Dylan Scicluna is a 20-year-old Maltese-Australian midfielder who plays for Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League. Scicluna was previously on the books for Wolverhampton Wanderers but didn’t rise above playing for their reserve team. Despite being born in Australia, Scicluna has played more frequently for Malta at the youth level with appearances for their U-19s and U-21s. However, he has also played in two friendlies for Australia’s U-20 team.
Scicluna is primarily a ball-winning midfielder. He is a truly fantastic tackler, winning possession cleanly constantly. He’s very strong, despite being listed as 5’7 (1.75M). He covers a lot of ground defensively, chasing players down, and using his strength and tackling ability to bully them off the ball. He’s also a high-percentage tackler, being dribbled past relatively infrequently for a player who’s taking a lot of risks to win the ball. Scicluna is generally well positioned which allows him to intercept passes and claim loose balls.
On the ball, Scicluna is not quite as adept. His passing is good enough to get by. He can pretty consistently poke the ball forward 10 yards or spread the ball out to the wings. However, he very rarely breaks lines. He does attempt balls over the top fairly often. He has decent accuracy but his teammates are often fighting for their lives to control his long-range passes. Generally, Western Sydney pushes him a little further forward in the build-up, giving him less on-the-ball responsibility, though occasionally it is him who drops between the centre-backs. But ball-carrying is Scicluna’s big weakness. He’s a very awkward dribbler and gets caught in possession frequently. He has very little, if any, final 3rd impact but that’s not what you would be interested in him for.
I am pretty confident that Scicluna’s defensive game can reach a top-5 league level. I am less confident his on the ball ability can reach that level. Still, I think he can reach a much higher level than the A-League. A small top-5 league team is possible but the next level down is more likely.
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