From expected goals to pass accuracy to distance covered, approximately six-hundred billion zillion data points are tracked during a match. Most of these numbers are divvied between basic counting stats, information for sports science and performance programs, and advanced analytics. All this data swirling about can make it difficult to get an accurate profile of a player, which is why I very much dig StatsBomb’s On Ball Value (OBV) metric.

OBV is measured separately among a variety of actions players make throughout a game. Categories tracked are Shots, Passing, Dribble & Carry, Defensive Action, and Goalkeeper. The best way to think about OBV is ‘how does a player’s interactions with the ball help their team score a goal, or increase their chance of conceding’ – yes, negative OBV exists. Oof.

So I thought well this is just super neat maybe I should review the 2023 NWSL season by position group to discover the players with the highest total OBV per 90 and see which actions allowed them to have the biggest positive impact on games. So I did.

In this series I’ll go position by position to spotlight the top-5 players in total OBV per 90 for the 2023 NWSL season. Then we’ll dive in even further to see what exactly made each so valuable to their team. Some are obvious, but there are def surprises.

Up first, those chaotic goal-hating terrors: The Goalkeepers!

Here are the parameters: Since 2023 was a World Cup year I’m going to toggle the minimum number of minutes between 1200 and 1500 for some groups since a few key players missed chunks of time. Still, 1200 minutes is ~13 games, and 1500 is ~16.5, so while there’s certainly more data, the numbers don’t get massively influenced, particularly when looking at the top performers.

For goalkeepers though, I’m keeping the minutes limit at 1500. Because even if they missed some games, it’s not like they were ever subbed out (bar injury), so it made sense to set the minutes limit quite high. Anyway, onto it.

Alright I won’t lie to y’all I was super not expecting this. Not just because Moorhouse conceded 22 goals in 19 regular season starts, but her save percentage was 78.3 and my brain recalls some pretty sloppy goals being conceded. Remember when I promised surprises? Here we are already.

But this is the cool thing about OBV. Moorhouse was actually a pretty good shot stopper by the numbers. Two of the goals conceded as a starter were penalties, one was an own goal, and another wasn’t technically conceded by her (she picked up and early red card for a challenge outside the box).

With all that her goals conceded already drops to 18. Looking at post-shot expected goals (PSxG), she posted +3.0 goals saved above average, which is a measurement of how many goals a keeper saves (positive number) or concedes (negative number) versus expectation based on post-shot xG faced.

However, of Moorhouse’s .12 OBV, only .02 was her actual goalkeeping. The reason why I took you on this journey was to talk about other ways she was impactful to the Pride, and maybe why they were so willing to live with the occasional own goal or early red card.

Moorhouse’s Passing plus Dribble & Carry OBV were both at .06, meaning she was quite valuable to the Pride in possession. The mathematically astute of you will notice that math don’t math, but that’s because she also had a -.01 in Defensive Activity OBV, which probably stems from her flying out of the box and not making the best decisions while out there.

Still, through OBV we can see Moorhouse’s value to the Pride extended far beyond her sparing them three goals above average, and likely had a lot to do with her comfort on the ball.

Murphy beats out Moorhouse, but just barely. In fact, without Moorhouse’s negative Defensive Activity number they’d be tied, or Moorhouse would have a slight edge. Murphy’s total OBV per 90 number comes from a combination of .03 Goalkeeper OBV, .03 Pass OBV, and .06 Dribble & Carry OBV.

The big dribble and carry number makes sense given the way North Carolina play. Most possession teams park the ball with their keeper for a bit and take their time in buildup, and the Courage were no different. Murphy wasn’t the most adventurous keeper, but executed 481 carries without losing the ball once. She didn’t do much wandering away form the box, but still provided a safe space to park the ball, and for sequences to begin. If you wanted to know what 481 carries looks like in a graph, I am so glad you asked.

Among keepers, Murphy also had the second highest number of passes attempted (577), a success rate of 73.6%, the second lowest long ball percentage (39%), and second highest xG buildup per 90 (a measurement that attributes the xG value of a shot to players involved in the buildup). In terms of total passes attempted, Murphy was only beaten by Kailen Sheridan who literally attempted 315 additional passes and registered the highest Pass OBV (.14) of the 2023 season (but with a Goalkeeper OBV of -.08, oof).

Anyway, back to Murphy. Her ability to keep the ball at her feet and move it forward helped North Carolina be able to push players forward and compact space, allowing the quick, short passing a high possession style needs.

Now we’re getting into the real shot stoppers, .16 of Lund’s total .25 OBV per 90 is her Goalkeeper OBV. Lund’s goals saved above average chart is wild. It reveals that she saved over seven(!) goals based on the post-shot expected goal (PSxG) value of shots faced. Keep in mind post-shot expected goals takes into account a number of factors (proximity, direction, shot type, angle, etc) to determine the probability of each shot becoming a goal.

Lund bossed it.

In addition, she also posted a point higher Dribble & Carry number (.07) than Murphy’s .06, and had a Passing OBV of .03. Though Rahsing’s style of play wasn’t anything like North Carolina’s, the reliance on Lund to take space and play shorter, safer passes was similar, she just so happened to be a more outrageous shot stopper in the process.

Before her super unfortunate injury Abby Smith was absolutely incredible. Given Gotham’s problems at goalkeeper the year prior, it was quite obvious that an upgrade at the position would be the quickest way to turn around their 2022 results. Smith was an upgrade, and then some.

Smith posted a .19 Goalkeeper OBV, .08 Pass OBV, and .06 Dribble & Carry OBV. Shot stopping was clearly the biggest chunk of Smith’s total OBV, but the graph above tells an even deeper story.

Given the injury, the total number of shots faced is substantially lower in terms of pure counting stats. But the size of her bubble in the graph reveals that a large portion of the shots she faced were on target, and it being bright red tells us she stopped a very high percentage of those on-target shots.

If you’re wondering why Smith’s red bubble is floating far to the right and all alone, it’s because she was also the most aggressive keeper in the league. The X-Axis is set to measure Goalkeeper Aggressive Distance, which StatsBomb defines as ‘an average value of how far from the goal the goalkeeper is coming forward to perform defensive actions’. Basically, Abby Smith was so extremely serious about that sweeper keeper life. That she was charging out to defend while still stopping a high percentage of shots is awesome, and makes her quite a unique keeper in this league.

Campbell posted the same Passing and Dribble & Carry OBV numbers as Smith, but creates separation from literally everybody in her Goalkeeper OBV of .24 per 90. Katie Lund absolutely went off as a shot stopper, but Jane Campbell went even off-erer.

That’s right, that’s damn near 8.5 would-be goals that didn’t become goals because Jane Campbell decided they wouldn’t. If you were wondering why Campbell’s name popped back up when the USWNT dropped its Gold Cup roster earlier this week, this is probably why.

This is kind of a wild graphic. Like most keepers, the corners were most effective against Campbell, but check out the space that would be to her left. Only one penalty and four shots became goals, while thirteen shots within the frame of the goal were saved. The right is a bit more balanced, but still solid (though if you were trying to score on Campbell might I suggest low and to her right lol but don’t tell anyone until after the Gold Cup tysm).

Usually when a goalkeeper has an exceptional shot stopping season and concedes a ridiculously low number of goals (like Campbell conceding just 15 in over 2200 minutes played), a lot of credit can be given to the defense. While Sam Laity’s Houston Dash were somehow boring – which shouldn’t have ever been possible given the attacking talent – on the surface their low goals against suggests his focus was on defense, and that they were successful in that regard.

Lol NOPE! That lower left quadrant is the bad place. It houses teams that allowed a high volume of shots while also averaging a high xG (expected goals) number per shot, per 90. In 2023 the Dash conceded 14.1 shots per 90 and .10 xG per shot, ranking them 10th out of 12 teams in each category. Basically folks were getting into good shooting areas and shooting all over Houston, and Campbell was the only reason they conceded fewer goals than San Diego Wavé, who won the NWSL Shield.

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