Zane Schreiber is a 19-year-old Australian midfielder who plays for Melbourne City in the A-League. Schreiber is a product of Sydney F.C.’s development system but broke through at the A-League level after a move to Melbourne City. Schreiber has played for Australia at U-18 and U-20 level.
Schreiber is a defensive midfielder who plays at the base of a midfield three for Melbourne City. Schreiber is on the small side, being listed as 5’7 (1.76M). Schreiber doesn’t really have a major standout skill but he does everything you would want out of a defensive midfielder at least somewhat well. Schreiber is more of a holding midfielder than a pure ball-winner. He’s not going to put up 3 tackles per game but he isn’t dribbled past very frequently when the ball comes into his zone. He’s quite scrappy, throwing himself around a lot despite his small stature. He’s very good at going to ground to win the ball. When he is caught out of position he’s good at knowing when to commit a tactical foul.
With the ball, Schreiber is very ball-secure. He is not the most progressive passer but he almost never gives the ball away in his own half. He can push the ball forward over short distances fairly consistently but doesn’t do a lot of line-breaking. When he attempts longer range passes his accuracy is not very good. A lot of his attempted long balls fly over a teammate’s head and go out of play. Schreiber does not have very much final 3rd impact but he does fire off one or two long-range shots per game. Often these shots are defensive actions, i.e. when the opposition has cleared the initial phase of a set piece and the shot acts as a way to negate any possible counterattack. Over the course of a season, a couple of those shots will go in.
Schrieber is not a flashy player, his highlight video would not be very exciting. But he’s starting every game at 19 and does everything you would want a defensive midfielder to do at an adequate level. I think that’s a positive indicator that by the time he’s 22 or 23, he’ll be ready to take a step up to a decent non-top 5 European league.
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