Will Dobson is an 18-year-old attacking midfielder who plays for the Newcastle Jets in the A-League. Dobson played a handful of minutes last season but has started the current campaign as perhaps the Jets’ most dangerous attacking player. Surprisingly, Dobson has never played at youth level for Australia, but I have to imagine that will change before long.
Dobson is listed at 5’5″ (1.7 m) and is not particularly muscular. He is usually deployed as a winger for the Jets, but generally drifts inside into the half spaces. The main thing that makes Dobson exciting is his passing. Dobson is already extremely good at playing through balls in behind the opposition defence. As a result of this, Dobson creates a lot of high danger scoring chances for teammates. He is also quite good at finding overlapping fullbacks or wingers running into space. Dobson is good at making himself available to receive the ball in half spaces. However, this is undercut a little bit by an inconsistent first touch. He also attempts a lot of first-time flick passes, which he hasn’t been able to make work with very much consistency. Dobson is also decent at making runs in behind the opposition defence, which leads to a reasonable number of dangerous shots. Dobson is a decent enough ball carrier. He is a little bit faster than average, which allows him to drive the ball into space, and he is able to create a little bit of space for himself with feints. However, his 1v1 dribbling is not particularly strong. Part of this is that he is not very physically strong, and as a result, he can be knocked off the ball fairly easily.
Dobson’s defensive contributions are fairly limited. His pressing does little to disrupt opposition moves. That said, he is certainly willing to track back, and he does make some interventions from time to time. I would expect his defensive play to improve as he gains more professional experience and develops physically.
Dobson has a lot of areas for improvement. Despite this, he is a really strong chance creator at the A-League level already. This is doubly impressive, as the Newcastle Jets have not started the season well and look like one of the weaker teams in the league. Considering he only turned 18 in September, I think his potential is very high. If he gets stronger, which should come naturally with age, and develops some great ball-carrying ability, I think he could play in a top-5 league. Though that is probably several years away at this point.
Target Scouting 