Rokas Pukstas is a 19-year-old midfielder from the United States. He has also a Lithuanian nationality through his parents, who are both from the Baltic country. The 14-time USA U20 national player plays for Hajduk Split in the Croatian HNL. He came to Croatia from the academy of FC Barcelona. Pukstas is around 180 centimeters and has a slight mesomorphic body build. He prefers using his right foot, but he often uses his weaker left foot for passes or while dribbling. Pukstas is a box-to-box type of central midfielder but is more offensive minded than defensively.
Pukstas isn’t the greatest strength wise. But he still performs well in them, even if he lacks some strength. His movement in ground duels is good, which helps him to intercept the ball from an opponent or shield the ball away. He performs well in aerial duels too, as his jumping reach is pretty high, and his heading abilities are really good as well. Most of his goals that he scored this season were headers! His pace and acceleration are quite decent, nothing special. He can turn quickly though. Pukstas often jogs in transition, and he rarely sprints to be back in a particular position in time. He scans the pitch quickly when defending and when he’s in possession of the ball. He isn’t really talkative on the pitch. Pukstas likes to roam in the space. He can sometimes be found on both wings on the pitch but is of course mostly centrally positioned.
Offensively, Pukstas has a lot to offer. His short passing is good, his passes can create good opportunities in front of the goal and are pretty accurate. But occasionally he can give a couple of dodgy passes who get intercepted or passes who aren’t accurate at all. He sometimes tries to be too quick with the ball and ‘tries to get rid of it’. He keeps the ball rather short to himself and can dribble past opponents quite well. He positions himself well on the pitch, definitely during crosses and set pieces that end up in a cross. As I’ve said earlier, he’s good in the air so it what helps him. He also occasionally makes good runs and creates space for himself to get the ball. Some parts of his offensive game aren’t that good though. His shooting ability isn’t really well, as his shots aren’t very good. They’re often not finished well, which ends up in missing good opportunities in front of the goal. His first touch while could be improved as well, as the ball can bounce too far of his foot or is just controlled badly.
Pukstas isn’t bad in defense but isn’t really great as well. He doesn’t do a lot in that part, even though is quite a box-to-box midfielder. But even though, he can tackle his opponents quite well. Has a good timing for his slidings or standing tackles. As said earlier, his duels are pretty good as well. Pukstas drops back often, but he’s rarely deep in the defensive box as he’s in the offensive one. But overall, it’s not bad, but it could definitely be improved. Hajduk is also one of the better teams in the league, so they don’t need to defend that often.
Overall, Pukstas is deserving the hype that he has been receiving the last couple of months. He’s a great talented player, who could be one of the important pieces of the US National Team for the upcoming years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would leave Croatia this summer, but I think he isn’t really ready for a top 5 league yet. He would be an ideal fit for the good teams in the Eredivisie or Liga NOS in my opinion.
Target Scouting 