Lizbeth Ovalle is a Mexican winger who plays for Tigres UANL Femenil and has recently been linked to Manchester United Women.
The Red Devils are willing to pay out her release clause to benefit from her footballing services as soon as possible, knowing that competition for signing the player is already fierce, with Manchester United’s offer being the most “impressive and suitable” one.
First, it should be mentioned that the 24-year-old is considered one of the best wingers in Liga MX Femenil and that she has some very impressive traits that can be developed even further, given her age.
Ovalle started her career at Tigres UNAL in 2017, winning two league titles in 2018 and 2019, and the CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship with Mexico’s U-20 team.
She also scored the goal of the tournament at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Her impact has usually been tangible with the teams she has played for, as she is a very disciplined player on the pitch with some very good attacking traits.
With a lot of potential and already excellent attacking abilities, Ovalle is becoming a target for numerous teams, including Manchester United.
Therefore, this Lizbeth Ovalle scout report aims to answer questions such as how the Mexican can be useful to Manchester United’s tactics.
The analysis will also shed light on what characterises the Mexican winger in terms of abilities and how these traits can be improved and developed to make Ovalle a more impactful attacking player.
Positions And Possible Roles At Man United
Ovalle has primarily played as a left winger for most of her career so far, and she masters all the duties required for this position, whether attacking, playmaking or defensive ones.
Moreover, she is used to playing as a striker or as a second striker, forming an attacking duo with another main striker.
At a team like Manchester United, however, she will face fierce competition from excellent players holding the same attacking positions, such as Nikita Parris, Leah Galton, Lucía García and Rachel Williams, who are the team’s regular wingers at the moment.
Therefore, Ovalle will have to adapt herself quickly to the FAWSL playing style since football can be very different for her in England compared to Mexico.
The level of opponents like Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and others is undoubtedly higher than that of most Mexican teams, even though raw individual abilities are not necessarily better in England.
In addition to quick adaptation, she will have to get accustomed to tight spaces and the more compact defending styles of WSL teams and UEFA Women’s Champions League teams, if Manchester United gets the chance to participate in that competition soon.
That being said, Ovalle is undoubtedly a player who can be at the same level as Leah Galton and challenge her for a starting spot on the left wing, given her excellent dribbling and shooting skills and her ability to provide key passes, often using her left foot.
Also, exploiting her excellent set-pieces taking will be a wise choice from Marc Skinner since Ovalle can be very dangerous in this regard.
Moreover, Ovalle can be used on the right wing and might be even more dangerous there, as this area would make her shots even more hazardous and increase the average of her shots on target and xG.
Marc Skinner would likely experiment with Ovalle on the right wing if the deal goes through, as her potential in that position is very high and could represent a positive shift in her career.
The following heatmap highlights that the 24-year-old Mexican international can play in numerous positions in attack and is already accustomed to playing on both wings and inside the box, which would increase her chances of success regardless of which team she joins.
Lizbeth Ovalle Heat Map
Lizbeth Ovalle Goalscoring And Positioning
Ovalle is a winger with excellent goalscoring abilities and can significantly help a team like Manchester United in this regard, knowing that she can be considered a more clinical winger than Galton, who is actually the regular left winger.
With an average of 44.3% in terms of shots on target and an xG of 0.37 at the moment, we believe that Ovalle can become an even more crucial goalscorer and score goals more frequently, as she possesses the shooting abilities needed to do so.
In addition, her very good sense of positioning usually helps her receive the ball in key areas and be able to score more often than her attacking teammates.
If she can exploit this aspect to her advantage, she will also be able to achieve a high number of goals in the WSL by relying on intelligent movements without the ball and towards the box.
The following example highlights Ovalle’s ability to position herself in key areas to receive the ball in dangerous places and ultimately create a lot of danger, leveraging her dribbling skills and shooting accuracy.
Although succeeding in positioning herself at the back of the defensive line without falling in the offside trap would be more complicated to apply against teams with very organised defences like in the WSL, Ovalle’s attempts will indeed allow her to create the necessary danger and succeed in breaking the opposing defensive line even with a lower success rate.
In addition to her fundamental movements, the 24-year-old can be extremely dangerous when penetrating with the ball from the wing, as she is a very quick and efficient dribbler.
Her statistics show that her average successful dribble is 57.9%.
In reality, despite doing so very quickly, she can dribble outstandingly while showing her mastery of ball control and knowing exactly where to go and what to do after dribbling. In other words, Ovalle is a very fast winger who often dribbles past one or two defenders in tight areas without losing balance or time to decide about her next step.
This picture shows one of Ovalle’s goals that highlights her dribbling intelligence and efficient decision-making inside the box.
Her ability to dribble well using her left foot on the left wing is exceptional, as she finds no issues in dribbling externally or internally, without compromising accuracy or creating danger in either case.
After receiving the ball on the left side of the box, Ovalle does not go for the obvious solution and provides a through pass to her teammate.
Still, she decides to make an internal feint to get rid of her direct opponent’s marking and immediately shoots with the interior part of her left foot towards the near post, spectacularly confusing the goalkeeper.
Such goals can only confirm Ovalle’s mastery of her own skills and confidence in her dribbling and shooting abilities.
Using this confidence in her favour when moving to a European team and doing her best not to lose such confidence when playing against bigger teams will determine whether Ovalle would succeed easily in Europe or if things would get a bit complicated for her at first.
The Mexican has also proven throughout these last few seasons that she can be a very dangerous set-piece taker and score many of these set-pieces, especially corners.
Indeed, Ovalle has already been able to score goals from direct corner kicks at Tigres.
Therefore, she can utilise this trait when playing for Manchester United, especially knowing that she can use it to surprise opponents unfamiliar with her shooting abilities.
This picture proves Ovalle’s natural talent when it comes to shooting corner kicks, as she was able to score this one with a curled shot despite the goalkeeper’s attempt to deviate or save the ball.
Dribbling past goalkeepers before scoring is another feature that characterises Ovalle and differentiates her from most other wingers, as this trait is usually associated with talented strikers.
Having the ability to dribble past goalkeepers often means that Ovalle is an outstanding goalscorer and does not get stressed or confused when in front of goal, which keeps her focused and enables her to make the most suitable choice according to the situation.
Therefore, the choice of playing Ovalle as a striker can be understood, as she can be instrumental inside the box in terms of finishing, even though her statistics do not necessarily support this.
This opportunity demonstrates how easily Ovalle can dribble past the goalkeeper and find the fluidity to finish the action well afterwards, without giving the goalkeeper a chance to get close to the ball or showing signs of doubt or hesitation before executing her accurate feint.
In addition to these abilities, the footage of Ovalle shows that she is a player with good shooting skills from a distance, using both her left and right feet.
Also, she is very good at volleys, especially half-volleys, making the choice of playing her as a striker or a second striker even more logical.
If Ovalle succeeds in keeping the same finishing quality when moving to a team like Manchester United, she would surely guarantee a starting spot and become among the best wingers in the league, if not in Europe as well.
Lizbeth Ovalle Playmaking And Assists
With a passing accuracy rate of 73.3% and an average of 64.6% in the final third, we can say that Ovalle is a good passer and has the potential to improve this aspect even further.
More importantly, the 24-year-old must improve her long passing accuracy, which currently stands at 43.6%.
That being said, we cannot undermine Ovalle’s excellent passing impact on the team as a whole, as she often creates assists following her solo dribbling efforts and impressively serves her teammates.
This cross from the left wing comes after an accurate dribble on that side that allowed her to win some time to cross without disturbance and successfully serve her teammate on the far post.
Moreover, it might seem to some of us that Ovalle is a selfish player.
Still, on the contrary, she is an instrumental team player who proved on several occasions to be unselfish by providing passes when noticing better-positioned teammates and preferring to go for the more secure option rather than risking things by herself.
This unselfishness helps Ovalle be even more clinical and valuable to the team, as it guarantees to create danger by finishing the action herself or providing key passes or assists.
The following example highlights this ability and willingness to assist teammates even when she could shoot on goal on this occasion but preferred to provide a pass, knowing that she was disturbed by three players on that right side of the box.
Conclusion
Lizbeth Ovalle has the potential to become one of the best wingers in Europe if she continues to work hard to improve and reach her full potential, whether in terms of playmaking or finishing.
Adapting to new environments and working with suitable head coaches and teammates will certainly determine whether the 24-year-old Mexican international can quickly adapt to different leagues.
Nevertheless, a player with a lot of confidence and mastery of her abilities should remain consistent in terms of performance, even when changing environments.
We believe that Lizbeth Ovalle would impress from day one if the deal becomes concrete.
