Data Analysis - Europe's Wingers W

Cascarino could very easily have played
her cross in front of the defenders for a potential

tap in, but intelligently pulls it back instead.
Similarly, looking at her off-the-ball movement,
Cascarino’s ability to understand space and
use it effectively is a key trait when playing
as a winger. Often wingers are reliant on
their on-the-ball abilities to create play, but
Cascarino is able to create space by identifying
spaces to run into and forcing the opposition
to react by having a marker follow her. As the
example above shows, Cascarino is situated
in a narrower position with her teammate on
the ball on the touchline. Cascarino identifies
the space in behind the full-back and aims to
capitalise on the movement made by Gauvin to
drag the centre-back away, widening the gap
even more. A darting run into the vacant space
sees Cascarino latch onto the pass with her
pace allowing her to get away from the Brazilian
marker closest to her.
Cascarino possesses intelligence and speed
that would be a real asset to any team and
after reviewing her capabilities on the field, it is
clear to see what kind of team she can thrive
in. We will now deep dive into the data and see
how she fares against Europe’s best wingers
followed by the teams that Cascarino’s skillset
would suit in the WSL.
Data Analysis -
Europe's wingers
W e want to compare and see how good Cascarino is against Europe’s best
wingers. For this data analysis, I have chosen
wingers from the top two teams in France,
Germany, England, and Spain. For England,
I have picked Chelsea, Manchester City, and
Arsenal because all three teams are considered
strong in their domestic league and are the
focus of our analysis. There are three metrics
being used to show us ball progression, output,
and delivery to identify the most influential
wingers in European women’s football. Only
players with 500 or more minutes this season
have been considered using data from
Wyscout.
10
Firstly, we are going to analyse the wingers’
contribution against their expected contribution.
We arrived at this metric by simply combining
the goals and assists to get the goal
contribution and their expected goals (xG)
and expected assists (xA) to get the expected
goal contribution. Immediately, we can see
most players are situated on the left side of
the graph. Most players have a below-average
contribution in both their actual and expected
contribution numbers. Cascarino ranks high in
terms of her overall contribution (8) this season
but is averaging lower than the sample size in
terms of expected contribution (0.56). Caroline
Graham Hansen and Kadidiatou Diani both
outperform the other wingers in this regard.
Next, we will be examining crosses per 90
minutes and their success rate combined
with their dribbles per 90. The darker circles
represent a higher number of dribbles. This
will give us an indication of how often they
dribble and successfully deliver a cross along
with its frequency. Immediately, we can see a
widespread set of players across the graph. The
players in the top right quadrant are the best
performers, in this case, Cascarino finds herself
there with 10.72 dribbles per 90 along with 6.4
crosses per 90 with a 33% success rate. The
average crossing accuracy rate here is 30%,
making her accuracy higher than her European
counterparts. There seems to be a correlation
when crossing frequencies and success rates
are high, as the dribbling statistics seem to
be high as well, which could mean they play
in teams that afford them space and time to
transition.
Lastly, we will be analysing ball progression.
Using progressive runs is an indicator of how
often a player can carry possession drawing
the team closer to the opposition’s goal, along
with the number of dribbles per 90, we can
understand how effective Cascarino is in this
metric. The darker circles represent a higher
number of dribbles success rate. We notice
that Cascarino is ranked amongst the highest
performers with 2.8 progressive runs and 10.72
dribbles per 90, with a success rate of 61%.
What this illustrates is that Cascarino is one of
the best ball progressors in Europe which is a
vital asset for a winger, especially when coming
up against teams that are likely to sit deep and
soak up pressure.
11
Which WSL club is the

best fit for Cascarino?
T hrough Total Football Analysis’ data team, we were able to use a team profiling
method
to determine which clubs in the WSL ranked in
relation to Olympique Lyon’s metrics in Division
1 Feminine. The data was used to compare and
see how well each WSL club fared against Lyon
under certain metrics including PPDA, passes,
crosses, dribbles, shots, duel intensity, and
possession. This would give us an indication of
the team that is closest to Olympique Lyon in
terms of the aforementioned metrics. Each WSL
team was ranked against Lyon’s score of 12.
The below graphic illustrates Lyon’s style of play
based on the metrics, and we can see that they
are a possession-based team who use the wide
areas as their primary method of attacks.
The top five teams are Chelsea (5), Everton (4),
West Ham (4), Manchester City (3), and Arsenal
(3). What this means is Chelsea are the closest
team to Lyon and would be best placed to
replicate their domination. However, it’s clear to
see how dominant Lyon are with their score of 12
and also indicates the competitiveness brewing
in the WSL. Now we need to determine which
teams would be best suited for Cascarino.
These networks show us the results for both
Arsenal and Chelsea. Notice how both teams
dominate possession and look to build up rather
than counter-attack. The main difference lies
in their preference of going wide or central,
with Chelsea preferring to utilise their wingers
whilst Arsenal capitalise on their strengths in

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Cascarino could very easily have played

her cross in front of the defenders for a potential

Which WSL club is the

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