Reading, Jade Le Guilly and Olivia McLoughlin - your women's football roundup
It is that time of the year when some leagues are approaching the business end and others are just starting out, and that always makes for a lot of intrigue as fans look to see who is on course to achieve their targets in the former category and who looks like being worth watching in the latter.
As always, this newsletter will bring you right up to date with everything that has been going on over the last seven days, with the usual selection of analysis points, reading and listening material for you to peruse through at your leisure.
3 key talking points….
Reading keep the Championship’s relegation battle alive
Whilst the battle at the top of the Championship has occupied the thoughts of many fans of the English second tier over the course of the campaign, there has been just as tight a contest taking place at the other end too, with at least three teams still in danger of slipping through the trapdoor and of starting next season in the National League.
Whilst Watford and Lewes have been in the bottom two for most of the season and are the two that many expect to go down, their hopes of avoiding the drop are being kept alive by Reading, who have had a difficult time of things off the field but who have also not been good enough on it, with some of their more recent performances being particularly disappointing as they try to stay above the dreaded dotted line.
The thing that has really stood out is their poor defending, with them conceding nine goals across the defeats to Birmingham City and Sheffield United in the last week, and there does seem to be a lack of desire to go and win the ball and to protect their goal at times which is concerning given the precarious position that they are in.
There will always be the argument that the players’ minds might be on off-field concerns around the club, but there are only so many times that that can be blamed and there does need to be some focus on defending more resolutely and on not making themselves too easy to beat.
“We have to be accountable for the mistakes we made, and today we were punished.
I don’t have the answers right now in terms of moving forward, we need to take a long look at it from a fresh perspective, assess everything, and some hard honest conversations need to be had.”
Reading manager Liam Gilbert, speaking after the defeat to Sheffield United.
They currently sit just two points above the drop zone, with the joint-worst goal difference (alongside Watford), and so things really are on a knife edge for them. It is going to be a nervous few weeks for the former WSL side, and they simply have to improve on the pitch if they are to avoid a second successive relegation.
Jade Le Guilly is a French star in the making
PSG have always had a squad stacked with quality and relatively good strength in depth, with standout names in the team including Sakina Karchaoui, Jackie Groenen, Sandy Baltimore and summer loan signing Tabitha Chawinga.
There is one player who has gone under the radar for them this season though, and that is right-back Jade Le Guilly. Whenever watching PSG play, it is easy to pick out the big names and to take notice of their efforts, but Le Guilly is a player that doesn’t tend to get the credit that she deserves. However, there is no doubting that she has played a major role both with and without the ball for them, with her being very good at getting forward to support attacks and at dropping back to help out defensively as soon as possession has been lost.
Both aspects were on show during the win against Montpellier at the weekend, with Le Guilly and central defender Eva Gaetino the ones making sure that PSG were as solid as possible under pressure, with both winning duels and making crucial blocks and tackles, before the former then ran up the pitch to attack the spaces and scored her first goal of the season to top off a really positive display.
https://twitter.com/PSG_Feminines/status/1772261539539562665
The fact that she is an all-rounder on the pitch will always appeal to coaches in the modern game, and she is definitely a star in the making on the basis of her performances in the current campaign.
As far as the France squad is concerned, she has been called up but has yet to feature, and the fact that she has Ève Périsset, Marion Torrent and Maëlle Lakrar as competition for the right-back position means that she might have to wait a while to become a regular in the national team. Nevertheless, it surely won’t be too long before she is handed a chance to test herself at that level.
Olivia McLoughlin is quickly developing into the complete midfielder
Aston Villa have always had some impressive young players on their books over the years, with Laura Blindkilde Brown perhaps the most high-profile of those after her strong performances last season and her move to Manchester City in January.
However, one player who has not gained as much notice as others around her is Olivia McLoughlin, and yet she is quickly developing into a really promising midfielder who can operate in a multitude of positions and systems.
What has really helped McLoughlin to grow as a player has been the loan spells that she has had in recent seasons, with her spending the second half of last season in the Championship with Birmingham, where she was used in a slightly more offensive role behind the striker and tended to connect the forward positions together, before testing herself in the SWPL 1 in an ongoing half-season spell at Rangers.
Under head coach Jo Potter, she has been predominantly deployed in a deeper role and has been tasked with progressing the ball up the field and facilitating the quick transitions that have been so key to Rangers’ performances this season, and her ability to link with teammates was one of the reasons that she caught the eye during the weekend’s SWPL Cup win against Partick Thistle.
In that match, her partnership with Rachel Rowe in the central third was what allowed Rangers to constantly control the tempo of the game, and the goal that she scored was a just reward after her efforts on the day.
https://twitter.com/ScotlandSky/status/1771912047938187556
Such has been the quality of her performances, it now seems almost unthinkable that Rangers would go into a match without her in their starting XI, and that shows how consistent and talented a player she really is. With so many different styles and roles experienced, she is quickly becoming an excellent all-round midfielder, and she is definitely one to watch out for in the future.
For a closer look at Jo Potter’s tactics at Rangers, have a look at my article for Total Football Analysis here:
Read all about it….
Building a supporter culture at Bay FC - the NWSL season is now two weeks old and fans are starting to get to know the teams and players and to make their own judgements over how each could do this season. For the two new teams, there has been the added need to build a following as well as a team, and this piece by Maura Gladys on her Substack page American Tifo looks at how some in the Bay area got together to form a supporters’ group for Bay FC ahead of the campaign getting underway.
A detailed look at Sjoeke Nüsken’s role for Chelsea - on his Substack page Pressing Matters, Abdullah Abdullah has taken a deep dive into the positional variety that Sjoeke Nüsken has offered Chelsea this season, and why she has become such a key player for them as the season has gone on.
The differences between men’s and women’s football - in this insightful piece on The Athletic, Charlotte Harpur has spoken to several coaches who have worked in the men’s and women’s games at different levels and has asked them for their observations on any differences that they have come across with regards to managing players individually, behaving on the touchline and other aspects of the game. A very interesting read.
Lend me your ears….
A star-studded lineup sees all-time legend Marta, Arsenal captain Kim Little and Newcastle skipper Amber-Keegan Stobbs join the show!! - the latest episode of TalkSPORT’s Women’s Football Weekly podcast is a really good listen, with a variety of guests and topics and the usual lookback at the weekend’s results.
That’s all for now - back next week!!