggressively.
Rating: A2
Goodwin is probably one of the most high-potential players in the A-League and a strong candidate for a breakout season. If he can nail down a starting spot and stay healthy then I think this could be a huge season for him. In the long run, I think he has top-5 potential but that’s some way off at this point.