Romée Leuchter: Explaining her potential as a striker

Romée Leuchter is a 22-year-old striker who plays for Ajax Women and the Netherlands national team. She started her footballing career at PSV in 2019 before moving to Ajax in 2021, where she is becoming one of the attacking pillars of her team despite her young age.

In addition to becoming an instrumental striker for her team, Leuchter has been called up for her national Netherlands team since 2022 and took part in the provisional squad for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Nevertheless, she was not able to get her full chance yet as she is yet to play a big continental or international tournament with the Netherlands, knowing that there is fierce competition for the striker role in the Netherlands squad.

Names like Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema, Juventus’ Lineth Beerensteyn, Paris Saint-Germain’s Lieke Martens, Everton’s Katja Snoeijs have priority on Leuchter, who is a younger player who lacks experience. However, this does not mean Leuchter does not deserve to get her chance within the national team just because there are some influential names within the squad.

Suppose Leuchter keeps improving her abilities and remains consistent in goalscoring. In that case, she will impose her standing in the eyes of head coach Andries Jonker and get more playing time with the national team, especially during the preparations for UEFA Women’s Euro 2025.

In this tactical analysis article in the form of a scout report, we will be exploring Leuchter’s main characteristics and abilities while assessing what she will need to work on better in order to be a more complete striker and eventually move to play with one of the top European teams and deserve a chance to play regularly with the national Netherlands team as well and be important in their tactics.

Goalscoring abilities

In terms of goalscoring, Leuchter has an xG of 0.92 actually and shoots 3.88 times on goal per match, with 52.5% average shots on target. These statistics are suitable but insufficient for Leuchter to be considered a truly world-class striker, which means that she will have to work harder in terms of finishing and creating goalscoring chances for herself when she does not provide the necessary number of key passes during games.

This being said, Leuchter is a striker who already masters different shooting techniques and deals with goalscoring situations creatively and efficiently most of the time. Her excellent physical abilities help her a lot in this regard as well since she constantly uses her body to get away from defenders’ disturbance and be able to execute quick feints and accelerations. However, she is not one of the fastest strikers out there.

Among the numerous shooting techniques that Leuchter masters, we can say that half-volleys represent a type of shot that is highly used by Leuchter in various situations yet with a lot of accuracy and power. She deals very well with crosses and long passes from midfield or defence and often lets the ball bounce in front of her on such occasions before attempting her shots.

The following example shows one of her beautiful goals scored — a half-volley from distance which highlights her confidence in her shooting abilities as well as her goalscoring instinct, knowing that she looked at the goalkeeper before shooting and noticed that she was not well-positioned nor prepared for that type of shots at that moment.

Since her time at PSV, Leuchter was not a regular striker with modest goalscoring skills but an exceptional one with outstanding shooting abilities and a high level of accuracy in front of goal. Her excellent decision-making in finishing makes her a strong candidate to become one of the most clinical strikers in Europe in the near future.

Being able to execute shots with acrobatic moves like the following one is not given to any striker and should be worked on even further to be used more frequently whenever the opportunity allows it because Leuchter can employ such actions in her favour while remaining clinical.

In this example, Leuchter receives a complicated pass that bounces in front of her while holding two defenders with her body to protect the ball. Just after the second bounce, Leuchter went for a surprising shot with the exterior part of her right foot, even though she was not balanced due to the disturbance applied by the two defenders.

Despite that, she could still score that goal and confuse the goalkeeper with a tricky shot towards the far post. This further highlights the player’s ability to resist pressure and finish well even when being heavily disturbed or put in complex situations.

Credits : PSV.

This was neither the first nor the only time Leuchter could score despite defensive resistance, as she usually succeeds in putting the impact she wants on the ball while battling with defenders but without necessarily losing her focus on her ultimate goal, which is touching the ball and scoring. That’s why she often succeeds in getting out of difficult situations inside the box and deals well with defenders in that area.

This goal again shows that Leuchter does not give up easily on the ball and is an intelligent striker, not a passive one. She was able to control the ball while being tightly marked and with her back towards the goal. Then, she turned despite the defender’s resistance and quickly touched the ball with the exterior part of her foot and surprisingly to the defender and the goalkeeper, too, scoring one of the most underrated goals so far.

Credits: Ajax.

Leuchter has been scoring numerous goals with headers, curved shots and other shots from different angles. Nevertheless, she has to take into consideration the fact that work is still needed to be able to score a lot against tougher teams in more complicated leagues such as in the UEFA Women’s Champions League or the WSL, Division 1 Féminine, Primera División Femenina, Serie A Women.

We must recognise that teams are less powerful defensively in the Eredivisie Vrouwen; Leuchter must keep improving her abilities to prepare for more demanding challenges soon.

Set-piece taking

In addition to being a very useful goalscorer, Leuchter is a set-piece specialist at Ajax, and this adds a lot to her usefulness as an attacking player, as excellent set-piece specialists are rare in women’s football. There are plenty of specialists in this regard, but not all score goals regularly from set-pieces.

Leuchter, however, has been scoring free-kicks regularly and with various techniques so far, making herself a more special striker for her team and the Netherlands, too. She often executes free-kicks with power without neglecting accuracy and precision, which guarantees the danger she can create with free-kicks.

Most of Leuchter’s free-kicks succeed in creating problems for the opponents either by being scored, hitting the crossbar or the post, or being saved, resulting in a corner kick. The following free-kick is an example of many scored free-kicks with a lot of determination to score, a lot of technique and without precipitation.

Credits: Ajax.

Being able to remain calm and focused during the execution of set pieces and achieve the desired outcome afterwards highlights Leuchter’s excellent shooting techniques, her maturity as a player, and her strong personality despite her young age. This maturity and excellent mentality will help Leuchter have a prosperous career, especially if she keeps playing with the same attitude and determination.

Moreover, being able to guarantee the same efficiency in terms of set-piece taking with the national Netherlands team means that Leuchter does not score set-pieces thanks to chance but rather to continuous work and concentration.

This free-kick against Italy was scored from a more distant spot, which shows that Leuchter can score from different positions and adapts her shooting technique based on the circumstances and the shooting spot. This creativity in set-piece execution guarantees her ability to score from such situations and keep confusing goalkeepers.

Playmaking and passing skills

Regarding her passing and playmaking abilities, Leuchter can be a very dangerous player when retreating to midfield and letting one of her teammates advance to occupy her position as a striker. With 72.3% in terms of overall passing accuracy, 64.3% in terms of long-passing crossing and an average of 61.3% regarding passes towards the final third, we can argue that Leuchter is a good passer and that her abilities in terms of passing are useful enough for her roles as a striker.

Knowing that she has to retreat often to get away from defenders’ marking and help her teammates in playmaking, Leuchter must be good at providing through passes towards the wings or towards the box when her teammates advance to occupy her position. Leuchter, therefore, learned how to provide through passes at the back of the defensive line, permitting her teammates to receive the ball in suitable goalscoring situations, such as what she did in this example.

Credits: Ajax.

In addition, being able to play with her back towards the goal and conceding disturbance from defenders while playing the role of a stationary striker is one of the actions Leuchter can execute efficiently, knowing that she proved it on numerous occasions, too. In addition, she usually succeeds in providing passes to the players coming from behind after controlling the ball and fixing her direct opponent.

This might sound easy, yet it is very complicated to do without mistakes and without risking the ball to be anticipated. Moreover, let’s not forget Leuchter is the principal set-piece taker, including corner kicks and not just free-kicks. Therefore, Leuchter takes the credit for providing numerous assists per season from corners, knowing that she alternates between crosses towards the near and the far post depending on the situation and the planned actions with her teammates.

Conclusion

Romée Leuchter is becoming one of the most important strikers on the European scene and is expected to improve even more during the upcoming seasons if she keeps working hard. Her characteristics will allow her to progress much more as a striker as she has the potential to reach, and why not exceed, the level of her teammate Vivianne Miedema.

With many more years remaining in her career, this analysis shows that Leuchter can also become a more clinical striker, especially if she joins a more powerful team in a more competitive league, making her progress even quicker.