Arsenal Women have plenty of star names in their team, but one that has been consistently good has been England midfielder Jordan Nobbs. In this scout report, we will look at Nobbs’ role in the Arsenal team. The tactical analysis will examine how she creates and uses space in Arsenal’s main tactical approaches, as well as looking at how she plays as part of the forward line, and will finish up with a look at her on-field partnership with star Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema.
Creating and using space
Firstly in this analysis, we will see how Nobbs is essential to Arsenal’s main attacking tactics of creating space on the field.
We can see in the image below how Jordan Nobbs has positioned herself on the outside of the goal area.
Here, against Liverpool Women, the space Arsenal have created is because of how they set up when in attack.
The reason they play like this is because they know how teams set up defensively against them. Arsenal’s star player is Vivianne Miedema, and so naturally opposing defences want to ensure she is unable to affect the play. This is why Liverpool’s defence is organised more narrowly, around Miedema’s position. However, that leaves space open on the wings, where Nobbs is in this image, and therefore Arsenal can play around those defensive tactics, taking full advantage of the space. Nobbs here is the player who is using that space.
