When thinking of countries that are always producing talented female footballers, Spain, Sweden and the USA are the obvious names that come to mind. However, one country that’s perhaps gone under the radar in this regard is Denmark. Yet, there are Danish players dotted around major leagues worldwide. One of those who’s gained a lot of attention in recent seasons is Emma Snerle, a highly-rated 20-year-old midfielder who recently joined West Ham United Women following the conclusion of the regular part of the Danish Elitedivisionen season, in which her team, Fortuna Hjørring, finished second.
In this tactical analysis, we will look in closer detail at the different areas of Snerle’s game that make her a good fit for Olli Harder’s team. As she is primarily an attacking player, we will focus first on how she played a key role in Fortuna’s final third play before turning our attention to her defensive qualities, finding the different positions around the field in which West Ham can use her. The scout report will finish by analysing what Snerle has brought to the Danish national team since her senior debut in 2019, which will again give us an idea of how West Ham can benefit from her arrival.
Attacking play
When it comes to positions, Emma Snerle prefers to play either alongside or just behind the main striker, and Fortuna have accommodated this in their starting formations by deploying either a 3-4-3 or a 4-4-2 setup (used 45% and 34% of the time, respectively). As West Ham United Women also like to play with wing-backs and encourage players to get forward, the young Dane shouldn’t have too many problems adjusting to her new surroundings.
One of her most notable qualities is her spatial awareness. Fortuna like their players to move around and create options, which is helped by their tendency to use Snerle and Olivia Holdt as their forward line. With both being attacking midfielders, they don’t stay at the top of the pitch as strikers do, but drop back and try to link up the play, which helps Fortuna to keep their attack flowing. In this case, Snerle has run ahead of the ball to provide Holdt with a forward passing option, as well as keeping the three defenders ahead of her away from the ball. This not only allows Holdt to keep Fortuna’s momentum going but also gives her time to make her pass accurate; neither of these would happen without Snerle being in this area of the pitch.
However, it is not only in open spaces where Snerle has a key role in Fortuna’s attack. Here, she has moved into a pocket of space between four Nordsjælland players, which enables Fortuna to play out of the tight space they are currently in. This is another reason that they have proven difficult to beat. What we need to pick up on here is how Snerle can be a pivot in the final third, allowing her team to set up in a way that makes it hard for their opponents to mark every possible passing option. When she does get the ball here and turns to move it on, Snerle’s wide range of passing means that she can transfer the ball to where she can see her team having the best chance of scoring.
However, the question that West Ham fans will have is where she will fit in, given that they already have an attacking playmaker in Japan international Yui Hasegawa, who joined from AC Milan Femminile last summer. Whilst both players will likely be competing for the same place in the starting XI, they are in fact different players; Hasegawa is more of an attacking midfielder, whilst Snerle plays like a second striker, averaging 4.65 touches in the penalty area so far this season, so fans can expect the Denmark international to make more runs with the ball, whereas Hasegawa has tended to play passes through gaps in the opposing lines from further back. Therefore, West Ham have only complimented their current squad options and given themselves the ability to use different systems and tactics, which is hugely important in the WSL.
Snerle’s final third contributions do not only consist of clever movement and good distribution though; she also has an end product, as shown by her domestic goal tally of 13 in 14 regular Elitedivisionen games before her move to England. This image illustrates the build-up to one of them, with Fortuna looking to transfer the ball into the goal area but not being able to do so due to Brøndby overloading the box. To create space, Holdt runs towards the ball, taking some of the defenders with her, but doesn’t touch the pass and instead allows Snerle to connect with it just inside the box, shooting through the gap that has now been created.
Snerle’s speciality is making these delayed runs into the box, which makes it harder for the opposing defenders to close her down, as they can’t predict at which point she will run forward. As she has got 51.4% of her shots on target so far this season, it is fair to assume that she will contribute a lot to West Ham’s attacking output during the second half of the campaign, and this is an area in which they need to be better to get more consistent results in the league (their last five games have ended in one win, two draws and two losses). Bringing in a player like Snerle will give them a better chance of climbing the table, given what we have looked at in this section of the analysis.
Defensive play
However, what West Ham United Women will particularly benefit from is Emma Snerle’s ability to play in defensive positions as well as further forward. Olli Harder’s tactics this season have seen West Ham play much more attacking football than they had previously under Matt Beard, with wing-backs controlling the wide channels and allowing more players to overload the opposing box. However, when they lose possession, Harder wants the midfielders to get back and offer protection to the three central defenders, so Snerle must have the energy to move up and down the pitch in order to fulfil these demands.
We already know that Snerle puts herself into areas where she can help to build attacks, but she also positions herself well in her team’s own third, playing a key role in their transitional play. Here, her teammate is looking to launch an attack, but Brøndby have come to close her down, so Snerle comes back to help out, as the red arrow illustrates. Her presence gives Fortuna a safer passing option, as moving the ball across a smaller distance would enable Fortuna to keep possession, whereas an aerial pass would allow Brøndby to get underneath the ball and clear their lines.
However, the key point is that there are now two options for Fortuna, which gives them an advantage as their opponents will not be able to predict which pass they will opt for, and this is what Snerle’s ability to drop back into these spaces brings. This season, her passing accuracy stands at an impressive 78.5%, which indicates that, if West Ham do use her to bridge the gap between their defence and attack, they need to get her on the ball as much as possible, as they will find it easier to keep possession and create more opportunities, potentially leading to more wins.
This awareness of her surroundings also extends to when Fortuna are out of possession and defending in their own half. Here, she has got close to Brøndby defender Katrine Winnem Jørgensen but doesn’t attempt to tackle her. However, she still prevents the ball from travelling forward, meaning that Brøndby lost their momentum, and that is the key. The reason that Snerle stops the ball here is to give the other Fortuna players time to get behind it and close off any gaps that might have been previously open, meaning that, when the ball does move out of this area, there is no way that Brøndby can create a clear shot at goal. Whilst it wasn’t required here, Snerle can also step in and make a tackle, having won 50% of her defensive duels this season. So, it is clear that whilst she is primarily an attacking player, she does have good and useful defensive instincts as well.
Snerle is also adaptable, constantly switching roles depending on what is happening around her. In this image, one of her teammates has got close to the ball, so Snerle instead moves into the defensive line behind, again playing her part in stopping a potential attack from turning into a shot on goal.
West Ham this season have needed someone who can spot and fill gaps like this, as despite being an overall better defensive side, they have lacked organisation and communication at times, leading to spaces opening up and goals being scored. One example of this came in the home game against Aston Villa Women when visiting midfielder Remi Allen scored an equaliser with virtually the last kick of the game after West Ham had given her too much space to move into. Therefore, Snerle will help to make them more watertight, turning these closely-contested draws into wins. So, once again, she could be just what they have been looking for.
Roles with Denmark
We have so far focused on how Emma Snerle helps her team in different attacking and defensive situations, but West Ham United Women will also benefit from her international experience, as the 20-year-old has been learning from and playing alongside the likes of captain and Chelsea star Pernille Harder, as well as experienced Racing Louisville striker Nadia Nadim over the last few seasons, so will no doubt have picked up on some of their playing qualities as she continues to grow her own game.
Denmark play with a very similar style to Fortuna, with a 3-4-3 being their preferred formation as well, whilst their secondary choice tends to be a 3-4-1-2 (they used these formations in 40% and 25% of their games, respectively, in 2021). Therefore, Snerle doesn’t need to adjust her focus between domestic and international games, with this image showing her taking the ball up to the Russian defensive line in exactly the same way as we have seen her do previously in this analysis. Once she sees the gap between Elina Samoylova and new Chelsea Women signing Alsu Abdullina, she plays the ball through and sets up a shot for BK Häcken striker Stine Larsen in the space behind, although the opportunity is not converted by the former Aston Villa player.
As both Fortuna and Denmark have used her in the same areas of the pitch, West Ham will know that they are getting a player who has a clear understanding of the role and will, therefore, not need too long to settle in.
This image builds on some of those points, with Snerle again between opposing lines. This time, it is Montenegro who have left too much space open, with Snerle offering her teammates a passing option and a way of moving the ball into the space behind, whilst also keeping both sections of the Montenegrin team away from the ball.
However, what is especially important to focus on here is the position of left wing-back Sofie Svava, in the yellow circle. Svava is another up-and-coming Danish talent, having just secured a move to Real Madrid Femenino from German giants Wolfsburg Frauen, and her positioning near the wing here enables Snerle to play in the half-spaces further inside (something that Pernille Harder does a lot for Chelsea), which is another area where defenders can find it difficult to mark players. The fact that Snerle has a 68.3% accuracy of passes to the final third and a 58.2% accuracy of passes to the penalty area highlights her effectiveness in these areas, and it will be interesting to see whether West Ham use her in these spaces too.
If they don’t, then another alternative is to play her in a wide forward role. This is a position she is also capable of playing in when needed, providing a different threat to simply running into the box late and getting on the end of crosses, and it is something that West Ham could be particularly interested in, as this could be how they get her and Hasegawa on the pitch together.
When in these wider spaces, Snerle can stay near the wing and put crosses into the box, although the fact that her accuracy of crosses is just 35.7% suggests that this is not her greatest strength. Instead, if West Ham do play her out wide, then she needs to have the freedom to cut inside and take shots at goal, with this effort against Azerbaijan finding the back of the net and indicating her goalscoring threat from different angles in the goal area.
If we look for a comparison, then Canada forward Adriana Leon is perhaps the obvious one to make. Leon is capable of and has played in most attacking roles for West Ham since joining them in January 2019, but has struggled to regularly find the back of the net. With this in mind, Snerle perhaps offers a bigger threat, and it is more than likely that we will see the Denmark international featuring in this role at some point, especially as Leon has spent the majority of the first half of the season injured.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as this tactical analysis has shown, West Ham United Women’s signing of Denmark midfielder Emma Snerle from Fortuna Hjørring is a really good piece of business. We have seen how she is similar to a couple of their current players but also different. Her abilities with and without the ball and in and out of space could be just what West Ham need to help reignite their season.
After her arrival was confirmed, Olli Harder commented that his team is always looking for players at home and abroad that they can develop, and Snerle undoubtedly fits that profile. Having now found several positions and roles that she can play in, it will be interesting to see which one he thinks is best for her and the team, helping them to continue their newfound defensive solidity and attacking potency, which have been his key targets during the 2021/2022 campaign.
