Dylan Leonard is a 17-year-old Australian centre-back who plays for Western United in the A-League. He has started every A-league match he has been available for this season. Leonard has played for Australia at the U-19 level. He’s very undersized for a centre-back, which might lead to some roadblocks in his career, but he has a lot of positive traits that aren’t very common.
Leonard is 5’9 (1.81M) and he sometimes looks comically small against bigger strikers in the A-League. He’s actually not that bad in the air but you can tell that every aerial duel requires a lot more physical exertion for him than it does for his opponents. Leonard is generally quite an aggressive defender and sometimes that leads to getting caught out of position. He’s generally fine at 1v1 defending but not an elite defender at the A-league level at this point. I would expect his 1v1 defending and defensive decision-making to improve as he gets more experience. One thing he definitely does have going for him on the defensive side of things is that he is quite fast. He can catch up to runners and cover a lot of space when balls are played in behind.
What really makes Leonard attractive, at this stage, are his on-the-ball capabilities. He is left-footed and has a strong passing range. Western plays quite a direct style so he is often playing the ball long. But he can get a lot of distance and pace on his long-range passes. He Can play cross-field passes over long ranges to change the point of Western’s attack. He doesn’t break lines that often but this may be a tactical thing. He’s very rarely caught in possession. He’s good at quickly turning out of danger and knowing when to release the ball. His first touch is very strong and that puts him in good positions when he receives the ball under pressure. He also makes the odd foray into the final 3rd and can put in a dangerous cross from the left half-space.
Despite his size, Leonard has a goal and an assist from set piece situations so far this season and has been involved in some other high danger chances. These are usually not because he won an individual duel, they are because the opposition failed to track his run. So it will be interesting to see if he can continue to chip in offensively as the season progresses or if he has just gotten lucky so far.
Leonard is not necessarily that amazing right now. He certainly wouldn’t be in the A-League best XI. But how many left-footed, technically sound, 17-year-old centrebacks who start every game for their club are there in the world right now? Probably not that many. The question is if Leonard’s height will preclude him from playing as a centre-back at a higher level. But I think it could work, perhaps if he were on the left side of a back three or if he were playing for a team that was dominant in possession. With the caveat that it would have to be in the right circumstances, I think Leonard could play at a high level in Europe, Maybe not quite the top-5 leagues but the next level down seems very possible.
Target Scouting 