With Emma Hayes’ Olympic squad named, plus four alternates, I thought you know what would be neat, what if I dove into the StatsBomb machine to see how each player is performing this year. It’s slightly tricky with some, as the only data I have access to in Europe outside of England’s WSL is the Women’s Champions League, which are rather small data sets.
Still, even in those you can see strengths and weaknesses pop up, but direct comparisons become a bit moot as a result. Still, fourteen of the eighteen are playing in the NWSL, plus all four alternates. So there’s plenty to see and have fun with.
Below, I’m dropping every player’s StatsBomb 2.0 radar up to this point in the season. I’m sure you’ve seen these radars plenty, but if not, they’re neat little snapshots of how players are performing, and provide hints at their profile and overall form. The 2.0 radars include StatsBomb’s proprietary metric, On Ball Value (OBV). Basically think of these as buckets of metrics categorized within pass, dribble & carry, defensive action, shot, and goalkeeper metrics.
The gist is, how does this player’s shooting/passing/defending/dribbling & carrying/goalkeeping help their team score or prevent goals. The higher the number, the more effective the actions. It’s fairly neat. Let’s get onto it.
Goalkeepers
Alyssa Naeher
Chicago Red Stars
13.4 90s
For goalkeepers I’m including their shots faced maps too. It’s a good visual to see where goals come from against them, but also the top right corner is their goals saved above average (GSAA) number. This uses expected goals (xG) data, plus post-shot xG data, to determine how a keeper is performing against a baseline average.
Naeher’s .54 GSAA is not only lower than Murphy (2.01) and Campbell’s (3.26), but also Laurel Ivory (.55) and Mandy Haught (3.53). This doesn’t mean Haught is a better goalkeeper than everyone Hayes called up (she also leads all keepers in positioning errors per 90, with 2.28).
Casey Murphy
North Carolina Courage
16.0 90s
Murphy’s biggest strengths have been shot stopping, avoiding positional errors, and an ability to ping passes to players in space (low pass into danger%).
Where Murphy struggles will always vex me, and vex me greatly. Her Claims - CCAA% (Claimable Collection Attempts over Average) — basically how likely a keeper is to attempt to claim a ‘claimable’ pass or cross — is quite low. She’s 6’ tall, claiming crosses alone should bump that number up significantly, and yet.
Defenders
Tierna Davidson, CB
NJ/NY Gotham FC
8.0 90s
Emily Fox, RB
Arsenal
9.6 90s
Small’ish sample size, but no wonder Arsenal supporters came up with a song for Fox immediately. However, seven of her starts came from teams that finished the season in the bottom half of the table. Data is fun, context is better!
Naomi Girma, CB
San Diego Wave
10.4 90s
Gotdamn.
Casey Krueger, RB/LB
Washington Spirit
13.6 90s
Additional context: The Washington Spirit have interestingly become more of a counterattacking team than anything else. They’re doing it very well, but it’s also leading to some weird stats that aren’t truly representative of how good Krueger has been, nor how capable she is in possession.
Jenna Nighswonger, LB
NJ/NY Gotham FC
14.6 90s
Heavens.
Emily Sonnett, CB
NJ/NY Gotham FC
15.6 90s (11.4, CB)
Whenever I see weird shards jutting out like this it’s usually because there’s a random collection of stats that’s making it difficult to fit onto a preset radar. This is the case with Sonnett, because while she’s played more CB than anything else so far (largely due to teammate injuries), Juan Carlos Amoros has also played her at RB, CDM, CM and even once at CAM, which didn’t last long but was real silly.
Midfielders
Korbin Albert, CDM/CM
PSG
6.5 90s (UWCL only)
Impressive, but sample size matters and this is only 6.5 90s. Also looking deeper, her main job was defending, but other aspects of midfielding — passing, progressing, press resistance — were lacking or nonexistent. This is probably why Albert lost her starting spot to Jackie Groenen late in the season.
Sam Coffey, CDM
Portland Thorns
13.2 90s
Sam Coffey: Good. I’d also say, necessary.
Lindsey Horan, CM
Lyon
9.0 90s (UWCL only)
I call this the Lisa Simpson.
Rose Lavelle, CAM
NJ/NY Gotham FC
7.1 90s
Catarina Macario, CAM (striker template)
Chelsea
4.6 90s
This one obvs needs some explaining. Macario was working her way back onto the pitch after a lengthy ACL recovery and rehab, so Hayes often put her up top. Also, with Sam Kerr and Mia Fishel out with torn ACLs, and Mayra Ramirez getting MMA’d every match, it was where she was needed most.
Of course the sample size caveat applies here, but even through managed minutes and limited appearances we saw flashes of the Cat we knew.
Forwards
Crystal Dunn, RW
NJ/NY Gotham FC
9.5 90s
Trinity Rodman, RW
Washington Spirit
13.5 90s
Useful.
Jaedyn Shaw, LW/CAM
San Diego Wave
9.8 90s
Sophia Smith, ST
Portland Thorns
13.4 90s
She be dribblin, she be shootin. If necessary, she also be assistin.
Mallory Swanson, LW
Chicago Red Stars
14.5 90s
Might gotta roll on the StatsBomb offices for this one. This is likely the result of the heavily defensive nature of Lorne Donaldson’s system, which doesn’t create multiple chances for Swanson and doesn’t yet have sustained patterns of play in possession that lead to attacks. Still, grab a pitchfork or anything dangerous when swung, we ride at dawn.
Alternates
Croix Bethune, CAM
Washington Spirit
14.5 90s
Not gonna lie, was confused about this one too. But it’s perhaps the same situation as Swanson where there’s not a lot of opportunity for sustained buildup. They’re both maximizing the chances they get, but data likes repetition and more numbers on which to feast.
Jane Campbell, GK
Houston Dash
16.2 90s
This is where I say I would not have made Jane Campbell an alternate, she should be in the 18. Whether that’s making the tough choice to pull the plug on the Naeheraissance, or bump Murphy to third choice, I don’t really care. On merit, Campbell deserved.
Hal Hershfelt, CDM/CM
Washington Spirit
15.7 90s
More of the Spirit’s interesting style of managing games confusing the stat machine.
Lynn Williams, RW/ST
NJ/NY Gotham FC
6.3 90s
Very small sample size but Lynn Mf’n Williams.
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