Dylan Klaassen-Thomas is a 20-year-old striker who plays for West Torrens Birkalla in NPL South Australia. Information about Klaasson-Thomas is thin on the ground but he seems to have come through the system of A-League side Adelaide United and joined WT Birkalla after not earning a first team contract with them. Based on the numbers he put up in 2025 and my viewings, I think professional clubs should be interested in him.
I would estimate Klaassen-Thomas is around 6’1/1.83M with a slim build. He frequently drops deep to link up with teammates. Klaassen-Thomas is quite effective at playing balls into the channel for wingers to run on to and holding the ball up to bring teammates into play. That said, he also loses the ball quite a lot. He is almost always looking to play a first time pass in behind when he drops to receive the ball which works great when he pulls it off but also leads to a lot of turnovers. When he isn’t playing the ball first time he often goes too far in the other direction, dwelling on the ball too long and losing possession. Dylan-Klaassen is a decent dribbler with above average technical skill compared to other NPL players. But he isn’t so good that he is going to be dribbling through three defenders by himself. His height sometimes lets him hold onto the ball for a little while in these situations but he is still not particularly ball secure. I wouldn’t say Klaassen-Thomas stands out as being particularly quick but is very good at getting off the shoulder of defenders and making runs into channels. From there he is quite good at pulling off cutbacks to create high danger chances for teammates. However, in the box as on the rest of the field, he is held back a little bit by inefficiency and losing the ball often. Klaassen-Thomas’ shot output is a little bit low for a striker looking to take a step up from this level. A major reason for this, in my view, is that he is often a little bit slow to get back into the box after dropping deeper to connect with teammates. His frequent loss of possession is also a factor. That said, he still has some positive effect in the box. He is good at using his size to bully defenders and create separation. He is not necessarily that dangerous in the air but he is good at pushing defenders off of him and getting shots away.
Defensively Klaassen-Thomas doesn’t stand out as particularly strong. He dutifully does his defensive running when his team does not have possession but it’s not that often you see him win the ball back personally or force a turnover of any kind. His height, in theory, could make him a help when defending set-pieces but I didn’t see very much of that in practice.
Klaassen-Thomas is quite raw but, at the end of the day, he is big, reasonably skilled, and creates high quality chances for himself and others. This, combined with his age, is a good combination for taking a step to a higher level. No A-League team picked him up ahead of the 25/26 season, though I think he could be a solid back-up at that level now and a very good player at that level in the longer term.
Target Scouting 