Deanne Rose: Why one of Canada’s top young prospects is key to Reading’s WSL hopes – scout report

On 3 October, Reading Women sat bottom of the WSL, having just suffered their fourth league defeat in a row, whilst their goal difference read a worrying -10. However, something clicked for them at that point, with their next five games ending in four wins and a draw, allowing them to climb away from danger and improve their goal difference to a much more respectable -1.

The question is what changed, and the answer is that their new additions, who had understandably taken time to find their feet, had started to give the team more quality around the pitch. One player who has made a significant contribution to this upturn in form is Deanne Rose, who joined from Florida Gators (who represent the University of Florida in college football) after helping Canada win the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. Capable of operating as a midfielder or a forward, Rose has slotted into the role of playmaker in Reading’s attack, getting into good spaces and creating options for teammates, and this tactical analysis will look at the 22-year-old’s game in more detail.

Finding spaces

One of Deanne Rose’s major strengths is locating key spaces around the pitch, which has helped Reading Women to carry more of a threat in the final third. This happens both when Rose is the furthest player forwards and when she drops back to work with teammates, and it has been evident that the team have noticed this and looked to build their attacks around her as a result.

In the first part of the season, Rose was often left alone outside the goal area and closed down easily by opposing defenders, which meant that she was unable to exert much of an influence on games. However, Reading slightly changed her role after this, getting her into the forward line and tasking her with causing problems for the opposing defenders, which has led to them staying further back and leaving Reading more space to advance into in the final third.

This situation shows how far back Birmingham City Women have retreated, as a result of Rose playing in this more attacking role. However, whilst it appears that Birmingham have successfully surrounded her, Rose’s key quality at the Olympics was to make sharp movements and try to force defenders out of position, opening up routes to goal, and this is what she does here too. As a result, when right-back Faye Bryson puts the cross in here, Rose is able to receive the ball in space, so this is one way that the Canadian’s key qualities have helped Reading to be a much better attacking side.