England star Georgia Stanway showcases familiar dominance at Women's World Cup
The Women's World Cup so far has been spicy. Some may say the most exciting tournament to date in the women's game.
From the underdogs knocking out top talent in the group stages to sublime finishes from Republic of Ireland's Katie McCabe's curling corner kick against Canada, and England's Lauren James' two-goal sensations against China to name a few. But the attention has turned to the more defensive statistics of the game.
Everybody loves a clean sheet. Their importance ever-present in tournament football but take out the glorious finishes and the goalkeepers who deny, what about the defensive duties of those in a dog-eats-dog battle out there on the field.
When the name Georgia Stanway hits the ears, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Crunching tackles? Dominance in the middle of the park? The new year's resolution to ‘get no more yellow cards’? Which incidentally, was immediately broken in the first game back for Bayern Munich in January 2023, in a friendly no less.
But as true as her father’s tweet is, Stanway, England wouldn’t want the Bayern midfielder any other way.
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While Stanway is the workhorse of the centre of England’s play, doing the dirty work and abruptly intercepting play - even if that means a cheeky rough tackle or two does it matter? Would you define her as an aggressive player?
Republic of Ireland and Arsenal’s McCabe is celebrated for her rough-and-tumble approach to the game. It begs the question if a player’s natural character is more aggressive do they get away with more?
If it’s well known Stanway will throw her body into a challenge, is her aggression measured the same if Alessia Russo made a similar tackle? Or Kiera Walsh or Katie Zelem?
Looking at the stats though, while Stanway may like to put her body on the line, she actually is the most successful defensively on this grand Women’s World Cup 2023 stage thus far.
BestBettingSites.com research declared Lionesses Stanway as the most aggressive player of the Women’s World Cup thus far. However, taking a look at the tackles per 90 minutes, the centre-midfielder made an average of 1.58 tackles - that's fourth out of the top 10 in this study.
Yet, she had the highest success rate of 77.85%, besting Frances’ Lea Le Garrec by 4.64%.
Georgia Stanway during the Group D match against China (Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images)Stanway had an average of 3.1 yellow cards and 0.33 red cards per season in an England shirt, fourth highest again USA’s Savannah Damelo, Spain’s Laia Codina and Garrec all of who hit an average of four yellow cards. Stanway was also sixth in the rankings for red cards per season at 0.33.
Her fouls percentage per 90 minutes of play is 1.56 again fourth in the ranking, behind Morocco’s Sarah Kasso, Demelo, Codina, and only 0.02 ahead of England star Lauren James.
That being said, how Stanway accumulated an aggression score of 9.29 the highest of 10 international stars is mind-boggling. England’s number eight is simply the most defensively dominant on the field - simply giving as good as she gets.
In conclusion, keep doing what you’re doing Stanway, and don’t ever change.
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Note: This study was based on perceived aggression over actual defensive statistics of the overall tournament.
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