Identifying the best young midfielders in the Women’s Championship 2023/24 – data analysis

The Womens Championship has helped bring through players such as England Internationals Beth Mead, Ebony Salmon and Millie Bright over the years. 

In this data analysis, we have used data and statistics to examine some of the leading young midfielders in the Womens Championship this season. With us roughly halfway through the season heading into the winter break, we will look at ball progression, chance creation and defensive actions in order to paint a more complete picture of the leading young midfielders in the Womens Championship for 2023/24.

Criteria

In order to qualify for this analysis piece, first of all, you need to be 25 years of age or younger. Second, you have to have played at least 450 minutes in the Womens Championship this season, which is roughly half the minutes available to all the teams this season, with some teams having played 10 games while others having played 12. This left us with 26 players for us to analyse and compare.

Ball progression

One of the most essential aspects of midfield play is the ability to help the team progress the ball up the field. In this section, we take a look at some of the leaders within our data set when it comes to ball progression.

The first graph we are going to look at is the total number of passes per 90 against the total number of forward passes per 90. This produces a graph as seen above. The first two names that stand out are Laila Harbert, the 16-year-old midfielder playing for Watford on a dual registration with Arsenal. Another name that stands out is 19-year-old Lucia Kendall. Both of these players have a high number of passes per 90, with Kendall averaging 52.3 and Harbert averaging 51.7. This suggests that these two players are integral pieces to their sides in possession; they also have a high number of these passes being played forwards. With Kendall averaging 17.1 and Harbert averaging 14.9.

The next exciting thing that stands out to me is the outliers such as Natasha Fenton, who, although she averages fewer passes per 90 at 35.8, a higher proportion of them are played forwards at 17.6. Nearly half of her passes are being played forward, suggesting a more progressive ability on the ball. Another player with a similar proportion of forward passes is Fentons midfield partner at Sunderland, Mollie Rouse, who averages 43.5 passes per 90, and 18.7 of these are forwards; this leads our dataset.