When Brighton and Hove Albion Women secured their WSL safety at the end of last season, there were many who harboured hopes that it would be their last skirmish with relegation and that they would kick on under head coach Melissa Phillips and would start to challenge higher up the table, matching the targets that the board have had for a number of years.
However, much to the dismay of their fanbase, 2023/24 has almost been a carbon copy, with them once again struggling near the foot of the table and in search of a new coach, with Phillips’ tenure being brought to an end in January after just short of ten months with her at the helm.
It has not all been bad news for Brighton, though, and one of the positives to have come out of the campaign has been the emergence of 21-year-old midfielder Maisie Symonds as a critical part of their squad.
She is not a new face around the WSL scene, with her being part of Brighton’s first-team picture for a few years now, but the fact that she has spent long periods of time out of action means that fans have not been able to see what she can really do until now.
This tactical analysis will look at why she has been a shining light in another year of disappointment for the club, detailing the many ways in which she has contributed to their performances and why she will keep playing a key part in their tactics as they continue to build a squad capable of delivering the results that they have long dreamt of.
Maisie Symonds Style Of Play- Controlling the midfield
Whilst there are many reasons for Maisie Symonds being such a good fit for Brighton this season, where they have benefitted from her the most has been in the central third, with her offering a lot when it comes to helping Brighton play around the field and connecting critical areas of the team together.
This is largely because of her sharp mind and quality on the ball whenever it has been at her feet, with her never losing her composure and always demonstrating a calm approach to situations where she is under pressure.
This has allowed her to manage the tempo of Brighton’s passing whenever they have looked to go from one end of the field to the other, with her knowing when to release the ball and where and, therefore, the source of a lot of their positive play.
It is for this reason that she is a player that any team who comes up against Brighton this season has needed to prevent from exerting too great an influence on proceedings.
Luton Town Ladies clearly noticed her threat if given time and space.
They so worked hard during their FA Women’s Cup fourth-round tie in January, with midfielder Andie Dickens and forward Elizabeth Sanders surrounding her on both sides here in order to close down as many of her potential passing routes as possible.
However, this has failed to hinder Symonds’ ability on the whole and has instead allowed her to demonstrate another side to her game, with her knowing when to send the ball up the pitch, when to pass backwards, and when to be more conservative.
Her ability to assess situations quickly is another reason that she has thrived in this.
On this occasion, Luton succeeded in forcing her to abandon any forward attempt but could not prevent the ball from travelling to another Brighton player behind her, meaning that they had simply postponed the attack and avoided it altogether.
However, controlling the midfield is about so much more than simply making key passes, and another area that Symonds has shown a strong propensity for is closing opponents down early.
Against Liverpool Women, this has proven to be especially vital in stopping them from dominating matches.
Their main threat comes from the midfield, particularly from the trio of Japan international Fuka Nagano, who tends to sit back and be a deeper-lying playmaker, Wales international Ceri Holland, and Austria playmaker Marie Höbinger, who have both offered a goal threat whenever allowed to move up the field.
It is the last of those that Symonds gets tight to here, with Höbinger receiving the ball and trying to turn and find a teammate ahead of her but not realising that the Brighton player was there until it was too late, such was the speed and angle that Symonds ran towards her at.
As a result, Brighton can regain the ball in a promising position, which shows another reason that Symonds has been vital to them in controlling the midfield and launching their own attacks from advanced positions.
Once they have regained the ball, Brighton’s game plan has tended to revolve around being as expansive as possible and using the wings to stretch opposing defensive lines out, and that has been prominent both during Phillips’ tenure and under her interim successor Mikey Harris.
Again, Symonds has been central to this side of their game being executed well, with her range of passing and spatial awareness allowing her to get on the ball and then spread play from side to side.
In this case, she has managed to hold off the attempts made by West Ham United Women duo Abbey-Leigh Stringer and Princess Ademiluyi to dislodge the ball from her possession.
She has then shifted it out to Australian defender Charlize Rule on the far side of the pitch, with the intention being to allow the former Sydney Women defender to get into a position from which she could either cross the ball back into the middle or could have a shot at goal herself.
This match saw Brighton play with wing-backs to ensure that they had constant width, but they have looked under Harris to utilise more attacking full-backs instead, with Poppy Pattinson and Sweden international Emma Kullberg tending to occupy those roles and be seen pushing up the wings whenever their team has had the ball.
However, it doesn’t matter which system Brighton select if they don’t have a player in the middle who can provide them with passes like this and who can allow them to work their magic.
Symonds has demonstrated on so many occasions and through her 81% passing accuracy in all competitions so far that she is the one that they can depend on to fulfil the demands of that role.
Maisie Symonds Attacking threat
This is not to say though that Maisie Symonds is solely used in the central third, because there is certainly a lot to like about her when in more advanced spaces too, and there have been some matches when Brighton have depended on her ability to provide the final pass or shot inside the final third.
Their early season clash with Chelsea Women was one of those, with Emma Hayes’ side playing with the positional rotations that have become such a prominent feature of their tactics.
So Brighton needed to demonstrate adaptability as they looked to change their shape between phases of play in order to deal with each of their opponents’ surges up the pitch.
As a result, some players needed to take up unfamiliar roles, and Symonds was therefore seen in the creative playmaker position at times as others needed to move into areas of the field.
However, this did not phase her, and instead, she demonstrated the same calmness and composure that was indicated in the previous section of the scout report, with her receiving the ball after Madison Haley had tackled Serbia midfielder Jelena Čanković and instantly feeding the ball beyond Millie Bright for Norway striker Elisabeth Terland to score here.
Symonds has only averaged 1.25 touches inside the penalty area per game so far, so situations like this have not been common in Brighton’s matches.
However, the fact that she has picked up five assists so far (this being one of them) shows that, whenever she is in promising positions, she can help her team to test opponents.
It is not only from close range that she has made those final passes either, with her also creating chances from further out at times, as was the case against Wolves Women in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
This time, Symonds is in a more familiar central midfield role, but Brighton knew that they needed to be as direct as possible when playing up the pitch if they were to keep their Women’s National League North opponents on the back foot and to prevent them from building the momentum that saw them defeat Reading Women in the previous round.
Therefore, Symonds needed to play long balls into the spaces behind Wolves’ defensive line in the manner that she does here, with this pass coming about after she had spotted the run on the far side of England forward Katie Robinson.
On this occasion, the chance didn’t come to anything.
Still, the fact that Symonds showed decisiveness with the ball at her feet and urgency in accessing the spaces available to her indicated how she is a player with an attacking threat.
There is no doubt that she played a vital role on the day as Brighton ended the Wolves’ run in this year’s competition.
However, she also asks questions of her opponents without the ball too, with her movement also important to point out.
Here, Brighton have sent a long ball up the field in their attempts to access the territory that West Ham have left open behind their high back line, and it looked initially as though defensive duo Shannon Cooke and Hawa Cissoko had done the right thing in allowing the ball to roll towards former Brighton goalkeeper Megan Walsh.
What they had not factored in though was the pace and determination shown by Symonds to chase the pass down, and, as a result, they left too much space open between themselves and invited her to break between them and to apply pressure on Walsh as soon as she came out to claim the ball.
The result of this situation was that West Ham conceded a penalty in their attempts to hinder Symonds’ attempt to score once she had taken the ball beyond Walsh.
Brighton’s hit-and-hope had worked out, and West Ham had been punished for firstly leaving themselves too open and then for not keeping a closer eye on Symonds.
Some will point out that the midfielder has yet to score this season, and they would be right to do so.
However, when looking at the speed that she shows here and the precision of her passes into dangerous areas, there is so much more to her game than scoring goals, and that is the crucial point to take from this.
Maisie Symonds Defensive play
Much of the analysis has focused so far on what Maisie Symonds offers Brighton when she has the ball at her feet, but it is worth noting that she has been just as effective when out of possession, too, and that is why she has been backed by so many as one to watch in the future.
Whilst it has already been demonstrated that Symonds is more than capable of closing opponents down, what is important to note this time is that her aim is not to launch an attack from an advanced position but to prevent Liverpool from counterattacking at speed and from moving the ball up the pitch before Brighton have had a chance to set their shape up.
Again, that shows her awareness of what is happening around her and her bravery at not being worried about who she is coming up against, both of which are key reasons that she has been just as important a cog in Brighton’s machine when they have been out of possession and under pressure as she has been when they have been looking to apply it.
Here, her intervention prevented Netherlands forward Shanice van de Sanden from connecting with those ahead of her, and the determination with which Symonds got tight to her opponent shows yet again why she is such a good fit for the high-tempo, front-footed, aggressive brand of football that Brighton’s board want to see on the field and why she will be a central figure in making it successful.
This is not to say that she has always been able to bring attacks to an end early, though, and there have been times when she has needed to defend in other ways.
In this case, Wolves have managed to get on the front foot.
They are now looking to cut inside in their usual manner, with experienced winger Destiney Toussaint in possession and breaking free from the attempted tackles of Brighton captain Vicky Losada and China right-back Li Mengwen.
Symonds has been monitoring the situation and reacting as soon as Toussaint gets beyond her teammates.
She gets tight enough to Toussaint to attempt a tackle but also ensures that she positions herself between the Wolves player and those inside her, cutting out the possibility of an inside pass or run.
With her succeeding in doing just that, she forces Toussaint to keep moving up the wing, with her pass being easily intercepted by Colombia defender Jorelyn Carabalí as a result.
Therefore, whilst there is a lot here that others might offer in the same situation, there is a clear intelligence to the way that Symonds deals with these moments, and it is that that shows why she has been just as important to Brighton’s play without the ball as she has been with it.
There have even been times when she has needed to track back further and to drop back into the defensive line, with this situation against Chelsea being one of them.
At this stage of the season, having players who could fill in where needed was vital, with Brighton still finding their feet and developing partnerships after a summer that had seen 11 players join the club and a further 13 depart either permanently or on loan.
So, Symonds’ ability to do what was needed was much appreciated.
It is not the area that she has most thrived in, with her only winning 53% of her defensive duels so far, but what counted here was the fact that she saw the gap and didn’t hesitate to protect her team when they were in trouble.
The fact that her presence here forced Canada and now-Portland Thorns player Jessie Fleming to pass backwards instead of crossing it into the goal area shows how she made the difference here between a goal and a thwarted opportunity.
It is, therefore, clear that Symonds can offer a defensive presence in every area of the field.
That point is highlighted in this graphic, which indicates how she has made defensive contributions and interceptions in every third and channel as the campaign has gone on (when it comes to the latter, she has made 42 in total this season at an average of 3.49 per game).
There have been a number of challenges that have ended in fouls, showing that she is not perfect and that there are still a few areas of her game that can be improved as she continues to develop as a player.
However, there is certainly a lot to like about her at this stage, and there is no doubt that she is a well-rounded player who is well on the way to having a long and successful career.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at Brighton and Hove Albion Women midfielder Maisie Symonds, highlighting what she offers her team around the field and why she has been one positive in another season of negatives as they have struggled at the foot of the WSL table once again.
As the scout report has progressed, it has become clear just what she brings to the table in attack, midfield, and defence.
The fact that so much of what she does is not as easily noticed shows that she is not the type of player who will attract headlines for her performances.
Nevertheless, Brighton have really come to rely on her as the season has gone on, and that only looks like continuing.
England also recognises her potential, and the fact that she is now involved in the England U23 setup indicates that her performances are starting to attract attention from higher levels.
The sky really is the limit for her if she continues on her current trajectory.
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