BONUS: The Off-Ball Playmakers - Who/What Didn't Make the Cut
BONUS: The Off-Ball Playmakers - Who/What Didn't Make the Cut
Giving Beth Mead & Kristie Mewis their props & more playmaking observations on Müller and Kerr.
The desire to keep my Off-Ball Playmakers piece coherent and readable necessitated leaving a lot on the cutting board. I watched A TON of film for the article and collected way more clips than I was going to use. So, the majority of what didn’t make it consisted of extra examples (at a certain point, one only requires so many Jordi Alba cutbacks to craft an argument).
Additionally, plenty of worthy footballers never got analyzed simply because there are too many of them, and I had to stop somewhere.
However, I also excluded a bunch of stuff for other reasons and I thought the who, what, and why of that might interest you. So, here we go, in no particular order:
Why No Beth Mead, Katie McCabe, & Lucy Bronze?
Arsenal’s Beth Mead sits fifth in the Women’s Super League for xA p90 (compared to those with relevant minutes) at 0.38 and has 4 assists in total, behind only Fran Kirby and Katie McCabe (0.21 xA p90). Those aren’t outlier numbers for either of the Gunners’, with Mead and McCabe both recording higher figures in the prior season.
McCabe
Katie’s output isn’t the problem — it’s her style of creation. I did find a decent amount of square passes and cutbacks from McCabe but, ultimately, she just came off as too good of a crosser and passer to include over any of the other WoSo players I had already selected.
Had I gone through things in a different order, she might’ve squeezed in, but I was content enough with what I had and didn’t feel like McCabe clearly embodied the “relies on off-ball movement to generate easy chances” profile. Instead, the Ireland star repeatedly turns to her immense crossing ability — both in open play and on set-pieces — to float in gorgeous assists.
Mead
This one is more or less an oversight. Essentially, I thought of her too late to do the deep dive reserved for the adopted individuals, but she deserves a mention.
While Mead is not quite the classic wide player in terms of 1v1 domination and quickness, or an inverted #10 in terms of positioning between the lines and touch, she has a healthy level of playmaking versatility, discovering angles off-the-dribble and threading more through balls than you’d think. She also stands out as a strong crosser.
Nevertheless, Mead does execute a sizable portion of her most valuable passes off of movement, staying alert in transition and leveraging her sharp box instincts to attack the channels and play the extra pass in the box.
She might be unstoppable if she was born with generational explosiveness, although the 26-year-old is damn good as is.
Bronze
The former Lyon and City right back is one of the best ball progressors and crossers in the history of her position. Thus, despite having plenty of juice on the overlap, it would’ve been weird to pick her as an example of someone who overcomes non-elite passing ability with off-ball movement. I probably still could’ve chosen her given that I made certain exceptions for Alba, Chloe Kelly, and Lauren Hemp, but I didn’t experience an urge to force it.
Thomas Müller’s Playmaking Diversity
If you noticed, I restricted most of my discussion on off-ball movement to the kind in the box and going beyond the last line. This is simply because those are what lead to the easiest possible passes. That being said, off-ball movement to set up difficult or less valuable assists are still part of the equation and require high amounts of intelligence and skill.
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Müller is remarkable at showing between the lines to cushion little layoffs and through balls. His body orientation when receiving passes enables him to do this with accuracy, and the combination of his sensational kinesthetic senses and flexibility produces circus assists from time to time.
The German’s roaming between the lines and constant tactical awareness also means that he can drift wide in a cinch to fire in crosses or cutbacks.
When it comes to off-ball playmaking diversity, Müller might be the best in the world.
Sam Kerr’s Link-Up & Combination Play
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Kerr is just flat out underrated as a receiver and high-tempo passer coming off the defensive line. Her scanning when facing her own goal is well above average and she has the touch and athleticism to pull off funky flicks, hold up the ball, beat a defender or two, and feed teammates.
Kristie Mewis — The All-Action Midfielder
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Kristie Mewis never made it into the final article simply because of my lack of knowledge of her, but her all-action style led to some really nice sequences that caught my eye. On brief viewing, she seemed to have a natural feel for attacking the left channel and pulling wide into any free space (such as on the counter), while also being a clever secondary or tertiary option in the box.
Her 0.31 xA p90 across the 2021 NWSL regular season and playoffs places her second behind Megan Rapinoe and probably solidifies her as one of the most underrated players in the league.
Miscellaneous
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Erling Haaland is steadily getting better at dropping from the front line to engage in Müller-esque layoffs and his speed in transition puts him in positions to play easy passes into space.
Kylian Mbappé’s backheel-flick tendency is one of the most fun aspects of his game. I caught a couple of occasions where he found space in the box before suavely participating in a one-two to fabricate a good shot in the aforementioned manner.
Asisat Oshoala was disqualified due to a lack of info on her creative stats and Jessica McDonald is just one of those I never got around to scouting heavily. Here’s some stuff that made me consider them in the initial stages:
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Additional Reading
SAM KERR: MORE THAN JUST A GOALSCORER by Yash Thakur [@Odriozolite]
How to Raumdeuter: Thomas Müller in the third goal against Portugal (might need google translate for this one) by Martin Rafelt [@MartinRafelt]
2021 NWSL SEASON PREVIEWS: HOUSTON DASH AND OL REIGN (for some Mewis stuff) by Kieran Doyle [@KierDoyle] & Arielle Dror [@arielle_dror]