Birmingham City Women might be at the wrong end of the table, struggling to stay in the WSL, but they have a captain in Lucy Staniforth who has shown she has the ability to get them out of trouble, or at least ensure they won’t go down without a fight. This scout report will show through tactical analysis how she assists in both their attacking and defensive moves, as well as highlighting some improvements that Staniforth needs to make to her individual game in order to be a better player than she already is.
In the attacking half
The analysis will first look at how she features in their attacking tactics.
Firstly, Birmingham City Women like to play with two strikers and two wingers, who make up a front four when the Blues are attacking with full force. But what this also means is that the two strikers have the ability to split, stretching the opposing defence apart. This then enables Lucy Staniforth, as the central attacking midfielder, to play in between them at times, offering a different element to their offensive line.
Here, you can see just this. Staniforth is in possession of the ball and is taking it towards Manchester City Women’s goal area. You can see how Manchester City have been caught out by this movement, because they are being overrun by Birmingham, and are unable to get back to block the gaps off, making it easy for the Blues to attack in this situation.
Another example of Staniforth playing in the middle behind the two strikers is shown below, in a different way though.
