Dean Bosnjak is a 19-year-old forward who plays for Macarthur F.C in the A-League. Bosnjak started appearing in senior games last season and has broken through as a regular this season. Bosnjak was part of the Australia U-20 team that won last year’s U-20 Asian Cup. He was on Australia’s U-20 World Cup squad but did not make an appearance.
Bosnjak is a tall and thin player, standing around 6′ (1.82 m). Bosnjak generally plays underneath a more traditional centre-forward for Macarthur, though his listed position varies quite a bit. Bosnjak’s main thing is receiving the ball between the opposition midfield and defensive lines, and turning to run with the ball into space. Bosnjak is very good at getting open in space with his strong off-ball movement. His first touch is also very strong, which allows him to get things moving quickly after he receives the ball. However, he has a few drawbacks that have limited his final 3rd impact to date. Despite being tall, Bosnjak is not particularly strong, and he is knocked off the ball quite easily. Although he is good at running with the ball in space, he isn’t a particularly strong 1v1 dribbler. His execution of various actions, such as shooting, passing, dribbling, and so forth, is also a little bit slow. So, it is very common to see Bosnjak get in a good spot but fail to capitalise. But, considering he has just over 1000 pro minutes under his belt, I think there is reason to believe that the speed of his execution will improve as he gains more experience. His off-ball movement does allow him to get shots from high danger areas. However, his slowness on the ball means that when he gets the ball in a good spot but still has work to do, he often ends up losing the ball or having his shot blocked. As a result, the shots he takes tend to be very high danger, as they are mostly one-touch finishes from in close. But the volume of his shots is very low. Despite his height, Bosnjak is not much of an aerial threat. Again, I would expect this to improve with more experience and naturally getting stronger as he enters his 20s.
Bosnjak is very active defensively for somebody who is primarily an attacker. It is not uncommon to see him defending on the edge of his own penalty area. Being tall gives him a long reach, and he can get his foot on the ball pretty frequently. The strength-related troubles mentioned earlier obviously limit him a bit; again, I would expect this to improve over time.
Dean Bosnjak is not yet a top A-League player, but I think it is very likely he will become one. He gets in the right spots, and once he can execute his actions a little bit quicker, he should be a very dangerous attacking player. I also think that as he fills out a bit, he should become more difficult to handle physically. The fact that he usually plays off a more traditional centre-forward, but is tall, also creates some interesting potential for physical mismatches against smaller defensive midfielders or fullbacks. He will probably require at least another year in the A-League, but I could see him reaching a higher level eventually. A lot of Australian players end up in Scotland, so that could be an option. The name “Bosnjak” also suggests some kind of Balkan ancestry, so perhaps he can make use of that (Transfermarkt only lists him as having Australian citizenship).
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