Tha Kyra Cooney-Crossroads

Whacha gonna do when judgement comes for you?

I spoke to Kyra Cooney-Cross following the victory over Rosenborg last weekend. ‘Coming in last season, coming into a new team and new club was difficult. I understand now what Jonas wants from me and I am playing more so I am a lot more comfortable. Playing with the girls more, I think I know more what they need me to do too.’

Baked into the calculation of her signing was that Cooney-Cross would need some coaching in the defensive phase of the game. Cooney-Cross is a 6/8 sort of midfielder, who specialises in spraying the ball quickly to the flanks and driving into opposition territory from deep with her dribbling. But off the ball, she has some areas of development yet.

In training, Lia Walti has taken the Australian under her wing to give Kyra some pointers in off the ball positioning. With no pre-season after her deadline day arrival last summer, no Champions League and competing in an area of the pitch boasting players like Little, Walti and Pelova, KCC has had to bide her time for her chance.

Injuries to Pelova and Walti have given her an opportunity, as she acknowledged during our conversation. ‘Yeah I definitely think this is a big chance for me to show Jonas and the girls what I can do and what I am capable of. It’s sad that Vic is out and Wally has had a few niggles but it’s an opportunity for me.’

Cooney-Cross has a lot of qualities that are interesting when it comes to Arsenal’s issues with low defensive lines last season. She is in the 99th percentile of WSL midfielders for successful take-ons according to FBRef, with 2.46 per 90. Her ability to drive and take players on is a much valued attribute in Victoria Pelova that KCC ought to be able to replace comfortably enough.

At 89.3%, she had the best passing success rate of Arsenal’s central midfielders last season, though she could probably stand to use her crisp passing more vertically. Lia Walti passed the ball into the final third 8.91 times per 90 last season compared to KCC’s 4.59 (to be fair, she passed into the final third slightly more often than Kim Little at 4.27 per 90).

1.48 of her passes per 90 are considered ‘cross field’ by FBRef and this puts her way above her central midfield contemporaries in this metric. It is one of her key qualities. When Arsenal played at home to West Ham last November, Kyra got the nod in central midfield and this was partly because Arsenal wanted to target the right side of West Ham’s defence.

The Australian’s ability to ping the ball wide quickly was a key tactic on the day and Frida Maanum and Beth Mead both scored long distance strikes from that side. Cooney-Cross assisted both of them with passes from centre to right. When Arsenal trailed away at Spurs last December, Cooney-Cross was the first player off the bench and, again, this is likely because her ability to spread play is seen as a way to move defences around.

Part of the role of being in Arsenal’s double pivot is anticipation, not just in a defensive sense to be secure against counters. But Eidevall likes to use the double pivot as a means of penning opponents in, having midfielders stationed roughly near each corner of the penalty area to collect clearances and interceptions and keep opponents under pressure so this is another part of KCC’s game that ought to be fine tuned with more minutes.

Pelova will be out of the picture for most of the season and the unsuccessful pursuit of Keira Walsh this summer means that Cooney-Cross ought to get more opportunities now, especially as Little and Walti are now in their 30s and both have suffered injuries in recent seasons.

I would imagine that Eidevall would like to team Cooney-Cross up with one of Walti or Little. Cooney-Cross has an excellent shot from range (as we saw when she hit the bar against Rosenborg) and is a specialist as delivering setpieces. These are qualities we haven’t been able to see much of at Arsenal. Yet. This is a big chance for KCC to establish herself, especially as the interest in Walsh will likely survive as her Barca contract runs down.