Scouted | Luca Thomas

1 hour ago

8 min read

In the summer of 2024, Notts sold Macaulay Langstaff to Millwall. It was a few days before the deal had been announced, and after as well, where I started searching for potential replacements.

I had looked abroad, into non-league and in PL2 to find players. One player who I came across was Luca Thomas, then of Leeds United. In the previous season (2023/24), he had racked up a total of 8 goals and 7 assists from appearances in all competitions. From this, I included him on my second thread of strikers for Notts to potentially look at as a Langstaff replacement.

Thomas would go on to have two loan spells in 2024/25, firstly with York City (2 goals in 9 National League appearances) and later with Halifax (3 goals and 3 assists in 21 appearances). It was between these spells that he appeared in an Analysts Bar piece about striker I thought Notts should look to sign in January 2025. He has since appeared in all recruitment docs (Summer 2025, January 2026 and Summer 2026).

Analysts Bar piece on potential strikers: Notts County January Targets | Options within the Premier League and EFL

Luca joined Fylde in the summer of 2025 and scored 22 goals and provided 13 assists in The Coasters’ title winning campaign. He currently has 6 goals in 7 appearances in the National League this season. He has played as a winger and a striker during his career, providing goal contributions from both.

In my Analysts Bar piece, I showed evidence of his positional awareness, timely runs and ability to drop deep into pockets of space, to allow runners to get in behind. His positioning and reading of the game remain a huge asset. We see this in a number of his goals this season.

After a disrupted pre-season, Thomas comes on a sub in Fylde’s 5^th game. Despite the obvious poor defending, Thomas remains patient to get his first goal of the season. When the attack gets down the wing, he takes up the central position, getting goal side of the defender and approaches the penalty area.

Whilst Aaron Drewe’s ball across goes beyond him, he remains patient and stays central, waiting for the best time to strike. The ball is played back to him and he slams it into the roof of the net to make sure of the points for Fylde.

Match Highlights: 🎥Highlights | Solihull Moors vs AFC Fylde

In the game against Worthing, Thomas bags a brace playing in the central striker role and once again it’s all about his positioning and patience.

For the first goal, Fylde build up well and when the ball breaks for them down the wing just off the edge of the 18-yard box, Thomas is already making his run into the 6-yard box, taking up a prime goalscoring position. It’s this reading of the game and awareness which has seen him become so clinical.

When the ball is played across, he is one of two Fylde players in the 6-yard box, along with Greg Olley. Whilst the ball misses Olley, Thomas takes it under control and calmly rolls it into the net, despite the presence of Cory Adjetey-Brew and goalkeeper Taylor Seymour. What is impressive is the patience shown before getting his shot off. Despite only being a few yards out, he takes his time to get the ball under control, when other players may have rushed a shot off when presented with a chance like this.

Staying with the Worthing game, the 2^nd goal sees Fylde hit Worthing on the counter. Danny Mayor plays a lovely pass over to the wing where Harvey Broad receives it.

At this point, Luca Thomas is on the shoulder of the last defender and starts his run from just inside the Worthing half, getting in between the defenders.

From here, Thomas keeps his eyes on Harvey Broad, awaiting his pass, whilst momentarily glancing at Joel Colbran behind him. This slight glance is crucial to what happens when he receives the ball. He stays onside, but his first touch takes it away from Colbran so he is unable to make a challenge or dispossess him, making it easier for himself to then lift the ball over Seymour to make it 2-1.

Match highlights: ⏳ Coleman De-Graft scores LATE goal to secure a point | AFC Fylde 2-2 Worthing FC | Match Highlights

In Fylde’s next game against Yeovil, Thomas bags another brace in a 4-1 victory for The Coasters. This time we are just focusing on the first goal, where he times his run to perfection.

Fylde win the ball back just inside their own half where a first-time pass from Corey Whelan is played into the path of Millar Matthews-Lewis. Before Lewis has got the ball properly under control, Thomas is already on the move having sensed the potential for a goalscoring opportunity with so much space in front of him.

Once Matthews-Lewis has turned, Thomas has already spotted the space in which he needs to be in to form a goalscoring chance for himself. He takes up space between Yeovil defenders Joy Mukena and Jordan Norville-Williams and when the pass is played, he darts into the penalty area, beating Ben Radcliffe to the ball and calmly slotting underneath goalkeeper Jos Barker, once again showing his composure even when under pressure.

HIGHLIGHTS: YEOVIL TOWN 1-4 AFC FYLDE

Next, we dive into Luca’s assist pool. Last season he contributed 13 assists in the National League North, mainly from the right wing. We see several similarities with his goalscoring instincts when he plays up front. He has excellent patience, decision making and, despite being played on the wing, a desire to operate centrally, naturally cutting inside or operating in the half spaces and not hugging the touchline like a natural winger and more like a second striker or attacking midfielder.

Firstly, is his assist in Fylde’s 2-1 win over Kidderminster Harriers. With the score at 1-1, The Coasters start a counter attack and the ball is played to Thomas, who at this point, was the furthest Fylde player forward. His ball retention here is brilliant, waiting for reinforcements, whilst also taking short, sharp touches and getting past Joe Foulkes.

He picks out a pin point pass to find Jonathan Ustabasi who goes on to score. What’s impressive is that it takes just 4 touches for him to from his starting position to the pass. His first touch to take it under control, the second to cut inside, the third to take it away from Foulkes and past him and the fourth being the pass to send Ustabasi through on goal.

Highlights: AFC Fylde 2-1 Kidderminster Harriers

The next clip we look at is Thomas’ assist against King’s Lynn Town. In this game he grabs 2 assists in a 2-1 win. The first comes from pressing high and a low cross into the penalty area, however, it’s the second assist which we are interested in here.

The first part shows once again Thomas’ desire to play centrally as he sits on the shoulder of the last defender, where he is played through on goal by Tom Whelan. Despite being played on the wing in this game and for the majority of the season, he once again shows the instincts of a striker or second striker for that matter, as he charges through the centre of the King’s Lynn defence to bear down on goal.

The ball that is played to him deflects off of a King’s Lynn defender and here he makes the wrong choice of trying to lob Aaron Chapman, rather be placing it, like he would do against Yeovil.

However, his decision making after the save is spot on. Instead of once again trying to go for goal, he waits and plays the ball across to Ryan Colclough, who is waiting to tap the ball home with only the defender protecting the goal. This once again showcases his composure and patience in waiting to make the right decision to contribute to goalscoring opportunities and that he wasn’t fazed by his miss seconds earlier.

Highlights: King's Lynn Town 1-2 AFC Fylde

In Fylde’s 2-1 win over Hereford. Thomas gets another assist on the counter attack. It comes with Luca still in his own half, when he latches on to a loose ball. He then carries the ball to the edge of the Hereford half where he twice looks up for any runners ahead of him.

The only runner here, is striker Danny Ormerod who Thomas plays a wonderful diagonal pass to the other side of the pitch, which clears the Hereford defender. Ormerod plucks it out of the sky with a lovely first touch and goes on to make it 1-0.

It can be very easy to stall the counter attack in this situation due to only having one other player further forward at the time, but with Ormerod having only Hereford defender Michael Parker (who is goal side of Ormerod) and the keeper to beat (Matt Preston is also running back towards goal but is not marking anybody at the time), and with plenty of Hereford players committed up the pitch, Thomas sees the opportunity to play the ball to The Coasters’ top scorer for a potential goalscoring opportunity. The ball is pinpoint and is impressive considering Ormerod’s position behind Parker.

Highlights: AFC Fylde 2-1 Hereford - YouTube

The last clip we’ll look at is the 4^th goal in The Coasters’ demolition of Curzon Ashton. The goal starts all the way from a throwing inside the Fylde half, where the ball falls to Felipe Rodriguez-Gentile. Thomas receives the ball just inside his own half and shows his ball carrying capability to carry the ball all of the way to the edge of the 18-yard box.

Before he sets off on his run, he quickly glances to his side to see if he has support with him. Once he sees Jonathan Ustabasi, he begins carrying the ball at a quicker pace.

Thomas makes up plenty of yards, showing neat ball control and patience until there is a possibility of either a shooting opportunity or, the more sensible option, which he opts for, is to wait for one of Rodriguez-Gentile or Ustabasi to make themselves available for a pass.

His patience and decision making are again on full show, glancing to his right to see if Rodriguez or Ustabasi are available for a pass, and as they initially aren’t, he drives onwards into the half space as he waits for Rodriguez to make himself open for a pass, which Thomas delivers and Rodriguez himself eventually scores from.

Highlights: AFC Fylde 5-1 Curzon Ashton

Overall, I think Luca Thomas has a high ceiling and it has been great to see how he has progressed as a player since I first came across him in the summer of 2024, when searching for a potential Macaulay Langstaff replacement. In my opinion, I think he is already playing a level below what he is currently capable of, but I do think he needs to bulk up a bit, to cope with the physical demands required in the third tier and the EFL itself, especially as seen through these highlights, he is keen to operate centrally.

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