ACFC Central Midfielders
For the purposes of this article, I’m not including Attacking Midfielders, so we’ll take a look at Hammond, Rodríguez, Zelem, Nabet, and Henry. There’s obviously a little bit of crossover in positions, but that’s how I think it went most of the time. Dougherty Howard was a tough one to classify, as she spent significant time in both positions, but ultimately, I thought that Attacking Mid was the better spot to include her.
Madison Hammond
Was anyone else surprised that Hammond had more minutes than any other ACFC midfielder? She played in 23 matches with 15 starts for 1,384 minutes. All of these are career highs for her, and she even had a one game suspension for yellow card accumulation. In all likelihood, she would have had even more playing time. Midfielders are one of the hardest positions to gather quantitative date about. Some places try to put a value on each pass, usually does that pass move the ball closer to a scoring position, but I think that this is unfair. Some midfielders may only be making the safe passes, but that’s also exactly what their coach has asked them to do. I think that Hammond is exactly this type of player. Especially since Zelem joined the team, I think that Hammond’s role is to keep possession and keep the ball moving, while Zelem is tasked with the riskier, high-reward passes.
Passing Numbers
Hammond was 7th on Angel City in Total Pass Attempts, and 6th in Pass Completion Percentage, although it’s worth noting that of the five players ahead of her, two are goalies, and two are centerbacks. The thing that stands out to me is how good she was at spreading the ball around. In Long Passing, especially (Passes of more than 30 yards), Hammond was 4th on the team in Completed Long Passes, but actually had the highest Long Pass Completion Percentage (70.6%). She was also tied for 2nd on the team in Switches (5). Five Switches may not seem like a lot, but this play is something of a rarity in the NWSL; it puts her in the 92nd percentile of midfielders.
I think that players in her role are often making more backward or sideways passes, and Hammond definitely has her share of those, but she does progress the ball pretty well, too. She was 4th on the team in Total Progressive Passes (67), though that drops to 6th if we look at Progressive Passes per 90 (4.35, minimum 270 minutes played). That also puts her in the 58th percentile of NWSL midfielders for Progressive Passes, so at worst, she’s league average, but decidedly not below average. At best, she’s finding ways to get the ball forward, even though her role is to make the safe pass. Another way of looking at it is that of the Total Distance of her Passes (9685 yards), 2642 yards were Progressive, or 27.28%.
Offensive Contribution
Hammond’s personal numbers went down in this regard. In 2023, she had 1 Goal + 1 Assist from 1.7 xG + xAG, while this year it was 0G + 0A from .9 xG + xAG. Shots went down slightly, from 11 Shots (2 On Target) to 9 Shots (2 on Target), and her average Shooting Distance also increased by 2.3 yards.
Her Shot Creating Actions went up dramatically, though. She had 10 SCAs in 2023 and 25 in 2024. On a per 90, that went up from .75 to 1.62. This still only puts her in the 28th percentile of NWSL midfielders, but I still see this as a positive. She’s growing every year, and again, I don’t think that her role necessarily was to get the ball into scoring positions. Also, of those 25 SCAs, 23 of them were Live Passes, which is also exactly what I’d want to see from someone in her position. And when we adjust for Live Pass SCAs per 90, that puts Hammond in the 42nd percentile of NWSL midfielders, .32 below average.
Defensive Actions
Hammond finished 8th on Angel City with 43 Tackles + Interceptions, which was 2nd amongst midfielders behind Rodríguez. This is down slightly from last year. On a per 90 basis, Hammond had 2.93 T + I last year and 2.79 T + I this year. Her Tackling Win Percentage was pretty good (62.5%), which is in the 86th percentile of midfielders, even though her actual number of Tackles (1.69) was only in the 20th percentile. Hammond also had more Tackles in the Defensive Third (13) than the Middle Third (11). In the air, Hammond was 9th on the team with a 51.9% Aerial Win rate, which is actually in the 71st percentile of NWSL midfielders.
My personal observations on this are that Hammond usually had a lot of ground to cover. With the fullbacks getting high up the pitch, I remember seeing many occasions where a giveaway in midfield would lead to a counterattack in which Hammond was the only midfielder who was back. Angel City doesn’t really set traps to force the ball carrier into a blind alley before they dispossess her. Consequently, most of the time Hammond is trying to win the ball back in the open field. I think that her defensive positioning can improve, but I also think that we’d see her defensive numbers skyrocket with a little more structure around her.
xG +/-
Hammond has the 6th best Team xG Differential on the team when she’s on the field, which is -.5, and of course, is behind the outlier trio of Nielsen, Anderson, and Henry. When we compare the Team xG when Hammond is On vs. Off, she’s 8th on the team with a +.57, and again behind that outlier trio. In Hammond’s case, this translated to actual goals, too. In Team Goal Differential On vs Off, Hammond was 7th on the team, with a +.43. And with Hammond having played 59.1% of the available minutes this season, we get a very good sense of how the team performs both with and without her.
Additional Thoughts
I feel like I had the most arguments with people in Angel City comments sections about Hammond. It kind of blows my mind that so many people think that she’s a bad player. I don’t see her as a star midfielder yet, but certainly better than average. Most importantly, I think that she’s one of the few Angel City players that is getting better with each season. I think that Hammond does her job well, which I primarily see as keeping possession, keeping the ball moving, and advancing it when possible. She’s already one of the best on the team with her range of passes, and I’d like to see even more of that next year. Right now, I think that her offensive contributions are a bonus, but if she could grow that aspect, while still remaining a tidy midfield distributor, I think that she could start to move into the star category. But the fact that she already has such positive numbers, despite the fact that she’s definitely in a supporting role, is a really good sign. I also think that her defensive positioning can improve, especially in terms of readiness when Angel City is in possession, but I also expect that it will. Whoever the new coach is, and the system they implement, will be a major factor, but I expect Hammond to be a consistent starter next year. Going into her Age 27 season, I think that Hammond is just getting into her best years.
Rocky Rodríguez
It’s hard for me to look at Rodríguez’s season without considering the transfer fee that Angel City paid for her. I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into all of the details again, but $275,000 is the most ACFC paid for any one player for the 2024 season, and the third highest fee in club history (I’m counting the multiple deals to get Alyssa Thompson’s draft pick as one fee). So whether it’s fair or not, a fee like that puts expectations on a player. And while I think that in some ways Rodríguez had a good season, I don’t think that she lived up to those expectations.
Rodríguez had 13 starts and completed the full 90 minutes on 6 of those occassions. She had an additional 7 substitute appearances, so all together, she played 1,139 minutes. There were 4 matches in which she was an unused substitute, which is the most times that has happened to her in her career. The worst sign was that after the Olympic break, after Zelem joined the team, Rodríguez played in 7 of the 10 games with only 1 start. And she was on the bench as an unused sub for the three games in which she did not play. Rodríguez had only 141 of a possible 900 minutes after the Olympic break.
Offensive Contributions
I want to start here because at least the marketing side of Angel City constantly referred to Rodríguez as a No 10 after she was signed, and that did include a quote from Becki Tweed. I was always baffled by this. I’ve never viewed Rodríguez as No 10 in the NWSL. The most goal contributions she’s had were 6, and that was back in 2019. She hadn’t had an assist in two seasons. However, with how things played out, we don’t actually know what role was envisioned for her. She missed all of preseason at the W Gold Cup with Costa Rica, and then missed the first 2 matches of the NWSL season with a concussion. Henry also missed preseason due to her loan, and then, of course, was traded after Matchday 4. We never saw the two of them on the field together for even a minute. As the two most high profile midfielders on the team, I think that there must have been some plan for how they’d play together, and the presence of each should impact the role of the other. But we don’t really know if the role that Rodríguez did play was what was envisioned, or if it was just how things played out.
Rodríguez had 1 Goal and 0 Assists from her first season with Angel City from 2.3 xG + xAG. This is in the ballpark, though slightly lower from her last two seasons in Portland, in which she had 1G-0A in 2023 and 2G-0A in 2022. But in those seasons her xG + xAG per 90 was .21 and .34 respectively, while it went down to .18 this year for Angel City. So even if Rodríguez was in a deeper role than expected this year, that is at least comparable to where she played in Portland, and the production went down slightly.
Rodríguez leads the midfielders in this article with 17 Shots (6 On Target) and with 1.7 xG, but with the caveat that she did occassionally play in the No 10 spot. That puts her in the 63rd percentile of NWSL midfielders for Shots and the 70th percentile for npxG.
Shot Creating Actions are also not great. Rodríguez’s 1.74 SCAs per 90 puts her in the 33rd percentile of midfielders, and that has also gone down from her time in Portland (2.26 in 2023 and 3.46 in 2022). Rodríguez finishes just above Hammond in SCAs per 90, but just below her in total SCAs. And looking specifically at playmaking, Rodríguez’s .5 xAG and 1.2 xA are good for 28th and 54th percentile respectively.
Passing
Rodríguez was always very involved in the play. Her 49.4 Pass Attempts per 90 was the highest of her career, at least as long as they’ve been recording that stat, and puts her in the 83rd percentile of the league. Her Pass Completion Percentage was not as good: 78% (59th percentile). Long Passes stands out as Rodríguez’s best range; she was 35 of 58 or 60.3% (77th percentile). Short and Medium Passes were 57th and 41st percentile respectively.
Progressive Passes also positively stand out. Rodríguez was 3rd on Angel City in Total Progressive Passes, and 4th in Progressive Passes per 90. Compared to the rest of the league, Rodríguez was in the 80th percentile. Passes into the Attacking Third were good (4.03 per 90, 83rd percentile), but Key Passes were not (.32 per 90, 7th percentile). Passes into the Penalty Area was just about average (.63 per 90, 48th percentile). Through Balls are the other category in which Rodríguez really excelled. Her .4 per 90 was in the 98th percentile of NWSL midfielders.
Defensive Statistics
Individual defensive numbers look quite good for Rodríguez, all around. Tackles + Interceptions (4.35 per 90, 78th percentile), Tackles (3.08, 83rd percentile) were much higher than Interceptions (1.26 per 90, 58th percentile). Interestingly, though, Rodríguez had more Tackles in the Defensive Third rather than the Middle Third, but that does correspond with my observations regarding the centerbacks. Aerials also looked really good: she was in the 98 percentile of Aerial Win Percentage (81%) and 81st percentile of Aerials Won (1.34 per 90). She was also 87th percentile in Clearances, but again, I don’t view that as a good thing, and especially for a midfielder. Yes, it is necessary, but no, it’s not good. Rodríguez also had the most Fouls Committed on Angel City with 31, 3 for Yellow Cards. That puts her in the 5th percentile of NWSL midfielders.
Possession
Total Touches were in the 89th percentile, which is good, and as I said, Rodríguez definitely got involved. But it’s a problem for me when she averages 63.13 Touches per game, but only attempts 49.62 Passes per game. She’s also averaging 1.34 Shots per game, but that means she has 12.17 Touches per game in which she doesn’t even attempt either a Pass or a Shot, regardless of the outcome. For comparison, that number is 8.23 for Zelem, 8.69 for Lo’eau LaBonta, and 8.65 for Danny Colaprico.
Carries look better for Rodríguez. She’s in the 77th percentile of Carries, and interestingly, only in the 51st percentile for Progressive Carries, but the 70th percentile for Progressive Carrying Distance. When she did take the ball upfield, it was often for very long runs. But this is the whole point of looking at statistics to me. I can remember some great runs by Rodríguez this past season, and I bet you can too. But in acutality, they don’t happen with much consitency. Take-ons, unfortunately, are another story. Rodríguez was in the 83rd percentile of Take-Ons Attempted (2.21 per game), but only in the 17th percentile of Successful Take-On Percentage (35.7%). And just a side note as a curiosity: the midfielder with the worst Successful Take-On Percentage in the NWSL was Savannah McCaskill with a 14.3% Success Rate. But back to Rodríguez, she was also in the 20th percentile for Miscontrols, and 25th percentile for Times Dispossed.
xG +/-
This is unfortunately the section that looks the worst for Rodríguez. Her Team xG Differential per 90 was -.81, which was the 2nd worst rate on Angel City (min 90 minutes played). It’s even worse when we compare the xG Differential On-Field vs. Off-Field. Rodríguez’s -1.07 was the worst mark in the squad. And this comes from both sides of the ball. Rodríguez had the 3rd worst Team xG For per 90 (1.2, min 90 minutes played) and the 3rd worst Team xG Allowed (2.02, also min 90 minutes played).
Additional Thoughts
My impression of Rodríguez has always been that she’s an all-around midfielder, but not a specialist. I think that a lot of times she was asked to be more of a specialist, whether that’s a No. 10, or as a deep lying playmaker. I don’t think that we ever saw her deployed as an out and out destroyer, but I don’t think that’s the role for her either, despite her Tackling rates. I don’t think that she covers enough ground. She’d probably be best playing Hammond’s role, but Hammond plays it better. Which means that Rodríguez is probably best coming off the bench. She can impact games, but I also think that she’s just too much of a liability. I think that she’s best served as an additional midfielder at the end of a game. Whether that’s bringing her on in place of a defender to chase a goal, or in place of an attacker to protect a lead. A lot of that, for me, comes down to how much ground she covers. I really wish that I had the data for this, but I can’t shake the memory of that Gotham game when she kept letting Rose Lavelle get away from her. That’s just one match, but it illustrates my concerns. I also don’t have another explanation as to why she has the worst On-Field vs Off-Field Team xG Differential. And again, I think that we have to view her season in the context of how much money it took to bring her in. When you spend $275,000 on a player, you need much better results than this.
Katie Zelem
Zelem, of course, was the big midseason acquisition from Manchester United, joining in August on a free transfer. She may be third on this list in minutes played, but that’s total minutes. In terms of minutes per match played, Zelem is the midfield leader with 74. And as she hadn’t played a match since May, I think it was fair for her to have a couple substitute appearances before taking over. She made her first start at home against the Reign on Sept. 6th, and proceeded to start every match after that point, going the full 90 minutes in 5 of those games. Of course things could change with whoever becomes the new Head Coach, but right now, it looks like Zelem is in charge of the midfield. It all runs through her.
Passing
Zelem’s Passing Completion Percentage was 75%, which is only the 45th percentile of NWSL midfielders. However, in her last season at Man U, Zelem posted a 75.4% Completion Percentage, so this actually isn’t out of the ordinary. What does stand out is the sheer volume of passes that Zelem makes. Just looking at Pass Attempts per 90, Zelem has more than 16 more Attempts than any other Angel City midfielder (66.0 to 49.4). In fact, Zelem led the NWSL, on a per 90 basis, in Pass Attempts (66.0), Completed Passes (49.72), and Total Passing Distance (858.15 yards). Usually about 6 of those Pass Attempts were from dead balls, but her 59.76 Live Ball Pass Attempts also led the league. And this also applies to all passing ranges. She was, at a minimum, in the 93rd percentile of Short, Medium, and Long Pass Attempts and Completions. Completion Percentage is another stoy, though. Short Passes (84.9%) was 60th percentile, Medium Passes (81.2%) was 45th percentile, and Long Passes (46.4%) was in the 23rd percentile. Just from my own observations, I think that there were occasssions that Zelem got the pass wrong, and there were also occassions were her teammates didn’t do what she expected, e.g. made the wrong run. I think that with a proper preseason, and more time together, we’ll see more of these passes connecting next year.
In terms of how productive these passes were, I think that Zelem still has a good showing. Progressive Passes (4.84) were in the 64th percentile, but Progressive Passing Distnace (247.98 yards) was in the 93rd percentile. She makes those passes count. xAG was 52nd percentile, while xA was 66th percentile. Her 1.45 Key Passes was 75th percentile, Passes into the Attacking Third was 92nd percentile, while Passes into the Penalty Area was 72nd percentile. On that last one, though, Ashley Sanchez is considered the league leader, so I think it’s fair to say that some of those players above Zelem on the list also play a little higher up the pitch.
Offensive Contributions
I’ll start with Shot Creating Actions, as that’s a nice segue from passing. Zelem had the highest SCAs per 90 (4.11) on Angel City and actually finished 3rd on the team in Total SCAs, despite only joining midseason. Of her 34 SCAs, 20 were from Live Passes, 12 were from Dead Ball Passes, and 1 each from Shots and Take-Ons. League-wide, Zelem’s 4.11 puts her in the 92nd percentile of NWSL midfielders (80th percentile for Live Passes and 99th percentile for Dead Ball Passes).
Some of you may be saying, “This is hard to believe, because Angel City didn’t really seem to get better after she arrived.” And that’s kind of true. In terms of actual contributions, Zelem had 0 Goals and 1 Assist. She only had 2 Goal Creating Actions, and both of them were on the same play in which she got her assist: Press’ goal away to North Carolina. The chances that Zelem created didn’t really translate into Goals. For me, this is just unsustainably bad luck. Looking at her ratio of GCAs to SCAs, only 5.8% of her SCAs resulted in an actual Goal being created (and I’m even cheating here since both GCAs were on one Goal). As a team, Angel City averaged 9.79%, and the league average was 9.21%. So my expectation would be that next season, Zelem will positively regress to the mean, at least. I’d expect a 5 Assist season from her in 2025 if she’s healthy. And if Gilles comes back, or we bring in another really good target for set pieces, than I’d expect even more due to the number of dead ball plays that she makes.
In terms of shooting, Zelem has never been a prolific goal scorer, but she has had a few. For Angel City, she did not score, but she did take 10 Shots (1 On Target) for .5 xG. Her 1.21 Shots per 90 was just below Rodríguez for the most by an ACFC midfielder, and puts her in the 57th percentile. Her average Shot Distance of 19.2 yards was the furthest by a midfielder as well. She had 1 Goal for Man U last season, and I think 1 or 2 is about what we might expect over a full season from Zelem next year. Mostly, I feel like the role of a midfielder like Zelem, from a shooting perspective, is just to keep the opposing defense honest, and I beliece she’ll accomplish that.
Defensive Statistics
I think that Zelem likes a Tackle, and her stats don’t look bad here. Her 2.9 Tackles per 90 is in the 80th percentile, and I’m sure that plenty of the midfielders above her are more out-and-out destroyers. As is the ACFC trend, she is in the 84th percentile in Tackles in the Defensive Third, 67th percentile in the Middle Third, and 58th in the Attacking Third. The Middle and Attacking Third numbers maybe don’t look impressive, but in the context that Angel City was dead last in Middle Third Tackles and 11th in Attacking Third Tackles, I think that Zelem ranking above the average midfielder is pretty good. Her Interceptions (.97 per 90) puts her in the 45th percentile. For a player of her height (she’s listed at 5’-4”), she did very well in the air, winning 54.5% of her Aerial Duels, good for 80th percentile. She also had 1.33 Blocks per Game, 54th percentile. Her 1.93 Clearances per game (78th percentile) are still more than I’d like to see, but better than Rodríguez’s 2.36. Zelem committed 12 Fouls (2 Yellow Cards) and drew 5.
Possession
As was already noted, Zelem is very involved. Her 75.4 Touches per Game is the most for Angel City (min 300 minutes played), with most of those Touches (39.5) happening in the Middle Third. Amongst the ACFC midfielders, Zelem had the fewest Miscontrols (1.08), and only Nabet had fewer Times Dispossessed (1.2). She didn’t attempt many Take-Ons (1.09, 49th percentile), but she was very successful when she did (77.8%, 96th percentile). I think that the buildup in her Assist to Press is a great example of this. For me Zelem is usually just trying to evade pressure, rather than dribble past people. She has a high number of Carries (38.23, 95th percentile), but usually not Progressive Carries (.48, 23rd percentile). I look at this as an extension of Zelem evading pressure and keeping possession. I think that she primarily tries to move the ball with a pass, rather than bringing it herself, so the carries are just trying to create that passing lane, rather than an end in and of themselves.
xG +/-
If we eliminate anyone who played 270 minutes or less, Zelem had the 4th best Team xG Differential on the team, both in terms of Total Team xG Differential and on a per 90 basis. In terms of On-Field vs Off-Field xG Differential, Zelem was 7th on the team (same minimum of 271 minutes) with a +.21 per 90. As I’ve already talked about a little, this didn’t translate into actual goals, as Zelem’s actual On-Field vs Off-Field Goal Differential was -.15 per 90. This was due to both offensive and defensive underachieving. When Zelem was on the field, Angel City generated 10.8 xG, but scored 9 Goals, and allowed 11.8 xGA, but conceded 14 Goals. Again, I think that xG is the better predictive statistic, and I think that we will see a positive regression to the mean next season.
Additional Thoughts
Zelem was a player that was on my wish list, and I kind of couldn’t believe that Angel City managed to get her. As I said in my article when we signed her, she needed to have the ball if she was going to succeed in LA. And luckily, that’s what happened. After the other big name midfielders in Ertz and Henry didn’t work out, I was worried, but I think that Zelem had a successful first half-season. So much hinges on who the new coach is, but I think that they should absolutely make Zelem a cornerstone of their strategy. Casey Stoney is a name that I keep hearing, and as she managed Zelem at United, that could be a really good match. But I do also hear that Stoney might just have a bad taste in her mouth about the NWSL in general. Back to Zelem, though. I think that she did just about everything that we could expect from her, but the team around her let her down. She is the kind of player to build around, though, and I’d expect to see positive results next year, especially with a proper preseason and more time with the team.
Lily Nabet
Nabet went a little under the radar for me, but she had 704 minutes this year, which is up from 410 in 2023 and 209 in 2022. She has steadily been taking on a bigger role, despite a number of high profile central midfielders being brought in, and I think it’s important to remember that she’s still only going to be 25 next year. There is every reason to believe that she will continue to improve.
Passing and Offensive Contributions
I’m going to combine these sections, as Nabet only had .1 xG and .1 xAG, so there’s not as much to discuss in the offensive areas. Nabet also just seemed to be less involved when she was on the field. She has the fewst Pass Attempts of any midfielder in this article (39.9 per 90), although her Completion Percentage is better than all of them, except Hammond. I think that this is partially that Nabet was usually asked to make the safe pass to retain possession, as Hammond was. This is borne out by the fact that Nabet’s Progressive Passes (3.07) were in the 22nd percentile, and Progressive Passing Distance (143.18) was in the 37th percentile of midfielders. Nabet almost never attempted Long Passes either, only 1.79 per 90 (5th percentile). And while that Pass Completion Percentage is better than most ACFC midfielders, it’s still only in the 61st percentile. Key Passes, Passes into the Attacking Penalty Area, xA and xAG are all practically non-existant. Nabet finishes 21st on the team in SCAs per 90 with .9 (5th percentile. And despite Nabet only having 7 SCAs, 2 of them actually turned into goals. 6 of the 7 SCAs, and both GCAs, were live passes.
Defensive Statistics
Nabet continues the trend of midfielders having more tackles than centerbacks, but only just. Her 1.41 Tackles per 90 is barely ahead of Reid’s 1.4 and Gorden’s 1.32. When I saw that Nabet was only in the 11th percentile of NWSL midfielders for Tackles, I thought for sure this trend would be broken, but no, ACFC Centerbacks actually just have Tackle rates that low. Nabet does better with Interceptions (1.28), finishing 4th on Angel City in Interceptions per 90 (min 270 minutes), and 63rd percentile overall. But her low Tackle rate is a concern, I think. Her Tackles per 90 and Tackles + Interceptions per 90 are both lower than any other midfielder, even the attaking midfielders. Blocked Shots stands out among Nabet’s defensive stats; her .51 per 90 is in the 87th percentile. Her 1.41 Fouls Committed is in the 30th percentile, but she somewhat makes up for it with a 1.28 Fouls Drawn (72nd percentile). Aerials are close to league average: 1.02 Aerial Wins per 90 (66th percentile) and a Win Percentage of 47.1% (52nd percentile).
Possession and xG +/-
Nabet’s Possession stats are unsurprisngly low. She averages 50.63 Touches per 90 (36th percentile) and 26.46 Carries per 90 (40th percentile). Progressive Carries are almost non-existent, only .13 per 90 (2nd percentile). She also had 1.92 Miscontrols (31st percentile) and .77 Times Dispossessed (75th percentile). Nabet’s Team xG Differential per 90 is -.3, which is middle of the pack, and her On-Field vs Off-Field Team xG Differential is -.05, which is also middle of the pack. In terms of actual Goals, she was on the field for 8 Goals Scored and 10 Goals Against, and her Goal Differential per 90 of -.26 is the 4th best mark on the team.
Additional Thoughts
None of Nabet’s numbers look good, and some of them look quite poor. Looking at it in the context of her career thus far doesn’t help too much. Pass Completion Percentage is up from last year, but Tackles are down. Touches per 90 is up, but SCAs per 90 is down. Her 704 minutes this year isn’t a great sample size and the 410 minutes last year is worse. Still, in Angel City’s first year, Nabet had 10 games and 209 minutes, while Hammond had 9 games and 321 minutes. Hammond has clearly grown a lot more during the subsequent two years, although she is two years older and had already been in the league, while Nabet came to ACFC from college. I think that Nabet would be a good candidate for a loan, as I think that she would really benefit from regular playing time, and with the creations of the USLSL and the Northern Super League I think that there are more opportunities than ever for professional setups that are not quite as rigorous as the NWSL. But with her current trajectory, it’s hard to see Nabet ever breaking into a starter’s role.
The other thought I had, seeing Cari Roccaro slot into centerback when Sam Staab got injured, was that centerback could have been an option for Nabet also. I’m generally of the opinion that a central midfielder is the best player to take over any other spot aside from the front three. And I think that Nabet would have been more comfortable on the ball and playing out of the back than Reid, but I don’t think that Nabet would be a huge downgrade defensively from Reid, either. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked, but I think it could have been interesting to try.
Amandine Henry
Henry’s sample size of 263 minutes is too small, but there are a number of things I’d like to discuss. At the time of the trade, Henry led Angel City in Progressive Passes, was 2nd in Passes into the Attacking Third, and was 4th in SCAs. Now looking at the entire season, Henry has the highest Progressive Passes per 90 (7.59, min 90 minutes played), Passes into the Attacking Third per 90 (7.24), and 7th in SCAs per 90 (2.74, min 90 minutes played). And on those SCAs per 90, only Zelem and Le Bihan were ahead of her in terms of other midfielders. And this is despite the fact that Henry was never given the ball as much as other midfielders. On average, Zelem received 48.8 Passes per 90, Rodríguez received 40.6, while Henry Received 33.4. And in a pretty direct correlation, Zelem attempted 66 Passes per 90, Rodríguez attempted 49.4, and Henry attempted 46.9. Henry never had the same opportunity to impact the game.
The On-Field vs. Off-Field Team xG Differential is the other stat that really stands out. At the time of the trade, Henry was 6th on the team in this stat. By the end of the season, she had moved up to 3rd (+.69). And when you just look at Team xG Differential per 90 when she’s on the field, Henry had the best mark on Angel City (+.35).
I always felt like there was something wrong with the dynamic around Henry at Angel City. Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt like there were times that her teammates purposefully passed around her when she wanted the ball. At a minimum, I don’t think that she ever looked as good with Angel City as she did with Lyon, and yet she did manage to be impactful despite that. It’s also possible, now that we know that Angel City was over the salary cap at the start of the season, that Henry was traded simply because the team needed to shed salary and she was a player that would bring in a transfer fee. As she then asked to leave Utah, and they released her for free, maybe getting $75,000 wasn’t so bad. Obviously the front office at Angel City is undergoing a lot of changes, but I hope that someone is asking how we brought in a player who won the Silver Ball at a World Cup, and then only got a fraction of her ability out of her time at the club. Maybe this was a recruiting problem, or a coaching problem, or both. But Henry’s time at Angel City is always going to feel like a “What if?” to me. I’d have loved to see her in a midfield with Julie Ertz. I’d have loved to see what the team looked like if the attack had always moved through her. I’d have loved to see what it looked like if Henry was at preseason and was better integrated into the team. Ultimately, Henry’s time in LA didn’t work out, but I don’t think that the trade improved Angel City, and I hope that there were lesson’s learned from the whole experience.
Final Thoughts
As a whole, I think that the central midfielders had some bright spots, but also plenty of concerns. And that’s maybe the whole team in a nutshell. I don’t think that Angel City has ever quite figured out the midfield in 3 seasons. We’ve tried a lot of different things so far, but I think that if we can find a midfield that clicks, then the rest of the team will click too. There are pieces to build on, but we just need to see the team take that next step.
All stats from FBRef