Luke Supyk is a 17-year-old striker who plays for Wellington Phoenix in the Australian A-League. I previously covered Supyk at the OFC U-17 Championships. Supyk was impressive, really the only New Zealand player I was impressed by, but it can be hard to gauge a player’s ceiling when you’ve only seen them against such a low level of competition. But now Supyk has played against tougher opponents in the New Zealand National League, the U-17 World Cup, and even a brief cameo in the Australia Cup. So I feel that I’m now in a better position to evaluate him.
Supyk’s greatest strength is in transition. He is quick and good at making runs off the shoulder of defenders to get in behind. He’s a reasonably good transition passer with the ability to pick the right pass when things are moving quickly. However, his execution of these passes is a little bit inconsistent. It’s natural that some of these high-risk/high-reward passes aren’t going to come off but there is a bit of tendency to over-hit passes. When playing for the Wellington Phoenix Reserves, in a two-striker formation, Supyk gets into wide areas and channels between opposing fullbacks and defenders more frequently. In this sort of role, his speed and movement serve him very well. Being played in this sort of role also allows him to start off-the-ball runs from different angles and locations make him hard to track for centre-backs. At the OFC U-17s, Supyk’s strength really stood out. However, against men and stronger youth opposition, he isn’t quite as dominant. He has a decently sized frame, so this is an aspect of his game that is likely to improve as he gets older, but I doubt he’ll ever be mainly known for his strength in physical battles. On-the-ball Supyk is not so great. His first touch is a bit bouncy and in general, he looks a bit uncoordinated with the ball at his feet. I think this might improve with time, just due to him growing and getting used to having an adult body. Supyk is not a particularly good dribbler but he is comfortable using both feet which redeems his on-the-ball ability to a certain extent. He has one move that he does a lot where he cuts the ball back onto his left foot and then cuts across the defender. This works often enough against New Zealand teams, though it remains to be seen if he can pull it off at a higher level.
Supyk, as it stands, is an excellent off-the-ball runner and not that much else. However, he is really good at off-the-ball running and I see room to grow in physical battles and on-the-ball. Supyk has not played very much senior football yet but in the little he has looked very impressive. I think his overall potential is quite high, though he’ll probably have to play a specific role. It will be interesting to see how many A-League minutes he can amass this season. An interesting tidbit is that Supyk has UK citizenship so it would be relatively easy for teams in England and Scotland to sign him. Prices on A-League players have been coming up lately but it’s still rare to see a player move for more than six figures. So Supyk could be a good cheap upside bet for clubs in the Scottish Premiership, English Championship, and perhaps even some Premier League teams. I do have to emphasise though that he would very much be a long-term project for teams of that size. He would have to play at a lower level or in U-23 football for at least a couple of years.
Target Scouting 