Samantha Kerr- Scout report 2022–2023
Samantha Kerr — not to be mistaken for Kerr from Chelsea- has signed for Bayern München. That’s a really interesting and good signing in my opinion, but there is not a lot known about Samantha Kerr, who plays as an attacking and central midfielder. In this data scouting report, we will use data to look at how well she has performed in the 2022–2023 season in SWPL in Scotland, with her club Rangers.
For a midfielder, and especially an attacking midfielder, there are a few categories that are very important and we will look at here as well:
1. Data overview: percentile rank radar
2. Shots
3. Dribbling
4. Offensive duels
5. Key passing
6. Assists
7. Goals
8. Similar players
The data is collected on 3 September 2023 and comes from Wyscout. It included only women’s football in Scotland for the scatterplots and radars. For the similarity ranks and scores, all women’s leagues are included.
Percentile ranks
In the image above you can the percentile rankings of Kerr compared to her peers (midfielders) in SWPL with at least 900 minutes played. As you can see she does quite well in the shooting metrics in green. Especially in head goals, she scores in the 91st percentile. This means that only 9% of the midfielders score highers.
Whwen we look closer to her assisting metrics, the crosses, the dribbling and the offensive duels — we can see that she scores average or even lower than her peers. This can also have to do with her positioning: she is often in the position to shoot or is in the box to receive such passes.
This also explains why she scores high in touches per box and progressive runs per 90, meaning that she is quite the progressive midfielder on the pitch and she can also play as a second strikers.
It’s good to emphasise that these visuals do tell us about quality, but they are not the final judgment. If anything they tell us more about intention and playing style. That’s good to remember.
Shots
Looking at shot quality can be measured in different things. In the scatterplots below I will look at the volume of the shots and the expected goals that are generated through the shots.
In the shot volume, we can see that Kerr has 1,7 shots per 90 and a shot on target % of 40,91%. This means that she scored above average in both metrics. Not the best, but still slightly above average.
In the scatterplot above you can see the number of shots per 90 of a certain player and the expected goals per 90 of that particular player in question. The reason we look at this is how many shots a player has in a game and how high the probability is of scoring an actual goal.
For Kerr, we see that she has 1,7 shots per 90, but also 0,18 xG per 90. This means that the likelihood of her scoring a goal per 90 minutes is 18%. Which is relatively good in the league as it is above average in both shots and in expected goals.
Dribbling
Dribbling often is linked to wide midfielders of wingers, but it can be a valuable aspect of a central midfielders’ game as well. The ability to control the ball, progress on the pitch, and deal positively with a 1v1 situation with an opponent defender, is not to be underestimated. Especially when you are not playing a typical central forward role, but playing with two strikers and an attacking midfielder behind them.
When looking at Kerr’s dribbles per 90, she underperforms in relation to the average with 2,31 dribbles per 90 minutes. And, her success rate is also below average at 46,67%. This means that she isn’t among the best when compared to her peers. In fact she is below average.
Offensive duels
The importance of offensive duels can be seen in two lights. The first one is to measure the physicality of midfielders and the ability to win offensive duels to create something out of an attack. The second one is to engage in the pressing style set out by a team. The ability to press a direct opponent and win the ball can also be found in this metric of offensive duels.
As you can see here, there are more than average offensive duels per 90 by Kerr with 8,98 offensive duels per 90. But on the success rate, she does score below average with 27,90% of her duels won. This gives us the idea that she is more and more inclined to the shooting than in the other areas.
Key passing
In the visual above you can see the key passes in percentile ranks of Kerr in the 2022–2023 season compared to her peers. What you can see is that she does really well in second assists, third assists, passes to final third and deeply completions.
Something she could participate more in, are the key passes, the through passes and deep completed crosses, but she doesn’t have to. Remember that these are indications of playing style rather than definitive data on performance.
Assists
Expected metrics seem simple but can become incredibly complicated when combining things. In the scatterplot above I’ve taken a look at the probability of the pass becoming an assist per 90 minutes and looking at the actual assists of a player per 90 minutes.
Sam Kerr scores under average in both metrics. She has 0,08 expected assists per 90 and 0,05 assists per 90. This means that she is underperforming on her expected assists with -0,03.
Goals
In the end the most important thing for a striker is his output: goals. I’m looking at the probability of scoring a goal with a certain short and looking at the actual goals scored by a particular player per 90 minutes.
Kerr does quite well here, in this area. She has 0,18 expected goals per 90 and 0,23 goals per 90 — which means she is overperforming her xG with +0,05, which is a small number for sure, but still an indication of that she capitalises on the shooting chances.
Similar players to Kerr
When we look at similar players in teams or playing styles, we get the players above that are similar to Kerr. As she is going to the German Bundesliga and to play for Bayern, it’s interesting that she is quite similar in playing style to Lattwein and Roord. If used properly, we might see another significant attacking player in the Frauen-Bundesliga.
