Mead is Good

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece on Arseblog News around Arsenal’s need for increased attacking efficiency and, for want of a better word, personality. Arsenal are marginally underperforming their XG in the WSL and failed to score against Spurs and Liverpool, while Aston Villa and Bristol City frustrated them for long periods of eventual 2-1 victories. 

To put the XG underperformance into perspective, when Arsenal won the title in 2018-19, they scored 70 goals from an XG of 45.7 (Miedema scored 22 from an XG of 14.6). Much like the men’s team, there has been a sense of the Gunners maybe missing that attacker that can just win you a game on their own.

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However, unlike the men’s team, Arsenal Women do have internal solutions. This time last year, Arsenal’s league season began to falter as they adjusted to the loss of their two most consistent executors in the final third in Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema. Frida Maanum was able to do a passable Miedema impression in output terms- even if she is a very different type of player to Viv.

Arsenal went into the season without dedicated cover for Mead and they were punished for it in the most brutal fashion (hence the January attempt to buy Cloe Lacasse, who eventually joined in the summer). Eidevall fielded McCabe or Pelova on the right wing, both outstanding players but both, clearly, very, very different players to Mead. It meant that Arsenal had to totally rejig their attack and the right side of the team completely changed its MO.

Mead had 63 WSL goal involvements from the beginning of the 2018-19 season, while Miedema boasted 106. Not only did Arsenal lose a whole chunk of end product, they lost two attackers who had played together for five seasons and instinctively knew one another’s games. It was a loss that destroyed Arsenal’s chances of winning the title.

The Gunners played well against Chelsea during a 1-1 draw at the Emirates in January but were unable to convert dominance into goals, conceding a late equaliser to Sam Kerr, Chelsea’s ‘clutch’ attacker who had hitherto been peripheral in the game but popped up when and where it mattered most.

In early February they couldn’t break down an obstinate West Ham defence in Dagenham and drew 0-0. They were also guilty of failing to convert chances during their 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Chelsea in February. When Arsenal lost Mead and Miedema, they lost two players capable of turning games in a moment.

After her first start following her ACL injury against Bristol City in the Conti Cup, I spoke exclusively to Beth. I told her that I thought Arsenal’s attacking play notably sped up with her in the starting line-up. ‘Against low blocks and back fives you have to manipulate the ball well, you’ve got to shout a lot to players to use one or two touch and not take too many touches and not get into battles with people.’

In short, Mead demands the ball and it’s really noticeable if you sit on her side of the pitch for a half at Meadow Park. She rarely stops demanding the ball, telling teammates not to take too many touches, to let her have it quickly. She gave an outstanding example of this a couple of weeks after we spoke, at home to West Ham in the WSL.

Cooney-Cross whipped a pass out to Beth and she cut in on her left foot and curled the ball into the top corner. That is the kind of personality and incisiveness every elite attack needs. While Mead has been getting back up to speed during the autumn, it would have been unfair to expect her to do this on a regular basis. At Spurs, she was part of a team that lacked assertiveness in the final third.

Arsenal’s reasonable aspiration is that, with her fitness and sharpness improving, they can expect those ‘Mead moments’ more often. No good team should be totally reliant on one individual but every good team has that individual in attack that can be relied on. It’s Mead’s assertiveness that Arsenal will really need in the second half of the season, that tendency to demand the ball and, on occasion, no, I am not going to pass the ball inside because I am going to try to curl it into the top corner on my weak foot thank you very much.

Mead teed up Russo for a stoppage time winner against Aston Villa in October and post-game, Eidevall was quick to acknowledge that sense of stardust that Mead brings in the final third. ‘Beth Mead is extremely intuitive in those moments. She comes onto the pitch and sometimes you think ‘will she get that straight away?’ And sometimes you don’t, but she does because she is Beth Mead.’

With Kim Little and Frida Maanum sharing the number 10 role this season, there is less of an obvious hole without Miedema but Arsenal can still absolutely use her star quality, her ability to hold the ball in tight spaces and her ability to pluck rabbits from top hats. 

As sad and untimely as Sam Kerr’s ACL injury is, Arsenal are competitors and have to hope that Chelsea face some of the same adaption issues Arsenal found this time last year. They also have to hope that January 2024 can offer an alternate universe to January 2023, where the addition of a fully fit Mead and Miedema can fix some or all of their attacking flaws.

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