Alessia Russo — Scout report 22/23
Manchester United almost did it this season, pushing Chelsea to the last matchday for the title. In the end, it was the London outfit that triumphed, but Manchester United showed what they were worth and managed to clinch qualification for UWCL. A pivotal role in the rise for the club has been Alessia Russo. She is often characterised as a typical striker who can score goals anywhere, everywhere and anytime. But how much of it is actually true?
In this article, we will look closer to her 2022/2023 WSL season with Manchester United.
Now, of course, it’s no question whether Russo is ready for glory at the domestic level, but how would she do in a more established top side? How has she been doing this season compared to her peers?
We will use data and video to illustrate how Russo has done in the WSL 2022/2023 and we will focus on the striker position.
Contents
- Biography
- Seasonal stats
- Positions/roles
- Ball progression
- Dribbling
- Key passing
- Shooting
- Assisting
- Expected goal contribution
- Comparison with peers
- Final thoughts
Biography
- Name: Alessia Russo
- Date of birth: 08–02–1999
- Nationality: English
- Position: Striker
- Contract expires: 30–6–2023
- Current club: Manchester United
- Previous clubs: Charlton Athletic (Y), Chelsea (Y), Chelsea, Brighton and Hove Albion, North Carolina Tar Heels, Brighton, Manchester United
- International: England (21 games)
The question is when we look at Russo: what profile does she have? She is good at scoring goals and providing assists. She is good in the air and can link up pretty well. These things might suggest she could do a fantastic job as a striker.
We see her as a classical striker, but she can do much more on the pitch. Not only is she good at the goalscoring aspect of the game, but can also hold the ball very well, wins aerial duels and can be used as a decoy in certain set plays. She could be more versatile than we think, and that’s the reason that we are looking at her today.
Seasonal stats
If we look at this specific pizza plot, we can say a few things. But before we turn into the meaning, it’s good to stress that this mostly gives us a stylistic idea of the player rather than a definitive performance one. It’s also a general template used for all players, so it just gives us an indication.
What we can see is in the attacking metrics is that she scores well in the shooting metrics compared to her peers, not great at the assists metrics, but is again high in the shot-creating actions and the expected goal contribution — which can be expected for an attacker.
In terms of the passing data, she does perform on average scoring low on the progressive passes and higher on the progressive passes received, and the dribbles. This can also be expected due to her position.
The defending metrics, aren’t something you should pay too much attention to if you would like to rate her overall, but two metrics she scores high compared to her peers: balls cleared and aerial duels won — this means that she is doing very well in the air and when in defensive mode, she can clear a lot of balls. A valuable quality to have when you are defending set pieces for example.
Here you can see the more complete radar percentile ranks on the left, as you can see Russo scores pretty well overall. There are only two metrics where she scores below the 50th percentile rank (Smart pass %, Defensive actions and Assists)
On the right you can see the same information, how does she score compared to her peers, but this time you see it in a different visual + the actual raw data is included as well.
Positions/roles
In terms of positions, there is not a lot of variety in where she plays. She plays as the striker in the different formations that Manchester United plays: 4–2–3–1, 4–3–3, 4–4–2 and others. The point is not to say Manchester United play this way and this way, but to emphasise that she can play as the sole striker, in a two or as the striker interacting with the wingers.
The more interesting question is what role she can play in an attack. There are four different roles in the attack, but only two are relevant: Target striker and goalscoring striker.
Here we took the data and put emphasis and weight on the key metrics for both roles. What’s interesting is that Russo is in the top 15 of the target striker role according to z-scores, but for the goalscoring role — for what we mainly praise her — according to the data she only has a score of 58,29 — which is very close to the mean score.
Now, what happens if we compare her to a winger profile vs her peers?
Russo scores 9th of all strikers if we look at the wide playmaker role on the winger. It shows that she has the qualities to drift wide and make something happen from the wide areas or half space by inverting. When we look at the classic winger profile, she scores just above the mean score again. It seems that the more traditional roles aren’t that suitable for Russo.
Ball progression
The modern striker isn’t only concerned with dribbling and crosses — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Russo does well here as hse scores above average in the progressive passes metric, and above the progressive runs metric. There are only a few players better in progressing the ball.
Dribbling
How good is Alessia Russo in her dribbling? Let’s find out in this scatterplot below:
In the scatterplot above you can see how well the player are scoring in terms of volume of dribbling and the success rate of those dribbles. As you can see Russo has the fourth most dribbles per 90 of all the attackers,but in the successful metric, she isn’t exactly most successful. However, for the volume she does pretty well.
As you can see in the three examples above, Russo does have a specific set of skills when dribbling. She has pace with space in front of her and can accelerate, but her dribbling is very physical and that’s how she can win 1v1s and go past defensive players. Often she also comes from a little bit more wide, which helps dragging defenders from their position.
Key passing
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see that in the beeswarmplot below regarding key passes
As you can see in the graph above, Russo scores quite high above average in this specific metric compared to her peers. What’s interesting is how she makes key passes. She scores in the high average, but the intent of her through passes does tell a lot about how she can help in an attack.
Russo has a good technique to pass the ball and that also can be seen in the way she conducts her key passes, through passes in particular. She positions herself well, can do it one-touch and knows how much weight to give to the ball each time.
Shooting
Watch all her goals in this link above.
In the scatterplot above you can see the metrics of shots per 90 and expected goals per 90 combined. As you can Russo scores above average for both metrics, with only Kerr and Shaw scoring better in the volume of shots and the xG generated.
When we look at the expected goals and the actual goals we see that she averages 0,65 xG per 90 and 0,55 goals per 90 — this means that she is slightly underperforming on her xG.
Russo does sometimes come in the position to shoot, but how does he do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where Russo has conducted her shots in the 2022/2023 Eredivisie season. She had 72 shots of which 10 went in goal. 40,3% of her shots were on target and she generated a total xG of 6,7 — the latter meaning that she is overperforming with +3,3.
Assists
As you can see she has an expected assists number of 0,11 per 90 and while others do score better on that front, she has an actual assist number of 0,04 per 90 — which means he is underperforming quite significantly per 90 minutes.
Expected goal contributions
If we look at the expected goal contributions per 90 minutes we can see something very interesting. Russo is expected to contribute to roughly 0,77 goals per 90 minutes. Which in this case makes her one of the more complete strikers, because he seems to be equally good in finishing as in creating — which makes him a rather unique player.
Comparisons
Final thoughts
Alessia Russo has had a great season with her Manchester United, but there is always the question of whether she can show in the top domestic games or in Europe. And, rightfully so. Domestically, however, in most games, she has become a very prolific player in both goals and assists. She also poses a great threat to any defence with his pace, 1v1s, and dribbles.
In terms of providing and contributing directly to a goal, she does really well with his goals and assists.
