Bailey Brandtman is a 19-year-old Australian forward who plays for the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League. Brandtman can play a variety of forward positions but is usually on the wing or underneath the centre-forward. He has played for Australia at U-20 level.
Brandtman is tall and lean, standing 6’1 (188cm). It’s a slightly unusual build for an attacking midfielder. Brandtman doesn’t necessarily bowl players over but he is good at using his body to shield the ball. He does a lot of receiving in the half spaces where he can hold the ball up and distribute. I would like to see him be a little bit more direct from these positions as he often just retains possession. But he has shown the ability to make things happen from those half spaces as well. He is quite a slippery dribbler when he turns and starts running at defenders. His pace is pretty average but he can change direction quickly and he has a certain unpredictability that can be enough to beat defenders. He can also play some good through balls and balls over the top. The main problem, at this stage, is he doesn’t do that nearly consistently enough. The chances he does create for himself and others tend to be of the high danger variety but the volume of these chances is too low.
Brandtman’s off-the-ball movement seems to be above average. He’s generally making intelligent runs and getting into good positions, though this has only translated to one goal so far. He often starts from very deep positions so he’s not getting into those super high xG spots you would expect from a centre-forward. But he often pops up around the edge of the box. He does tend to get caught offside quite a bit. On the defensive side of things, he is very willing to track back but not a very sophisticated defender. He commits a fair amount of fouls when tracking back.
I think if Brandtman were a top-level prospect he would probably be generating a lot more shots at this point in his career and be a more nailed on A-League starter. But he’s a big player with a relatively high level of skill and I think that’s likely to be attractive to bigger teams. If he can start translating that skill into more offensive production I can see him playing in a decent European league outside the top 5.
Target Scouting 