With her first-ever call-up to the Australian women’s national team occurring following the injury of Chloe Logarzo, Laura Hughes has finally earned the opportunity to represent her national team.

She also got picked for our Team of 2025, as we believe that Hughes will make her breakthrough in the coming period and shine further as a midfielder.

Knowing that she has the ability to perform excellently, whether with Melbourne City Women or another team, Hughes is also expected to move to a “bigger” club soon to gain more experience and challenge the best players in the world.

Hughes is a 23-year-old international Australian midfielder who has been putting on convincing performances lately and who is destined to become a top player in the years to come as she has all the abilities needed to succeed as a midfielder and perform at the highest level, especially if she gets the chance to join a team that helps her further in her development process.

Hughes started her footballing career in 2016 at Canberra United, where she stayed until 2023 and learned a lot at the Australian club, knowing that she also had a brief experience in Iceland with Þróttur in 2020 before returning to the A-League with Canberra United.

In 2023, Hughes joined Melbourne City and started impressing a lot of followers of the game thanks to her simple yet charismatic and efficient style of play, significantly impacting Melbourne City’s midfield and overall tactics.

She is a player who can be useful in defence and attack, as she has the ability to help in both phases with excellent defensive traits and reliable playmaking talent that allows her to dictate the game for her team and be central in starting most of their attacks.

In addition, Hughes is also a player who usually finishes actions with accuracy and can become an even more dangerous finisher, whether shooting from distance, coming from behind to collect second balls or finishing with headers.

In this tactical analysis and scout report on the Australian international, we will explore her main traits and abilities regarding playmaking, goalscoring and defending.

Moreover, the analysis will focus on Hughes’ possible positions and the roles that she can execute on the pitch. 

It will rely on data, statistics, and footage to be as objective as possible.

Laura Hughes’ Positions & Roles

Hughes is a midfielder who can occupy various midfield roles, whether as a ‘6’, ‘8’, or a ‘10’ since she has the needed traits for the three positions.

In other words, Hughes has the vision, the passing intelligence and the versatility needed to give her best, whether by playing in front of the defensive line or by playing behind the strikers.

Additionally, she has been accustomed to resisting opponents' high pressing, providing passes under pressure while protecting the ball and knowing how to escape from the disturbance of her direct markers. 

Therefore, playing defensive midfielder in front of the defensive line might be her most suitable position for now, given that she is experienced in dealing with all the situations this position requires.

Nevertheless, as a non-aggressive and very defensive player, getting her out of her comfort zone and playing her up front behind the strikers is beneficial, especially if the team has a reliable replacement for the defensive midfielder. 

Playing as an advanced playmaker would suit Hughes well in the coming period. 

It would expose her playmaking and key passing abilities more consistently and allow her to aim at shooting more regularly.

Hughes is useful in any midfield role, with an average passing accuracy of 83.5%. 

However, it will be very important for her to work on improving her shooting accuracy and shooting on target rates since that would make the difference for her as it would be the “deciding point” for head coaches to know whether it would be worth it to opt for her as an attacking midfielder or as a defensive one.

That being said, Hughes has been winning 61% defensive duels and 40.9% aerial ones. 

She’s proven on numerous occasions that she could cover well and be useful in the defensive phase, which confirmed her as a central midfielder with mixed (attacking and defensive) roles.

In the following heatmap, we can clearly see Hughes’ movements on the pitch as she retreats frequently to help in the build-up phase and use short passes and sometimes long ones when needed to serve her attacking teammates.

Moreover, she positions herself inside the opponent’s first third most of the time, and that’s exactly where she can be very dangerous with key passes towards the box or the wings.

Laura Hughes Heatmap

With more movement towards the box, however, Hughes can become a much more dangerous player as she would be able to be at the receiving end of crosses and use her finishing abilities in favour of her team.

Laura Hughes Finishing Abilities

With 0.93 shots attempted per game and an average of 0.07 goals scored, Hughes still has a lot to prove regarding goalscoring and quality finishing.

At the same time, applying the instructions and not advancing a lot when playing as a defensive midfielder makes it difficult for her to showcase her goalscoring skills and be clinical when the team attacks.

Nevertheless, Hughes scores beautiful goals whenever she gets the possibility to advance towards or near the box, especially when playing as a central midfielder in a midfielder duo, which makes her find more freedom upfront while relying on her midfield teammate to cover if needed.

When she plays as a defensive midfielder in a 4-1-4-1 formation, it is complicated for her to advance recurrently and contribute significantly with shooting and goalscoring as she needs to always be in front of the defensive line.

The following goal action highlights her ability to come from the back to be at the receiving end of crosses and finish using her left foot in an action that shows her ability to deal well with complicated attacking situations and finish accurately and without hesitation despite the goalkeeper’s disturbance.

Being able to surprise her direct marker and take advantage of her while the ball was about to be crossed before anticipating the goalkeeper’s reaction showcasing Hughes’ studied attacking movements and her awareness of how she needs to act to exploit the opportunity she put herself in.

This intelligent attacking positioning without the ball can make Hughes a clinical midfielder finisher if she keeps working on this aspect, especially if her current and upcoming head coaches work with her to develop it further and use it during games in Frank Lampard’s style.

Laura Hughes Attacking Movements

In addition to her excellent attacking positioning, Hughes can advance and apply high pressing whenever needed. 

She often predicts when opponents make wrong passes and intercepts them.

Furthermore, she was capable of converting one of her key interceptions into goals, too, thanks to her outstanding reaction to the fact that the opposing goalkeeper was outside of her goal.

Hughes saw the goalkeeper out of her goal and immediately attempted a beautiful lobbed shot that went right inside the net before the goalkeeper could get to it, which highlights Hughes’ goalscoring potential once again and shows that she can score some even more beautiful and crucial goals if she gets the chance to play inside the final third more often. 

Laura Hughes Goal Against Canberra United 

In addition to these abilities, Hughes proved on numerous occasions that she can deal well with situations requiring the use of her left foot, whether for passing or for finishing.

This makes her increasingly deserving of a more attacking position, further showcasing her attacking talent.

The following goal highlights Hughes’ shooting ability, using her left foot to finish the action with a powerful shot towards the top corner despite being disturbed from behind.

Laura Hughes Goal Using Her Left Foot

Laura Hughes Playmaking And Passing

When it comes to passing, Hughes can be considered among the best in the A-League. 

She often looks for more vertical passes and has remarkable rates of passes towards the final third and the box.

With a 75.5% success rate regarding her passes to the final third and 45.5% concerning passes towards the penalty box, we can confirm the fact that Hughes can be very dangerous when attempting passes towards these key areas, especially when she opts for through passes between the lines.

Hughes provides five passes to the final third and 1.34 to the box on average, with a high success rate that makes it useful to intensify Hughes’ passing attempts in the future.

Moreover, she is capable of creating dangerous situations by herself on some occasions. 

She is always attentive to her opponents’ mistakes and does not hesitate to press high and intercept their passes to launch counter-attacking situations.

The following action shows Hughes’ key interception following a slow pass from the opponent. 

She quickly moved to the right to create space for her teammate and then provided a perfect assist with a no-look pass.

Laura Hughes Interception & Assist

Hughes also showed numerous times that she is the type of midfielder who does not mind being surrounded by opponents and usually finds a way to provide an accurate pass despite being marked.

This makes her even more valuable as a midfielder, but it requires a lot more work to consistently use this talent to create space for her teammates and make more dangerous passes per game.

The example below showcases her ability to provide key passes despite being in a tight space between plenty of Melbourne Victory. 

She created a golden opportunity for her teammate, who was left alone inside the box.

Using the left foot when attempting such a complicated pass further confirms the ease with which she deals with the ball, whether regarding passing or shooting, making things easier and more confusing for the opponents, especially defenders and goalkeepers.

Laura Hughes Left Foot Passing

Conclusion

Laura Hughes is a midfielder with plenty of talents, as she is a player who can cope with the different phases of the game and adapt her abilities depending on the situation and the position she occupies.

This means that Hughes can be very good at passing and also be crucial in terms of interceptions in the defensive phase.

Finding the most suitable position for her in the long term will allow her to develop even more as a midfielder. 

She has the potential to become a very dangerous attacking midfielder while still performing her defensive duties when needed.

Moving to a “bigger” club in a more difficult league would surely make Hughes a more clinical and sought-after player. 

She has what it takes to shine on the international scene in the coming years.