Lisa Naalsund is actually one of Norway’s most talented players at the moment. She can be considered one of the players Manchester United Women are counting on to provide the necessary addition during the next few seasons. She is a 28-year-old midfielder who started playing football as a senior player since 2012 at Arna-Bjørnar in Norway before moving to Brann in 2019 and then flying to England to join the Red Devils in the WSL since January 2023 for a three-and-a-half-year contract.
Although her debut was not very positive, and injuries delayed her participation with the team, Naalsund is expected to have more regular playing time this season and show her real value to everyone, especially if she gets the needed playing time from the coaching staff headed by Marc Skinner.
This tactical analysis and scout report will explore Naalsund’s defensive, playmaking, and goalscoring traits. At the same time, the analysis will include a section that looks at Naalsund’s possible positions and roles within Manchester United’s tactics and squad.
Positions and possible roles at Manchester United
Naalsund is basically a midfielder who can play in different areas in midfield but can do very well as a defensive midfielder thanks to numerous aspects, mainly her physical strength, height, and the fact that she used to be a handball player when she was younger. Handball is definitely a more physical game than football, and it is a sport that focuses a lot on duels, anticipation, and aggressivity.
By playing handball, Naalsund has acquired these key characteristics that allow her to shine as a defensive midfielder. This position requires much attention, aggressivity, engaging in duels, especially in the defensive phase, and anticipating passes as often as possible to make valuable interceptions and help launch counter-attacks.
Hayley Ladd, Katie Zelem, Irene Guerrero, and Hinata Miyazawa are Naalsund’s rivals for the starting spot while also being her teammates. For instance, forming a defensive duo with Guerrero would guarantee more defensive balance, as both Naalsund and Guerrero are excellent enough from a defensive perspective. The same applies to the Ladd-Naalsund duo, too.
And in games when the team needs more attacking support and less defensive worry, Zelem-Naalsund or Miyazawa-Naalsund would be the more required duos to provide the necessary playmaking addition and join the final third more often.
The following heatmap shows that Naalsund played in front of the defence as a defensive midfielder more often than in any other position, even though she often plays as a central midfielder and can be very useful in this position. Naalsund is not just a defensive player but can provide accurate passes with an average of 78.2% per match. Her attacking contribution is valuable, and Manchester United should exploit her attacking/playmaking traits even if they will always play her as a defensive midfielder.
Playmaking and goalscoring abilities
Regarding goalscoring, Naalsund has a relatively excellent sense of goal and usually brings a lot of danger when she receives the ball in dangerous areas. With a powerful shooting ability and a tendency to go for shots from distance, she is a midfielder who can score without needing too many circumstances to be in her favour.
All she needs is to receive the ball near the box and have a little room for shooting. Her determination to score and confidence when executing the action often make her shots more dangerous, knowing that she does not just aim for power but also precision. Combining power and precision has always been a complicated task. Yet, Naalsund appears to excel in terms of shooting from distance with power while succeeding in directing the ball toward angles that goalkeepers can’t always reach.
The following example shows one of her scored shots from distance. This one, in particular, highlights her patience and ability to still accurately shoot the ball accurately despite waiting too much to receive the ball in a surprising way. However, these shots are often dangerous because Naalsund knew that she had to shoot beforehand and was already prepared for how and where to orient her shot.
The following example shows another goal that Naalsund makes look easy, even though we all know that such goals are never easy to score. Naalsund was acting like an advanced playmaker in this action and was passing the ball around until she got the ball back near the edge of the box and saw an interval that allowed her to aim for shooting.
Moreover, it should be said that Naalsund’s first touch is usually excellent, which helps her shoot quickly and succeed in surprising goalkeepers. Most of the time, she only touches the ball twice when controlling and shooting the ball. This simple yet effective approach makes Naalsund a handy player in goalscoring, especially when dealing with second balls, such as in the previous example.
Naalsund can score half-volleys, too and deals with bouncing passes effectively as she becomes even more dangerous whenever she joins the box. This example highlights this ability to shoot while running and when receiving a ball that is difficult to control. Naalsund succeeds in shooting it with power and precision despite being tightly marked and disturbed, too.
She should keep using this goalscoring talent in her favour. Mark Skinner shouldn’t ignore these critical attacking traits and work on improving them even further while instructing Naalsund to shoot whenever possible and be a midfielder who exploits each opportunity in attack. Requiring a player like Naalsund to have defensive duties only would represent a huge mistake, given the attacking talent of the Norwegian international.
Regarding playmaking, Naalsund has a 78.2% passing accuracy average and 64.7% regarding accurate passes towards the final third, which can be considered relatively positive statistics for a midfielder. Naalsund has the techniques needed to vary her passes and choose the suitable technique for each situation, which shows that she is a constantly thinking player and not a passive one who only thinks after receiving the ball. This ability to think about the best possible solution before receiving the ball helps her win some time and execute her plan confidently.
This picture highlights Naaalsund’s vision and varied passing techniques in general. She provided an assist for a teammate that two opponents surrounded, yet Naalsund’s pass with the exterior part of the foot helped her teammate meet the ball at an area that allowed her to reach it before her two markers. This passing precision at the back of the defensive line is very needed at Manchester United, and providing this type of solution will be essential to scoring more goals per season.
Long passing is another technique that Naalsund masters and can be very dangerous at using. She has already provided assists using long passes from midfield that break defensive lines and meet her teammates in critical areas, facilitating the forwards’ mission. The following picture shows one of these assists, and it should be indicated that training on exploiting Naalsund’s long passes at Manchester United would be helpful for the players to understand each other and know each other’s intentions beforehand.
At the same time, briefing Naalsund on when to aim for long passes and when to opt for short passes and build-up from the back would be helpful for everyone.
Defensive abilities
From a defensive perspective, Naalsund can become one of Manchester United’s sources of security in front of defence either when playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation or when being a proper defensive midfielder in the 4-3-3 formation since she has all that is needed to excel in this particular aspect. Naalsund wins 70.9% defensive duels per match, 44.4% aerial duels, and 47.1% loose ball duels, which explains that Naalsund is consistent in terms of her excellent defensive performances. Getting accustomed quickly to the WSL playing style and training on being more aggressive without necessarily committing unnecessary mistakes would help Naalsund become an even more useful defensive midfielder.
As mentioned above, being previously a handball player helps a lot from a defensive perspective since handball is based on defence, and players always need to be aggressive and ready for duels. Applying these standards to football by Naalsund can only be fruitful as it helps her intercept more balls per match (knowing that she makes 4.97 interceptions per game) and also helps her beat her direct opponents in duels.
In terms of tackling, she has an average of 37.5% successful tackles and might need to improve this number a bit as she doesn’t make a lot of tackles per game and often prefers to defend without resorting to sliding tackles. This can be linked to a lack of fluidity and inability to always be quick in executing tackles, therefore preferring normal interception attempts.
This being said, using tackles more often in WSL is needed, and improving Naalsund’s abilities regarding this specific aspect will be very useful. Also, Naalsund’s aggressivity in midfield should be exploited, and using her during the high-pressing phase will also be helpful since she has often executed pressing with success at Brann.
Overall, Naalsund is definitely a solid midfielder with excellent defensive traits. Nevertheless, working on some specific defensive aspects will make her an even more useful defensive midfielder. Also, working in chemistry with the defensive line would be very important to guarantee defensive balance and cover whenever needed.
Conclusion
Following the successful journey of Vilde Bøe Risa at Manchester United, the club made sure to sign a similar profile to Bøe Risa, and they did so with success. However, Naalsund has some different traits to Risa, especially if we consider Naalsund’s excellent defensive abilities, and she has some fairly high chances to succeed at Manchester United and help the team challenge their rivals Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and the rest.
However, integrating the team well, performing convincingly consistently, and having the right mentality will determine whether Naalsund would have a similar, better, or worse journey than the one Bøe Risa had at the club before she joined Atlético Madrid.
