Players That Will Help You Fall In Love With The Women's Game

Women's football doesn't get the respect that it deserves. Some of the skill and talent on display in the Women's Super League alone is much more entertaining than some of the teams in the bottom half of the Premier League. The WSL is arguably the biggest league in women's football, attracting some of the world's best talent, with Pernille Harder and Tobin Heath just two big names to join the league in the past year. Now whilst I'm not an expert on women's football, here's three players that have certainly caught my eye whenever I've caught a WSL match.

Vivianne Miedema

Being the first person to reach 50 goals in Women's Super League history is no mean feat, but reaching that tally whilst maintaining a rate of a goal per game is, for the lack of a better word, insane. Vivianne Miedema is, quite frankly, an elite forward. Across her WSL career, the Dutch international has averaged 1.41 goal involvements per 90 mins, becoming the first person to score 15 or more goals in consecutive seasons, including a record breaking 22 goal season in 18/19 that fired Arsenal to their third WSL title, and won Miedema the PFA Player of the Year Award. This season she's already notched up 14 goals and 4 assists in 15 appearances, sitting top of the goalscoring charts at the time of writing. What makes Miedema stand out above other forwards is that she is consistently outperforming her expected goals numbers, showing how clinical she is, scoring at a rate of approximately 0.25 goals higher than her expected goals across each of the past 3 seasons. This season the Arsenal striker is standing at 0.78 xG per 90. For context, in the Premier League, the top 3 players for non-penalty xG per 90 to have played over 500 minutes are Josh Maja (0.63), Michail Antonio (0.55) and Gareth Bale (0.54). Only Chelsea's Sam Kerr, on 0.94, is putting up a higher value than Miedema, but the Australian is scoring at her expected rate. In Europe, Miedema has been even more electric. In the 2019/20 campaign, she finished as top scorer, on 10 goals, despite Arsenal being knocked out in the quarter-finals, meaning she played just 5 games.

Miedema is also killing it on the international stage too. In 2019, she became the Netherlands' all time record goalscorer aged just 22 years old. Now 24 years old, she has 71 goals in 93 appearances, a rate of 0.77 goals per game, across a senior international career spanning almost 8 years. This makes Miedema the most prolific of all Dutch players, ahead of male counterparts such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, the legendary Johan Cruyff and the men's record goalscorer Robin van Persie, who notched up 50 goals. If she continues at this rate, Miedema will need just another 37 games to reach 100 international goals. Miedema's Netherlands career has also coincided with the most successful period in Dutch women's football history. The Netherlands finished as runners-up to the USA at the 2019 World Cup in France, and also emerged victorious on home soil at the 2017 Euros, where a 21 year old Miedema ended the tournament as runner-up for the golden boot on 4 goals. The Lionesses will be hoping Miedema will still be firing on all cylinders in 2023 and lead them one step closer to World Cup glory. That said, Vivienne Miedema is clearly a world-class talent that shouldn't be taken for granted, and she is sure to remain with the elite for years to come. We may even be witnessing the greatest of all time...

Fran Kirby

I have nothing but the biggest respect for Fran Kirby. To consistently make comeback after comeback after multiple major setbacks throughout her career is nothing short of remarkable. The most recent 'setback' (diagnosis of pericarditis) suggested that the Chelsea forward would never grace a football pitch again, but after almost 10 months out of the game, Kirby has exploded once more. Across 13 WSL appearances so far this season, Kirby has 11 goals and 6 assists, meaning she's averaged a goal involvement every 57 mins that she's played. This makes 2020/21 Kirby's most prolific season yet, smashing PFA Player of the Year Award-winning season of 2017/18 where she grabbed 8 goals and 6 assists in 17 appearances. This is helped by her outperforming her xG this season by a massive 5.7, which translates to 0.53 per 90 mins*. In the reformatted 20/21 Women's Champions League, Kirby has also managed 3 goals and an assist in 4 games where a brace against Benfica saw her overtake Eni Aluko to become Chelsea's all-time record goalscorer. Able to play anywhere across the frontline, Kirby's off the ball movement is magical watch, regularly making use of her pace and drifting off her marker to find useful pockets of space. A great example of this is her third goal in a 5-0 rout against her former club, Reading, from back in January. Kirby has also forged a formidable partnership up front with Sam Kerr, with the duo combining for 7 goals and accounting for 49% of Chelsea's goals this season.

However, Kirby is not just a goalscorer - she's a workhorse. As part of Chelsea's high press, Kirby makes 21.6 pressures per 90. For context, Mason Mount and Kalvin Phillips, both known for hustling about in midfield, make 20.9 and 20.4 pressures per 90 in the Premier League. It's presumably because of her workrate that Phil Neville asked Kirby to play a deeper role for England at the 2019. As a result, England never truly saw her at her best in France, where notched just a solitary assist. Despite this, Kirby still has 13 goals in 45 appearances for her country. Had it not been for injury, Kirby might have been able to grab more international goals and cement herself as an England great. There's no doubt that, based on her current electric form, she'll be one of the lucky 23 selected by Hege Riise to play for Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

*Unfortunately due to Kirby's injury issues over the past few seasons, it's unclear as to whether she consistently outperforms her xG, which has only really been implemented into women's football over the same period.

Lucy Bronze

Lucy Bronze epitomises the rise of the modern day full back. The role of a full back has only surged in importance within the past decade, moving from more defensively minded players such as a Gary Neville to the attacking powerhouses of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joao Cancelo. Though the "classic" fullback still exists and rightly receives the praise for their talents (e.g. Aaron Wan-Bissaka), few of them would be considered as the best player in their respective league. The likes of TAA, at points over the previous few seasons, have been considered the best player in the league. Lucy Bronze has gone one step further - she's one of the best players in the world. During her time at Lyon, Bronze picked up a hattrick of Champions League titles and won all but one of the available domestic trophies available. The right-back is the only player to the win the PFA Player of the Year Award twice (2013/14 and 2016/17). Back in 2019, Bronze finished runner-up to Megan Rapinoe in the Ballon d'Or Féminin, and then followed it up in 2020 by winning the Best FIFA Women's Player. But what makes Bronze deserving of all these accolades and one of the best players in the world?

Whilst in-detail defensive stats aren't available prior to this season for Bronze's career due to her 3 year stint at Lyon, her performance this season should be able to give a good baseline for her talent. Bronze excels when going forward down the right flank. This season in the WSL, she's grabbed 2 goals and 4 assists in 14 appearances, averaging a goal involvement nearly every other game. This is double her expected goal involvements per 90 of 0.25, which is very similar to the likes of Andy Robertson, Jordi Alba and Trent Alexander-Arnold in their respective domestic leagues. The Manchester City full-back is also the lead leader for progressive passes on 104, averaging 8.06 per 90. For context, of players to play more than 500 mins in the Premier League, only Liverpool's Alexander-Arnold and Thiago better Bronze's per 90 figure. Bronze is also dominant in the air, registering 2.86 aerial wins per 90, which puts her in the top 10 in the WSL, and, in a possession heavy side (64.8%), she still averages 3.56 tackles and interceptions per 90. It's these sort of numbers that made Lyon, arguably the titan in European women's football, grab Bronze's signature back in 2017.

These numbers also translate across into Bronze's international career.. Bronze was one of the standout players at both the 2015 (where she was named in the team of the tournament) and the 2019 World Cups, ending the latter tournament with a goal and 2 assists. Her performances in France won her the Silver Ball (runner-up for standout player at the tournament). As with her domestic form, Bronze also averaged 0.25 expected goal involvements per 90 at the World Cup, suggesting she's a constant threat from full-back, which compliments well with Alex Greenwood on the left flank, who is seen as more of a defensive full-back. If you're not convinced of her quality, take the time to sit and watch Lucy Bronze for yourself. Even though she's a right-back, there's no doubting that she is one of the greatest players in the world right now.

Stats from fbref.com.