Thread by @armbandmedia

Guro Reiten: Norway's Golden Girl

A THREAD | Written by @Odriozolite

In the 19/20 season, Chelsea was declared the winners of the Women's Super League on a point per game basis. Beth England ended up as Chelsea’s top-scorer with 18 direct goal contributions (14 goals, 4 assists).

There was another star who shone the brightest in her debut season in England, GuroReiten. With 12 direct goal contributions (5 goals, 7 assists), Reiten ended the season as Chelsea’s top assist provider and with second-most direct goal contributions.

Playing on the left-hand side of Emma Hayes’ 4-4-2, Guro is capable of filling in every position across the forward line. Emma Hayes dubbed her as “one of the most talented, creative players in the world” at the time of her announcement.

Before signing with Chelsea, Reiten was already making waves across Norway with her performances for club and country alike. Playing for LSK Kvinner, Reiten collected two golden boots in two and a half years and scored 51 goals in 53 league games.

In this article, we will look at what makes Guro Norway’s golden girl. We will use data to highlight her key attributes.

Guro is a left-footed forward, who can play on the wings and also behind the striker. Her ability to pick out incisive passes is absolutely amazing. Let’s unpack and take a deep dive into some traits of hers.

First, let's begin by looking at where Guro likes to operate both on and off the ball.
Looking at the action density map for her on-ball actions, we see that Guro likes to operate high and wide, hugging the touchline while also drifting inwards attacking the half-spaces. (1/4)

Her ability to work in tandem with players around her is what makes her such an incredible asset to have. Her ability to identify moments when she needs to stay wide or drift inwards to help the attack is great. (2/4)

Off-the ball, Reiten isn’t one to slack off from her defensive duties. We can see in her off-ball action density map that without the ball Guro drops a little back near the halfway line and moves slightly inwards. (3/4)

Her defensive contributions come as a part of aggressively pressing from the front and forcing mistakes from the opponents or blocking the passing lanes to force opponents wide. (4/4)

Building on this, let’s now look at where she receives the ball. The heatmap below highlights the areas of the pitch where Guro receives the ball. We can see that she receives out wide hugging the left byline. (1/2)

Another thing to note here is the fact that she often drifts inwards to receive the ball in the left half-space, this allows her to either let her fullback partner make a run on the overlap, or she can pick out players with her amazing left foot. (2/2)

Looking at her shot map, there’s a clear pattern to observe. Most of her shots come from the left channel and these shots come from inside the 18-yard box. Shooting from good areas coupled with her finishing abilities allow her to slot the ball home past the goalkeeper with ease.

Reiten was one of the top creators in the league during the 2019/20 season in terms of shot creations. She averaged 5.45 shot-creating actions per 90, the highest in the league. (1/3)

Guro is good on the ball and in 1v1. Her dribbles, as shown in the dribble map, come very high up the pitch near the edge of the box. Blessed with the great first touch and close control on the ball, she’s able to beat players at will and create shooting opportunities. (2/3)

One of her main strengths is her ability to pick out pinpoint crosses. She attempted the third most number of crosses, 54, in the league during the 19/20 szn with a 42.6% accuracy. In the cross-map, we can see how her crosses are aimed right at the heart of the penalty area (3/3)

Guro helps her team progress the ball in two ways. One being her ability to drive forward with the ball and play passes while the second one comes as a virtue of her positioning. She positions herself in great areas serving as an outlet for her team to move the ball front.

Looking at her progressive passing during the season. In the viz above, we can see the starting and end location of her progressive passes. Her progressive passes originate from wide areas on the left hand side. (1/3)

The bright spot at the heart of the box indicates the areas she targets. The two players to be on the end of these passes are England and Kerr, who joined in the Jan window, which makes sense as these are the players who played as a part of the front two in Chelsea’s 4-4-2. (2/3)

The second bright spot which occurs on the edge of the box towards the left hand side of the penalty box are passes into either the front two or her full-back partner with Jonna (Chelsea’s LB) being the 3rd most frequent receiver of her progressive passes. (3/3)

Reiten’s ability to drive with the ball at her feet is amazing. Looking at the starting and ending locations of her carries, we can observe certain tendencies. Once again she begins out wide on the left hand side. (1/3)

As we saw in her dribble map earlier, her dribbles come very deep into opposition half, her carries end in a similar location. This enables her to play a cross from the byline after taking on a player. (2/3)

This isn’t the only way Reiten helps her side move the ball up the field. She, via her positioning and runs into space acts as a constant outlet for Chelsea. (3/3)

Looking at the combinations where Reiten is the one of the receiving ends of the progressive passes we can observe a few things. Looking at the top 4 of such combinations below

1.JonnaAndersson-GuroReiten(13)
2.Millie Bright-GuroReiten(7)
3.Magdalena Ericsson-GuroReiten(6)
4.So-yun Ji-GuroReiten(6)

She works really well in tandem with her full-back partner in Jonna Andersson. The next two combinations are from Chelsea’s CBs playing the ball into GuroReiten, who acts as a great outlet allowing Chelsea to quickly move the ball up.

The ball playing ability of Chelsea’s CBs is good and they are able to pick her out with ease. The fourth combination is with Ji So-yun from Chelsea’s midfield, highlighting how well she works with players around her and helps her side in every facet of the game.

While Reiten saw reduced minutes during the 20-21 season after the return of Kirby from injury, there is no doubt about the quality of the Norwegian attacker. Her on-ball attributes and versatility to be able to play multiple attacking roles make her a lethal asset.

She is Norway’s golden girl. She is Golden Guro!

(A massive thank you to @StatsBomb for making the data for FA WSL 2019/20 season available for free)

End of the thread.

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