In a recent interview with The Athletic, Everton Women head coach Brian Sørensen spoke about several topics surrounding his time at the club so far, including his preferred style of play, how he and Everton felt that they were the right fit for each other and his hopes for the future of the team.
Also mentioned was his recruitment strategy, and his recognition that Everton were not in the WSL’s traditional top four and therefore couldn’t match them in the market when it came to attracting star names. Therefore, he said, they need to be clever when looking for new players to add to the squad, with them needing to look at some of the lower leagues in the European pyramid to find as-yet-undiscovered talents who will add the right qualities but not break the budget.
Whilst last summer, he had to make a significant number of new additions in order to build a squad that could implement his ideas, this summer is likely to be a lot quieter, with him focusing on replacing the loan players who will depart and adding strength in depth where they are still a bit light.
When looking at their overall squad list, two positions that will need to be strengthened are the right-sided forward, due to the loans of Jess Park and Aggie Beever-Jones from Manchester City Women and Chelsea Women respectively ending, and centre-forward, where some competition for Netherlands striker Katja Snoeijs might be required.
With that in mind, this tactical analysis will provide three potential players to target for those positions. To fit into that transfer strategy, each currently plies their trade outside of the top five European leagues and is between the ages of 18 and 22; they aren’t massive names and could potentially be signed for a reasonable transfer fee.
The players have all been identified as having similar characteristics to Park and Snoeijs, meaning that they fit into Sorensen’s tactics, and, in order to make sure that there is a fair amount of data to compare them with, each has played at least 1,000 minutes during their most recent campaigns.
It is also worth mentioning that there may be complications associated with signing any of them, with UK work permit requirements potentially providing a significant obstacle. However, as the analysis will show, all six are worth fighting for if the club did decide to pursue them.
Right-sided forward
Beginning with the right-sided forward role, this is the area that Sørensen will need to focus on the most, with the departures of Park, who has been his first-choice player in that position this season, and Beever-Jones leaving him with a big gap to fill, whilst Arsenal Women’s recall of Brazil international Giovana Queiroz in January will not have helped matters.
The first potential signing is Ida Åkerlund, who currently plays for Sundsvalls in her native Sweden’s second tier, the Elitettan. Despite being just 20 years old, she has already played a good number of games for her club and has demonstrated a lot of the raw qualities needed to fit into Everton Women’s style of play, so she would not be a bad player for Sørensen to look at this summer.
As this chart shows, her key strengths are her ability to make dangerous passes, win balls in the air and make goal contributions, with those being her highest percentile ranks, and it is interesting that she has a higher value for expected goal contributions than actual goal contributions per game, so, in that sense, she perhaps underperforms slightly when in the final third.
Nevertheless, the fact that her percentile ranking for aerial duels won is high is good, because it means that whilst Everton play through the thirds primarily, they could change their tactical approach and go more directly if they needed to find alternative ways of creating opportunities.
One of Åkerlund’s key strengths is her ability to read the game and stay ahead of the ball, with it common to see her making these types of runs and opening up passing options behind opposing defensive lines. In this case, Nigerian striker Ebere Orji is looking to exploit Gamla Upsala’s high backline, and the only reason that she is able to pass as early as she does is that Åkerlund is there and has angled her body to get on the end of the ball as soon as it travels up the field.
This is not too different from what Park has done this season for Everton, with their opponents having to keep an eye on how high up the field they get whenever she is on it because she makes these same runs. The fact that Åkerlund is able to cut onto either foot when in open spaces is also important, because it demonstrates how she can beat opponents in different ways and both create and score, with her finding the net on five occasions in the 2022 campaign and contributing four assists.
It should be mentioned that she is not used to playing in a wing-back formation, with Sundsvalls mainly operating with a back four, but the fact that she has this pace and ability to make dangerous runs up the field should mean that adapting will not be too difficult.
The fact that her strength is making these runs and not getting involved in winning it in deeper areas is indicated by this graphic, with the mix of successful and unsuccessful dribbles throughout the 2022 campaign showing that it is not an area of the game that she is particularly comfortable with.
Therefore, if she were to move to Everton and secure a permit, there would need to be a structure put in place whereby she would not be relied upon to carry the ball forwards and would be used mainly as a target player, and, if that is something that Sørensen is willing to do next season, then she might not be a bad player to keep an eye on.
Having spent the entirety of his coaching career in his native Denmark, Sørensen will have a deep knowledge of its top flight, the Gjensidige Kvindeligaen, and one player in that league that he might want to keep an eye on is Brøndby’s Natalia Wróbel. The Pole is one year younger than Åkerlund but has been equally as important to her side, and Everton may get even more from signing her as she would add an aggressive presence that Åkerlund doesn’t have, with Wróbel much more inclined to drop back into deeper areas and look to get on the ball.
Looking at her key strengths, she ranks highest in percentile terms for goal contributions per game and also tends to have a lot of shots per game too, so she is a player that offers a significant threat in and around the goal area.
However, she would also contribute when they lose possession too, with her ranking highly for defensive duels won as well, and the fact that she doesn’t engage in many to start with makes that even more notable. Therefore, as an all-round player, she would offer a lot during games if she were to switch to Everton.
As mentioned, the Polish player is more likely to be seen in deeper areas than Åkerlund and to then drive up the field with the ball once she gets it, and the fact that she had a 65.2% success rate when moving the ball around on her own demonstrates how her team could rely on her to make territorial gains when she did have possession.
When she gets into the final third, her focus switches to linking up with teammates and breaking down opposing defences, and the fact that a one-two pass with Beatrice Persson here took her into the area beyond HB Køge’s lines shows firstly her intelligence to find teammates and then her ability to constantly be looking at the return pass, with her retaining her focus when in these advanced areas. It is worth noting that she did find the net on six occasions in 2022/23 and assisted three other goals, so she would offer the goal threat that Everton need from their right-sided forward.
However, she is undoubtedly at her best when dribbling the ball forwards, with this graphic indicating the number of penetrating carries that she made last season. The fact that a significant number of the 57 that she made in total started from a good distance outside the goal area demonstrates how far up the field she gets when searching for the ball.
Therefore, again, if Everton were looking to sign a wide forward who could get on the ball more often rather than simply acting as a target player, then she would be a good player to look at, with her having the right qualities but also time to develop and grow under Sørensen’s tutelage. Securing a permit for her would undoubtedly be worth the effort.
If he wanted a hybrid of the two, then a good player to look at would be 20-year-old Icelandic forward Birta Georgsdóttir. Currently featuring for Breiðablik in the Besta deild kvenna, Iceland’s top flight, she has become an integral player for them and someone that they really miss when she is not involved.
As this chart indicates, she ranks highly in many of the key characteristics that would be expected of attackers, such as shots, goal contributions, dribbles and touches in the opposition’s goal area, all per game. However, whilst that shows the fact that she offers a significant threat inside the final third, what is worth noting is that she also ranks highly for progressive passes per game, indicating that she is just as capable of dropping back and getting on the ball as she is at offering the final end product, and that is why she has the best of both Åkerlund and Wróbel in her game.
Adding to that versatility is her ability to win plenty of defensive duels and make interceptions (with the latter, she averaged 3.48 per game in 2022), and her presence is one major reason that Breiðablik’s opponents find it difficult to move the ball out of their own third when they regain it.
Therefore, Georgsdóttir is just as useful to have on the field when her team don’t have the ball as she is when they do, and, with Everton pressing from the front when they lose possession, this could make her an attractive transfer target for Sørensen.
In terms of positioning, she is perhaps the only player out of the three who would be best suited to Everton’s wing-back shape, with her demonstrating throughout the 2022 campaign that she is happy to engage in offensive duels (she won 53.4% of them in that season) and drive into the half-spaces, both of which are things that Park has done well during her time at the club.
By making those inverted runs, she draws defenders towards her and creates space behind for teammates to run into, and the fact that Ukraine midfielder Anna Petryk has done just that and set up a 2-v-1 situation against Stjarnan’s Sædis Rún Heiðarsdóttir means that Breiðablik now have the advantage, with them having different ways to move the ball into the middle and a better chance of creating a goalscoring opportunity.
It is also worth mentioning that, even though she is primarily used on the right and it is her favoured side, Georgsdóttir is capable of manipulating opponents and working with teammates on both sides of the pitch and, if needed, through the middle. Therefore, again, if she were to meet the legal requirements to move to Walton Hall Park, she would bring a lot of variety and tactical options to their play.
However, when engaging in these duels, she doesn’t only try to allow overlaps to happen, with her quite often continuing her run towards the goal line and then delivering the ball into the middle herself. This graphic indicates that, but what it also shows is the precision of her deliveries when she does get into those spaces, with her finding teammates in different areas of the field, and the fact that she picked up six assists in 2022 indicates that she is a dangerous player to give space to.
Again, it is clear that she can cross the ball into the middle from either side, indicating once again the options that she would give Everton in the final third, and there is little doubt that, should Sørensen be searching for a player who is capable of doing everything that Park has done, the Icelander would not be a bad player to look at.
Striker
The other position that was picked out at the start of this analysis for Everton Women to strengthen is at centre forward, with them currently having Dutch striker Katja Snoeijs as their main target player, following her move from Bordeaux Féminines last summer.
However, with her only finding the net on two occasions this season, despite being Bordeaux’s top scorer in the Division 1 Féminine last time out with 10 goals to her name, it is clear that bringing in an alternative to increase competition and enable added rotation might not be a bad move to make.
Liga MX Femenil is one of the most up-and-coming leagues in the global women’s game at the moment, with plenty of attention being given to it by major sides around Europe and in the USA and a great number of players moving to it as a way of testing themselves with new experiences.
One player that Everton might be interested in is Toluca Femenil’s Mariel Román, who is 20 years old and would give them a very physical presence at the top of the field. As this chart shows, the strongest area of her game is her passing and control of the ball, and the fact that she picked up a combined 76.2% passing accuracy during both the Apertura and ongoing Clausura (the two tournaments that make up the overall Mexican season) demonstrates the quality that she possesses when she has possession.
Where she perhaps doesn’t stand out as much is goal contributions and expected goal contributions, with her ranking around or below the median in those percentile rankings, and that might come as a surprise given that she is a striker. However, it is likely because she is constantly seen dropping back into deeper areas of the field during games in order to get on the ball, with her often acting as a midfielder for her side.
This is why she is not a serial goal scorer, with her only finding the net eight times so far, and if Everton were to sign her (and if she were granted a permit to join them), then they would need to ensure that they balanced her out with two wide forwards who are happy to stay in advanced positions and be the targets for the rest of the team to find, which is something that Sørensen would need to keep in mind if he did decide to make a move for her.
However, what Román lacks in goal threat she more than makes up for when it comes to creativity and physicality, with it already mentioned that she is a strong player who is capable of holding off opponents when in 1-v-1 battles and not conceding possession cheaply.
Her stance is one of the main reasons that she has been so difficult for opponents to compete with because the fact that she has her back to goal means that her aim here is not to shoot but to control the pass from Karen Becerril and then pass it back out to a teammate.
This is where the creativity in her play comes in though, because what Román actually does is to feign a pass but then make a quick turn and catch her opponent off guard, allowing her to take the ball behind them and get into a space from which she can shoot at goal. The way that she never doubted her capabilities indicates the confidence that she has in what she can do on the field.
When Toluca have been on the field, they’ve tended to deploy a 4-4-2 formation, but it has not been a rigid shape and there has been a great deal of fluidity to their play as the games have gone on, with players encouraged to rotate between roles and constantly keep opponents guessing.
Everton’s tactics have not been that dissimilar under Sørensen, with the Dane relying on his two wide forwards to provide a significant central threat and his wing-backs to offer support from the wide channels and deliver crosses into the middle, so, as with Toluca, he would favour a striker who likes to drop back and get on the ball in deeper areas.
However, it would seem a bit strange to sign a player who has a similar profile to his current striker, so there needs to be another reason for Sørensen to monitor a player if he is to add another central attacker to his side. In Román’s case, what makes her different is that physical edge to her game and ability to win individual battles and keep opponents at bay, and that might provide Everton with a different way of constructing their attacks and setting the team up, depending on who they are playing.
It does seem more likely though that he might target someone who provides a bigger goal threat than Snoeijs has done, but that would also fit the profile of being able to drop back when needed in order to get on the ball. If that is his thought process, then one potential signing for him to look at submitting legal paperwork for could be Evelyn Ijeh, who has just come off the back of a successful season for Växjö in her native Sweden, scoring 24 times to help them to promotion from the Elitettan to the Damallsvenskan (the Swedish top flight).
As this chart indicates, Ijeh ranks in the highest percentile band when it comes to shots and touches in the opposition’s penalty area per game, showing that she is someone who likes to play in advanced areas and cause problems for opponents, and the fact that she also ranks highly for aerial duels competed in indicates that she is strong in the air as well as when the ball travels in her direction across the ground.
Therefore, she would bring a lot of variety to Everton’s build-up play and would enable them to keep playing through the thirds, as their game plan has revolved around this season, but to also change and be more direct if they felt that there was a need to do so.
It could be argued that Román also offers that, but where Ijeh differs from the Mexican is that she is not as keen on physical battles and prefers getting into gaps between opposing lines and having time to control the ball before picking out a teammate. Here, she has done just that, with Räväsens affording her too much room and allowing her to send the ball into the path of her teammate, as the blue arrow shows.
The fact that she registered a 77.8% passing accuracy last season demonstrates that, when given time to find teammates, there is a lot of precision in her play, and that added to her obvious goal threat is why she might be a better option for Everton in the summer.
The thing that helps Ijeh to be so productive inside the final third is her ability to take up different positions depending on the opposition’s defensive shape, and it has been common to see her continually adjusting her speed and acceleration inside the final third and goal area in order to ensure that, when her teammates do look to pass to her, she has the right amount of time to pick her spot. This graphic indicates that detail to her game, with the green circles, showing areas from where she scored goals, spread out in different areas of the box.
Therefore, when looking at what Sørensen likes in a player and the tactical aspects that she would add to the squad, there is no doubt that she matches both, and having a player with that flexibility and awareness might help Everton to take their overall progression under the Dane to the next level in 2023/24.
The final player that this scout report will look at is Finnish forward Jenni Kantanen, who currently plays for Tampere-based Ilves, in her home country’s top flight, the Kansallinen Liiga. The 21-year-old is much more of an all-round player when it comes to what she brings to her side, with her capable of offering a goal threat but also supporting her side in all three thirds, and so perhaps refining and simplifying her game is where Sørensen could improve her and help her to develop.
As with Román and Ijeh, she has a strong passing ability, but also a tendency to dribble the ball forward whenever she receives it, which is something that the other two don’t have. It is that that enables her to pose the same goal threat as them despite getting into even deeper areas, and having that energy and ability to affect the game in lots of different ways is one reason that she would be a good player for Everton to look at.
When looking at her overall game, there is no doubt that she has the raw abilities required to be a top player, and one of those that really stands out is her timing when making runs into dangerous areas. Here, Åland United are looking to get back into their goal area, with Ilves set to move the ball into the middle, but Kantanen doesn’t start to run forward until the ball has been released by her teammates.
As a result, the defenders are unable to close her down, and the fact that this was the young striker’s only goal of the season indicates that, when she gets the finer details of her play correct, she is a handful for opponents and does offer the potency required to lead the line.
However, in order to ensure that she scores more goals per season, she will need to work on staying in specific areas of the field and only doing a few things per game, and this is something that Sørensen will see as a project, which always interests him when it comes to signing new players.
Therefore, if she were to move to Everton this summer, she would be a player that would need to be given time to settle into her new surroundings, and it would be likely that she would be given some specific areas to work on in her initial weeks before getting game time once Sørensen felt that she was ready.
It is unlikely that she would have much of an impact to start with, should she be allowed to join the club by the UK Home Office, but the potential is there, and that is what might catch Sørensen’s attention as he looks to add to his squad this summer.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked at two areas of the Everton Women team that head coach Brian Sørensen might need to add to in the summer, as well as listing a few players that would fit into his current recruitment model and who would suit his tactics.
As mentioned, Everton are not expected to be busy this summer, with them bringing in a lot of players last summer and putting together a well-rounded squad that has demonstrated its ability to implement Sørensen’s ideas.
However, they will also know that no team can afford to sit still, with there always being something that can be adjusted or fine-tuned during the close season. If they want to compete with those above them and break into the WSL’s top four, as will no doubt be their aim, then they will need to find the right players to take them to the next level, and, even though it is not certain that any of these six suggestions would meet the requirements needed to gain a work permit, there is little doubt that all would help Everton to take a significant step forward as they continue to rebuild.
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