Who Is Savannah DeMelo?
Whilst many leagues around the world are only just starting up again, the NWSL is rapidly drawing to a close, with the regular season having just concluded and the playoffs set to take centre stage.
As a result, every team, coach and player is fighting to secure as many points as possible, hoping that they can still achieve their pre-season targets.
For fans and analysts, meanwhile, there is still the small matter of the end-of-season awards to think about, with one of those being Rookie of the Year, and a name being heavily tipped for that prize is Savannah DeMelo.
The 24-year-old midfielder has shone for Racing Louisville during another tricky campaign for the Kentucky side, having been included in May’s Best XI and named as July’s best rookie, and is undoubtedly one to watch in years ahead.
Her decision-making and awareness around the pitch have proven vital to Louisville’s tactics as the season has gone on, helping them to show some improvement after their struggles last season, and her recent call-up to the USA senior squad for the friendly double-header with Nigeria was a just reward for her efforts.
This tactical analysis will look at DeMelo’s game in closer detail, breaking down her defensive and attacking abilities and seeing why she has been a crucial player for her team at both ends of the pitch.
The analysis will also look at the roles that she has been given around the field, detailing how she has helped to keep the ball moving and become a player that opponents have needed to pay special attention to during matches.
Savannah DeMelo Defensive qualities
When teams lose the ball, their immediate priority becomes getting back behind it and preventing their opponents from having a shot on goal, and those teams that know they won’t dominate possession need to be especially good at this.
With Racing Louisville only averaging 49.33% possession so far in 2022, their ability to stay in matches relies on them having players who are happy to work hard and not leave spaces open that can be exploited, which, fortunately for them, Savannah DeMelo is.
In this situation, OL Reign have made their way into Louisville’s half of the field, looking to create a goalscoring opportunity, and the calibre of their squad means that it is often very difficult to keep them out when they do get into these areas of the pitch.
However, Louisville not only have a narrow back five in place, looking to prevent a through ball, but also have DeMelo in front of them as a protective shield.
DeMelo’s body position is the key here because she is facing the ball directly rather than sideways on, making her a bigger obstacle for Wales midfielder Jess Fishlock to avoid.
As a result, OL now have to think more carefully about where they send the ball, with DeMelo in a position to block any passes that travel in her vicinity, and Fishlock’s pass towards former Manchester City Women midfielder Rose Lavelle here is intercepted by the Louisville midfielder.
However, what is really important to note is that DeMelo doesn’t block the ball and then hold her position, and instead works hard to help her team take full advantage of winning the ball back.
In this case, she prevents Fishlock from controlling the ball for a second time and sets up a Louisville counterattack, which leads to other players running forwards and supporting the offensive move.
Therefore, she is always thinking about the next phase and not just about getting her body in the way, which demonstrates the on-field intelligence that her team have come to rely on her for.
It is by no means a one-off that DeMelo finds herself in these positions, with this graphic showing that three of the four blocks she has made have come when she is in front of the defensive line, and in fact, she has won 59.5% of her defensive duels so far this year.
Therefore, it is clear that this is one area of the game in which she is particularly strong and adding a player with the ability and desire to take up these positions and protect the defensive line is one reason that Louisville have conceded six fewer goals than last season (34 compared to 40), which shows an element of improvement.
However, DeMelo is not only a player who sits back when her team are out of possession, and instead is just as capable of getting on the front foot and winning balls higher up the pitch.
In this case, she has noticed Washington Spirit midfielder Anna Heilferty on the nearside wing, who has now been closed down and has one passing option left, which is Jordan Baggett.
Therefore, she reads the game and gets out to make the interception, again timing her move to perfection and regaining the ball for her team.
She has made an average of 4.38 interceptions per game during the 2022 campaign, and it is not hard to see why when considering how she sees and acts in moments like this.
Therefore, when analysing her overall defensive play, it is clear that she is just as good at ending threats early as she is at sitting back and making it difficult for opponents to get shots away, and this is one of the main reasons that she has been so important for Louisville during her debut campaign.
The result of her getting out to the ball is that she doesn’t give her opponents time to assess their options — a point highlighted in this graphic, which details DeMelo’s 42 high regains in 2022.
The fact that there are a vast number of pink dots here indicates that the majority of her tackles and interceptions have come within five seconds of Louisville losing possession, demonstrating once again her awareness of what is happening but also her urgency and desire to win the ball back as quickly as possible.
The fact that 13 of those high regains also led to a shot within 20 seconds shows again how DeMelo’s ability to follow up on her interceptions and always think about the next phase has led directly to her team creating goalscoring opportunities, and this is helped by the fact that these regains all took place in the opposing half.
Therefore, again, DeMelo is proactive and decisive when out of possession, which has been crucial to Louisville’s ability to keep creating chances even when not controlling matches.
This analysis has already looked at DeMelo’s positioning when Louisville’s opponents have the ball, in terms of her ability to protect the defence, but there is another way that she keeps balls away from her goal area.
Here, North Carolina Courage have possession and are looking to move the ball up the field through Merritt Mathias, but, as the black circle shows, DeMelo has come out to close her down.
The difference this time is that the midfielder is not looking to intercept the ball and instead only wants to limit what Mathias can do, with her only available passing option now being in-form Brazil forward Kerolin.
However, because Louisville know that this is the pass that Mathias will make, they can prepare early to limit its effectiveness, with former Glasgow City and West Ham United Women full-back Zaneta Wyne closing Kerolin down as soon as she receives the ball, and it is now the same situation, with Kerolin forced to pass back inside as Wyne has prevented her from making any progress of her own up the field.
That pass is once again collected by Mathias, who is then closed down by more Louisville players and ends up missing the target with her shot.
Therefore, the point being made is that the amount of time Louisville have spent out of possession has enabled them to work on how they manipulate opponents’ transitions, with DeMelo’s speed around the pitch and ability to read the game once again crucial to this as she is often the one that leads these presses.
When considering why she has been so critical to Louisville’s defensive efforts this season, this is another aspect of her play that needs to be factored in.
Savannah DeMelo Versatility
However, there is much more to Savannah DeMelo’s game than this, with it being mentioned at the start of this scout report that she is at her best when in a box-to-box role.
As a result, she needs to be good at transitions and capable of working closely with teammates higher up the field too, and this is another aspect of her play that Racing Louisville have come to rely on her for.
One area of the pitch that DeMelo is frequently seen in is the wide channels, not because she is particularly good at delivering accurate crosses into the box (only around 18 of her 74 attempts have found their intended target), but because she is calm with the ball and doesn’t rush when it is at her feet.
Her decision-making is also vital in these moments, as she has time to assess her options and needs to pick the right pass, which, this time, is back to Wyne as San Diego Wave’s players are coming towards her and making it difficult to send the ball inside the field.
By taking that option, she shows that she knows when to play forwards and take risks and when to keep possession and look for another way around, again highlighting her intelligence on the field and how she can help to build play in different ways.
The other positive of her taking up these wide positions is that she draws the Wave’s players away from each other, creating gaps in their third that Louisville’s key attackers can exploit, and two players can already be seen in between San Diego’s ranks.
This means that, when Louisville want to move the ball forward and create a goalscoring opportunity, they have something to aim for, and DeMelo’s ability to make important decisions in possession and create spaces in opposing ranks has once again been critical to that.
Since she is now recognised by opponents as a major threat on the field, she has tended to find herself with less space to operate in as the season has gone on.
As a result, she must keep her focus when under pressure and doesn’t give the ball away, as it would be easy for her to lose control of it and either allow one of Marleen Schimmer, Emily van Egmond or Christen Westphal, in the blue circles, to tackle her or for the ball to be put out of play and San Diego to have a chance of clearing their lines.
The fact that she doesn’t do either of these and instead plays a good ball through to forward Kirsten Davis, in the yellow circle, demonstrates once again how she doesn’t panic when surrounded by opponents and is an important player for Louisville to get on the ball, and it is moments of quality like this that have caught the eye of USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski at arguably the right time, with the World Cup less than a year away.
However, she also has important roles in deeper areas of the field, with her positioning in front of the defensive line meaning that she is often tasked with starting attacks from the back and getting her team on the front foot.
Here, Emily Fox has come out of the defensive line and has run ahead of DeMelo to give her a passing option, which the latter has seen.
DeMelo this season has an overall passing accuracy of 73.9% and has shown that she is equally as good at making short passes like this that help to get her team on the front foot as she is at sending long balls up the field and targeting open spaces in advanced areas, so is a useful player to have whatever the situation might be.
Again, this shows how she constantly works with teammates to achieve the best possible results for her team, and maintaining this level of accuracy regardless of what she does with the ball comes down to her vision and ability to read the game, as has been a constant theme of this analysis.
Attacking threat
Whilst this scout report has predominantly focused on Savannah DeMelo’s defensive abilities and versatility around the pitch, it is important to note that she is just as effective a player to have when in the final third too, with four of Racing Louisville’s 19 goals so far this campaign attributed to her.
Her main role when moving up the field is to make late runs into the box, often as part of the second line of attackers that offer deeper passing options.
This is because it gives her space and time to do what she does best, which is controlling the ball and getting her head up to look for options.
In this case, winger Jess McDonald has taken the ball into the goal area and is now the main focus of the North Carolina defenders, which is exactly what Louisville want as it means that there is no attention on DeMelo, meaning that she can get into the right position without being closed down.
Once in the right area, she can either drive at the defenders with the ball or look to pass it to another player from this position, with her posing just as big a threat from either option.
In Louisville’s recent match against Orlando Pride, she was in a similar area and ended up scoring a goal, combining with China striker Wang Shuang in the process to take the ball beyond some of the defenders and into a gap in Orlando’s defensive line, from where she found the top corner with her shot.
Therefore, the threat she poses in the final third cannot be underestimated.
When Louisville need someone to get forward and offer a passing option, DeMelo’s speed and awareness mean that she is often the one who provides that support.
On this occasion, Julia Lester has possession on the nearside of the wing and is being closed down by Washington’s Dorian Bailey, so needs to release the ball at this moment to prevent it from being given away.
By making the run here, DeMelo not only provides this passing option but also takes Bailey out of the game and ensures that Louisville can keep their attack alive, due to the ball being passed forwards.
The fact that USA defender Kelley O’Hara felt that she needed to try and win the ball early, rather than risk a cross into the box, highlights again how DeMelo poses a major threat in the final third and gives her opponents dilemmas, and this is another reason that Louisville always pose a threat when she is in these areas of the pitch.
In this situation, she is in a similar area, but this time against San Diego.
The Wave have this time opted to leave two players in the wide channel to block any attempt that she might make to move the ball into the goal area, but Schimmer and Kristen McNabb have made the crucial mistake of leaving a small gap open between them, which is all the invitation that DeMelo needs.
As the black arrow shows, she plays a pinpoint pass through the middle of them and gives Australia midfielder Alex Chidiac, in the yellow circle, a chance to shoot at goal from the edge of the box.
Even though the former Atlético Madrid Femenino player and McDonald both failed to put the ball beyond Canada goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan on this occasion, the point still stands that DeMelo is dangerous even when given a tiny amount of space and can create a goalscoring opportunity out of almost nothing.
Therefore, again, she is a key player for Louisville to get into the final third and they will always pose a threat when she is on the pitch.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at Racing Louisville midfielder Savannah DeMelo, breaking down why she has been so influential for her team this year and why she is undoubtedly a star of the future.
The scout report has analysed several elements of her defensive and attacking play, highlighting how she supports teammates and is good with the ball at both ends of the pitch, as well as the different roles that she has when the team is in transition or is looking to build attacks.
At the moment, the USWNT is quite frankly spoilt for choice when it comes to squad selections, with so much talent being produced as they look to bring in the next generation of star players and continue their recent successes.
However, given that she contributes so much at both ends of the field, it seems hard to see it being too long before DeMelo is given her chance in a USA shirt, and all she needs to do to stay on Andonovski’s radar is keep playing at the same high level each week.
If she does, then the sky really is the limit for her.
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