Rosa Kafaji Scouting Report: Arsenal Women’s Swedish Ronaldinho & Miedema Replacement

Swedish wonderkid Rosa Kafaji has joined Arsenal Women on a long-term contract from BK Häcken; she was their top scorer last season.

Arsenal, therefore, have acquired a very useful player to try replacing the former team captain and striker Vivianne Miedema, who moved to Manchester City.

In fact, Kafaji is not just coming to replace Miedema per se but can also interpret other different roles on the pitch, especially in midfield.

It is believed that these two moves will make both teams more powerful on the attacking front and eventually make the competition between Chelsea and Manchester United for the WSL title and the UEFA Women’s Champions League spots fiercer.

Kafaji is actually 21 years old and has already played with two teams before joining Arsenal.

She started her footballing career at AIK in 2019 and stayed there for a few seasons as she helped them get promoted to the Damallsvenskan in 2020 by scoring 12 goals in 18 matches.

Afterwards, she moved to BK Häcken in 2022 and spent two seasons with them, scoring 17 goals overall.

More importantly, she was picked out by UEFA as one of ten players to watch in 2024 after scoring four of Häckens seven goals in the UWCL edition of last season, including her goals against Real Madrid.

It should also be said that Kafaji had an important role in BK Häcken’s surprising results in the UWCL since they were capable of reaching the quarter-finals that season.

Also, it should be said that Kafaji finished the 2023/24 season as Häcken’s top scorer with 15 goals.

Moreover, her participation with the Swedish national team will surely allow her to gain more experience and become much more mature as a player.

She made her debut with Sweden in 2021 but was not consistent enough in terms of call-ups, as she has played nine times for the national team so far.

That being said, she played well whenever she got the opportunity and then got the chance to start two games in the Nations League playoff games against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

She was able to score her first goal with the national team during one of those two games, and now she has more confidence to play even better with the national team and try to snatch more playing time at the expense of the older key players.

Perhaps her most remarkable national team appearance was at Wembley coming as a substitute against England and providing an assist as well.

It will, therefore, be very important to build on this goal and performance to be much more present and impactful with the national team. Why not fight for a starting spot in the future to play in the upcoming continental and international competitions?

In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will therefore be exploring the Swedish international’s goalscoring and especially playmaking traits to see what she can add to Arsenal’s tactics.

Plus, the analysis will shed light on the similarities between her and Miedema and what positions and roles she is able to interpret within this team.

Rosa Kafaji Position & Roles In Arsenal Womens Tactics

As mentioned briefly above, Kafaji is coming to replace Miedema, play different positions, and provide many tactical solutions to Jonas Eidevall’s side.

In fact, Kafaji herself stated that her idol is the Brazilian playmaker Ronaldinho and that she sees herself fulfilling a similar role on the pitch.

In other words, she likes to play as an advanced playmaker and provide key passes, penetrate towards the box, and shoot from a distance.

Kafajis abilities allow her to perform well behind the strikers, as she has the agility and pace needed to always be dangerous.

Moreover, her dribbling and penetrating skills make her even more suitable for this role.

Suppose we add her excellent vision and passing abilities to what we mentioned above.

This means that Kafaji can interpret that role perfectly well, even in a more difficult league like the WSL.

At the same time, such traits make Kafaji capable of interpreting the central midfielder position well, too, as she was used as one on numerous occasions before moving to Arsenal.

Kafaji is not restricted to midfield positions, but she has also proven previously that she can do very well upfront, especially as a second striker or in an attacking duo.

This is mainly because she moves a lot with and without the ball and has what is needed to be both a provider of passes to the main striker and a player who can threaten the goal with dangerous shots whenever possible and from different angles.

The Swedish wonderkid has already played according to numerous formations and in all of the mentioned positions and will, therefore, have no problem getting accustomed to Arsenal’s playing style and especially exploiting the chances that she will get within the team, no matter which position.

More importantly, Kafaji will have the advantage over many other key players to get consistent playing time, mainly because she masters a plethora of positions in midfield and in attack.

It is also believed that Eidevall can experiment with Kafaji and try using her as a winger when needed since she can also do well in that position.

Therefore, Kafaji is quite similar to Miedema in that both players can play as advanced playmakers and strikers, as well as wingers when needed.

The difference is that Miedema is more of a main striker, and Kafaji is more of a playmaker/second striker.

Also, Kafaji can be used as a central midfielder and interprets that role well, while Miedema is not a good enough central midfielder.

Rosa Kafaji Playmaking And Assists

Kafaji provides 72.9% accurate passes per game, 0.14 assists, and 58.5% accurate passes towards the final third.

These numbers are not extraordinary, yet they can be improved a lot if Kafaji works harder on consistently delivering excellent performances, especially in playmaking.

Kafaji has the abilities needed to provide key passes and assists regularly.

It will be fundamental for Eidevall to work with her on this specific aspect in order to make her a key player within Arsenal’s attacking plans.

She has already provided assists using accurate crosses from the wings and using key passes that require a lot of vision and accurate decision-making.

Another important trait that characterises Kafaji is her strong character and ability to perform very convincingly when under pressure and when playing against tougher teams.

This intelligent assist that she provided to her teammate in the UWCL game against Real Madrid showcases her big impact on such occasions.

The assist also shows her excellent vision and ability to time her pass very well to suit the movement of her teammate.

Moreover, her decision to provide the pass to that specific teammate and not to the one who was more in the middle of the box despite not having so much time to make the right decision shows that Kafaji is someone who reacts quickly and intelligently when being put in complicated situations.

In addition to providing key short passes that break lines and exploit the confusion of opposing defensive lines, Kafaji proved on numerous occasions that she has some excellent crossing abilities.

She executes her crosses with class and elegance, usually creating danger and goals with these long passes.

She tends to d