Gloria Marinelli 2023/24: How the underrated attacker can find her best form and upgrade Milan Women’s attack – scout report

Gloria Marinelli is an Italian player who can be considered underrated and not getting her full chance at the moment. She was not getting the required playing time to shine during her last period at Inter, and she has recently moved to their rivals Milan Women in an attempt to get some more regular playing time with the Rossonere and be among the most reliable players in the team.

Marinelli has the ability to get some chances with the Italian national team soon, especially if she puts on consistently good performances with Milan this season. Given that she is 25 years old now, Marinelli still has plenty of time to prove her worth and get a spot in Italy’s squad for the upcoming tournaments, knowing that she was already called up once for the Euro 2022 qualifiers.

Marinelli started her footballing career at Grifo Perugia in 2012 and then played for Chieti and Inter; now the time has come for her to showcase her talent in a different environment that might need her more than Inter did and might exploit her abilities more fruitfully for both sides as well.

In this tactical analysis and scout report, our focus will be on identifying Marinelli’s possible positions at Milan and the roles she can execute well to fit in perfectly within the club and their tactics. The analysis will also include glimpses of what the Italian player can do in terms of performances in Serie A Women, and this will mainly concern goalscoring and playmaking abilities.

Positions and roles at Milan

Regarding positions, Marinelli proposes many options to Milan and can be exploited in different roles within the team. The position in which she can provide 100% and more of her abilities is the left-winger, given that she is used to this position and also because her pace, physical abilities, and dribbling skills allow her to be more impactful here. Moreover, Marinelli’s left-winger role can significantly help the team since her crosses from that wing can always create danger.

Plus, she is very good at cutting inside and avoiding defenders who encounter her before going for a shot or providing a key pass. With Valentina Cernoia on the right wing, one of Christy Grimshaw, Kosovare Asllani, or Kamila Dubcová as an advanced playmaker, Marinelli can add a lot of depth to such attack when played as a left winger.

At the same time, she played as a striker, a right-winger, and a left midfielder before and can fill the gap in these positions whenever needed. Marinelli fits the second striker role perfectly if the coaching staff rely on a 3-5-2 formation, for instance.

However, the only concern is that Marinelli has no advantage over experienced players like Asllani for playing in those positions (second striker or advanced playmaker). That’s why she will likely be used mainly as a left-winger. And in the cases where Maurizio Ganz wants to rest Andrea Stašková, trying Marinelli as the main striker wouldn’t be a bad decision to make since the player is used to that position as well.

This heatmap highlights Marinelli’s movements on both wings and shows that she has experience playing on the left and the right, along with getting inside the box so often (mainly when used as a striker). Playing Marinelli as a striker would be a creative idea, especially when playing against tall but slow defenders; this is something that could suit Marinelli’s strengths.

Her pace and dribbling techniques would be crucial in such cases since these would tire this type of defender, as opposed to tall strikers like Stašková and Rimantė Jonušaitė, who can be helpful in the air and physical duels mainly. 

Goalscoring and addition as a striker and as a left-winger

Marinelli proved on numerous occasions that she can interpret the striker and especially the second striker position efficiently since she has the pace and physical abilities needed to win in duels and score goals. Her excellent sense of positioning will also be helpful in this regard since playing inside the penalty box requires intelligence in movements and efficiency in terms of finishing.

Marinelli has the tricks needed to get rid of marking whenever she positions herself inside the box. She times her movements well to avoid defenders and get the ball in a suitable position and situation.