Kyra Cooney-Cross — scout report
On deadline day, Arsenal signed Kyra Cooney-Cross and I think I speak for many followers of Damallsvenskan and A-League: wow! Cooney-Cross has had a good World Cup, but that’s part of her journey. So, it's time to have a closer look at her data and video, and see what’s in store for Arsenal supporters worldwide.
Contents
- Data and methodology
- Challenges in research
- Biography
- Seasonal stats
- Defensive actions
- Off ball movement
- Ball progression
- Dribbling
- Key passing
- Under pressure
- Goal contributions
- Final thoughts
Data and methodology
Before we delve into the actual analysis, it’s very important to know where our data comes from and how we intend to use it. The data we are going to use is the league data from the Damallsvenskan and is provided by Wyscout. It was collected on Saturday 16th of September, 2023 and it contains the 2023 season of Damallsvenskan.
The idea is to use data to showcase how Cooney-Cross does in the different metrics that are important to a midfielder and then add video, to show how she does that. To make sure the right thresholds, benchmarks and representation of data are used, I will only include midfielders in this analysis who have played a minimum of 500 minutes across the league in Sweden.
Challenges in research
I haven’t addressed this previously, but there are a few challenges/limitations when you look at comparing players and clubs across different countries.
Damallsvenskan is a decent to good league, but the level of WSL — is one higher. Now, Cooney-Cross is an exciting talent and she can deal with a top league, but she is going from Hammarby (a semi-title contender this year) to a must-win club in the WSL.
Why is that a challenge? This means that the data is viewed differently and that you need to make a translation to the WSL from Damallsvenskan. That’s difficult to do. And, how well will a player coming from a different league do in their first season? Is the level adequate? Is the playing style a good fit? How many minutes will the player play? All these things are a little bit of a gamble because we don’t have many tools to incorporate these things.
We all would do well to remember that.
Biography
- Name: Kyra Cooney-Cross
- Date of birth: 15–02–2002
- Nationality: Australian
- Position: Central midfielder
- Current club: Arsenal
- Previous clubs: Ballarat City (Y), Melbourne Victory, Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne Victory, Hammarby
- International: Australia (39 games)
Seasonal stats
In the visual above you see a percentile radar chart. It compares Cooney-Cross to her peers in midfield in 3 categories: attack, defence and key passing metrics. It’s important to stress that these are indicators of playing style and intent, rather than an emphasis of concrete performance.
When we look at the attacking metrics, you can see that in terms of shooting metrics she really scores lower than her peers, but in the dribbling and progressive runs metrics, she scores in the 82nd and 97th percentile. Meaning that only 16% and 3% are better than her in the league.
If we move to the defending metrics, we can see some interesting figures. Scores quite average in most metrics, but in the possession-adjusted tackles, she really scores high in the 87th percentile. This is an indication that she is more of a reactive player in defence.
Where she really stands out is in the key passing metrics. Ironically not as much in key passes itself, but in all other metrics she scores in the 89th percentile or even higher.
Defensive actions
In the scatterplot above you can see how well she performs in terms of the PAdj metrics of sliding tackles and interceptions. She has 4,28 interceptions per 90 and 0,6 sliding tackles per 90. She scores above average on tackles and under average for interceptions.
The reason we compare these, is to indicate whether a player is more of a reactive player (tackles) or more of a pro-active player (interceptions).
In the video above you can see a selection of interceptions and tackles or Cooney-Cross against some high-quality teams in Damallsvenskan.
Off the ball movement
In off the ball movement it’s of vital importance that a player reacts well in marking zones/players. Also, it’s important to have the right defensive positioning or awareness. In the video below you can see how she does that.
Ball progression
As a central midfielder it’s of great importance that you are not only comfortable with the ball at your feet, but also progress play from the different thirds.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. Szymanski does really well here as she scores above average in the progressive passes metric, and above the average progressive runs metric. There are only a few players better in progressing the ball.
Cooney-Cross has 10,10 progressive passes per 90 and 3,63 progressive runs per 90 in the 2023 Damallsvenskan. This is an indication of her doing very well in relation to her peers.
Dribbling
In the scatterplot above you see how well Cooney-Cross is at dribbling. She scores above average in both metrics with 5,03 dribbles per 90 and a corresponding success rate of 59,12%.
Cooney-Cross is excellent at dribbling as we have seen in the stylistic pizza plot and the scatter plot above, but how does she do that? What makes her so good at dribbling? You can see that in the video below.
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 some of these metrics in the beeswarmplot below.
In the percentile bar graph above, you can see in which metrics of key passing, Cooney-Cross scores the highest. What you can see her is that she scores very high in smart passes, passes to final third, passes to penalty area, through passes, deep completions and progressive passes.
But how does she do that?
Under pressure
As a central midfielder, it’s important that you can handle different situations. Sometimes you have to drop deep or you have to go into difficult situations — you need to be able to act under pressure. In the video below you can see how Cooney-Cross does that.
Goal contributions
Cooney-Cross does sometimes come in the position to shoot, but how does she do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where Cooney-Croyss has conducted her shots in the 2023 Damallsvenskan season. She had 29 shots of which 12 went ongoal. She generated a total xG of 1,09 — the latter meaning that she is underperforming with -1,09 as she hasn’t scored.
She loves to shoot from outside the penalty area as most of her shots come from there. Not very successful, but she loves to take a shot from the central areas.
Shooting isn’t the only thing you can contribute to a (possible) goal. Assisting or second assists are important as well.
She has accumulated 4,13 expected assists throughout the season and given 3 assists. She is slightly underperforming, but her assists and second assists really give an extra edge to her game.
Final thoughts
Cooney-Cross is an exceptionally exciting central midfielder. While she might seem light and not great at the defensive side of the game, she does add so much in attacking and progression. Her passing contribution, the dribbling and his assisting — these qualities will help Arsenal a lot in this WSL season.
