Lukas Kelly-Heald is an 18-year-old left-back who plays for the Wellington Phoenix in the A-League. After impressing with the Wellington Phoenix Reserves in New Zealand’s domestic league, Kelly-Heald was signed to a first-team contract this season and quickly won the starting left-back spot. His physical profile and playing so much at a young age are strong signs that he can eventually step up to a higher level. He has 11 times for New Zealand at various youth levels.
As I alluded to earlier, the main appeal of Kelly-Heald is his physical profile. He is 6’5 and fast for a guy who is that tall. He takes a little while to get going, but Kelly-Heald’s long powerful strides make it hard to stop when he gets up to speed and allow him to catch up to players you would have thought had left him for dead. But, what about the actual football playing? Well, there are some things to like there as well. Kelly-Heald’s long legs can make him an effective tackler and he can reach to make blocks. There are certainly times where he is beaten but you can see the potential to become a really excellent 1v1 defender. Obviously, he is quite good in the air and capable of absolutely crushing smaller players (check out his headed assist against Adelaide from this month). But I think there’s still room to grow there. Despite his size, he is still only 18 and he is still quite slender and a bit uncoordinated.
Technically, Kelly-Heald is not elite but he does not lack skill. His first touch is a bit bouncy but he is quite good at playing balls over the top of the opposing defence. He plays quite a lot of progressive passes for a left-back. He also gets forward quite a lot from the left-back spot as Wellington’s narrow formation requires the fullbacks to provide the width. Kelly-Heald’s relatively high top speed helps him to cover that space and he is quite good at getting into good attacking areas. He has a decent left foot, often taking set pieces. However, he’s a bit lacking in dynamism in the attacking 3rd. His dribbling isn’t saying much and most of his deliveries are from the touchline rather than more dangerous spots. He wasn’t particularly productive in New Zealand domestic football either so it doesn’t seem super likely that this aspect of his game will improve but he’s still very young so it is possible.
Kelly-Heald’s physical profile will almost certainly lead to a team at a higher level taking a chance on him. For A-League players that seemingly always means Scotland. Kelly-Heald’s whole vibe screams “300 appearances for Hearts.” I think he could develop into a very good player for that sort of team but don’t think he quite has the juice to get beyond that.
Target Scouting 