Rose Lavelle 2019: OL Reign Opposition Analysis – scout report

This tactical analysis is in collaboration with Gavin Robertson’s opposition analysis for OL Reign on Washington Spirit. This first of two scout reports will highlight and detail Washington Spirit’s two most important players and detail their strengths, weaknesses, and how best to plan against them. The first scout report will be on Rose Lavelle. We will conduct an initial data analysis to identify her strongest and weakest statistics and if it can give us an indication of her potential strengths and weaknesses.

Lavelle is a 24-year-old central and attacking midfielder playing for Washington Spirit in the NWSL. Her role is that of a box-to-box midfielder making her skill set based on movement, positioning, and chance creation through dribbling and passing. This type of player would rely on intelligence in positioning to make smart off-the-ball movements to create space and get into positions to shoot or provide the final pass. While she has had an inconsistent few seasons in the NWSL, her success at last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup was an example of the type of player she is and can aid us in this scout report. 

Data Analysis

This data profile will provide us with an initial impression of the type of player Lavelle is and where she is likely to be strongest. Based on the graph above, we can immediately see how Lavelle is heavily reliant on playing key passes for Washington Spirit. Additionally, we can see some stretch towards long passes and passes into the final third. What this tells us is that Lavelle seems to be the team’s playmaker using her passing range to create opportunities for her team. However, her assists per 90 don’t seem to stack up, so there is some discrepancy when it comes to her conversation rate. Her recoveries per 90 seem to be a highlight here too, which could mean she is able to put herself about in midfield. This could also highlight her skill or role in a pressing system. Now we’ll look further into the data and rank Lavelle against other central midfielders in the NWSL against different metrics to find her strengths and weaknesses.

This data analysis comparing Lavelle against other central and attacking midfielders in the NWSL will tell us how she fares against them. We will look at three main categories for comparison including passing, ball progression, and defensive actions. The metrics involved will be Progressive runs vs Passes to penalty area per 90, Dribbles per 90 vs Touches in box, and Expected Goals (xG) vs Expected Assists (xA). These metrics will help us understand how well she places based on the profile we highlighted above and give us a better insight into her strengths and weaknesses. All the data used is derived from the 2019 season with players who have played 450 minutes or more.