Birmingham City Women have one of the best organised squads in the WSL, despite sitting second from bottom when the league was postponed. One of those who ensures this balance is Scotland midfielder Chloe Arthur. She tends to play as one of the two central midfielders, along with England’s Lucy Staniforth, but as the more defensively-minded one. This tactical analysis will look at how Arthur is central to how Birmingham City play, and the scout report will look at how their attack is benefited by her positioning and spatial awareness. We will also look at how all of this helps her to make some good passes, which helps Birmingham’s tactics, but also how she could improve her passing for future games.
The three points we will look at in this analysis all influence each other in turn, and so we will look at each one in a specific order. Firstly, we will analyse Arthur’s spatial awareness.
Her spatial awareness
With this, what we can say is that Arthur has an instinct for seeing where the space is on the pitch, and moving to occupy that space. The image below demonstrates this idea.
What we can see is that Chloe Arthur has noticed that the Liverpool Women defenders have focused entirely on the Birmingham forward line, consisting of Lucy Whipp, Rachel Williams and Abbi Grant. Lucy Staniforth is also in an advanced position. Arthur has seen that there is space behind the attack, and is now offering herself as a passing option for her teammate. This is especially important because of the congestion that has occurred where the ball is in the above image.
Also notice Arthur’s body position; she is facing the ball, which means she can control the ball easily and then move it on, ensuring that the space she has created with her spatial awareness has not been wasted.
