StatsBomb is continuing its support of the women's game by offering free access to our StatsBomb IQ analytics platform to teams in the top five European leagues and the NWSL ahead of the 21/22 season.
The women's game continues to grow on and off the field. As well as new TV deals and investment, there’s been an steady increase in the uptake of data and analytics by women's teams across Europe. After our initial offer back in 2018, we have seen encouraging and consistent growth in the usage of our StatsBomb IQ platform, and last season in particular saw two title winners in the top five European leagues and two of the four UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-finalists all frequently using the platform to aid their match and data analysis: a fact that reflects the initiative’s success.
As we embark on the new season, we are pleased to confirm that the offer of FREE access to our StatsBomb IQ analytics platform to ALL teams across the top women’s leagues in England, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and the USA will continue for the 2021/22 campaign. Each club will be able to access state-of-the-art analytics for the league they’re competing in to support their performance, match, and opposition analysis.
There is no reason why women’s football should miss out on the data revolution happening in the men’s game - this offer ensures that will not be the case. It also potentially opens up more career opportunities for women in sport, and the more opportunities available, the more women will be encouraged to enter the sports data analysis industry. The more educated people in the industry, the better the industry will be overall.
Speaking of which, this year saw us add the first female data scientist to our team. Nicole Kozlova joined StatsBomb in May on a data science internship to support her studies at Virginia Tech University, where she’s majoring in Computational Modelling Data Analytics. Not only does Nicole have a very strong quantitative background, she is also an international footballer for Ukraine: the combination of football plus data knowledge meant she was someone we had to pay attention to. You’ll see more of Nicole at our Conference in October, where she will present the findings of the research conducted during her internship.
We have already seen advancements with regards to the number of women taking up positions within the sport, but we’re not done yet, and so it only makes sense to extend the initiative for another campaign.
How can IQ help you?
The StatsBomb IQ platform is industry-leading and provides a level of detail that isn’t available from any other data provider, thanks to StatsBomb’s deep and contextual event data. We collect over 3,300 events per game on average; including goalkeeper and defender locations for every shot; pass footedness; and pressure events to allow for deeper analysis of where and how a team likes to defend.
The analytical insights and breakthroughs that you can make with StatsBomb IQ are endless, and we’re excited to see what our existing and potential women's customers can achieve next season. Interested in taking us up on the offer? Contact us at sales@statsbomb.com today, and we’ll provide a free demo and induction to the platform as soon as possible.
Thanks
The StatsBomb Team
Since our inception as a data company back in 2018, StatsBomb has been doing whatever we can to support the Women’s game. We have collected Women’s data on the same full spec as the Men’s since the very beginning, but we also recognised early on that there was more we could do to address the barriers around cost and expertise for Women’s teams. After similar offerings in previous campaigns, we’ve this season been supporting performance and recruitment analysis departments across the Big Five Europeans leagues by providing free access to our StatsBomb IQ analytics platform to ALL teams competing in those leagues, covering the FA Women’s Super League, Division 1 Féminine, Frauen-Bundesliga, Serie A Women, and Primera División Femenina. We have been thoroughly enthused to see the integration of data analysis into the internal processes of many teams across those divisions, enabling coaching and support staff to use objective, industry-best data in their tactical match and opposition analysis. Thanks to this offering, we can now be confident that the off-field processes across the FA Women’s Super League are nearly as good as the product on the pitch! For the second season in a row, there’s a nail-biter of a title race as we enter the home straight of the season, with Chelsea just edging out Manchester City at the time of writing. 
Table courtesy of https://womenscompetitions.thefa.com/ We’re going to focus on the battle at top and what can now be tentatively suggested to be the league’s 'Big Four', having seen the same teams occupying the top four positions last season too. Arsenal find themselves adrift now, but were very much in the conversation back in October after winning all five of their opening fixtures at an aggregate scoreline of 29-4. Vivianne Miedema, league top scorer in 2018-19 and 2019-20, scored 10 goals in those opening five to go a long way towards securing the accolade for the third season running, ably supported by Netherlands compatriot Jill Roord who netted back-to-back hat-tricks from central midfield in Arsenal’s opening two fixtures. The Gunners scored at nearly double their expected goals, but racking up 16.7 xG in five games – a rate of 3.34 per game – put a warning out to the rest of the league. 
As always in the WSL though, it’s results against your rivals that make the difference between a title challenge or not and Arsenal dropped points to all of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United in three of the four fixtures immediately following that start, losing to the two Manchester clubs and hosting a London derby stalemate with Chelsea. Further defeats to City and Chelsea in the return fixtures have cut them adrift. After a fourth-placed finish in their inaugural top flight season in 2019-20, there's been a discernible progression in Manchester United. Casey Stoney’s side were closer to mid-table than they were the title race last time out, but an uptick in their attacking output has seen the team emerge as stronger contenders in 2020-21. 
There’s an element of chaos around United games this season with the side leading the league for both High Press Shots, shots generated within five seconds of a turnover in the opposition half, and Counter Attacking Shots, shots generated within 15 seconds following a turnover in the team’s own half. United also come out on top in StatsBomb’s Directness metric, a ratio of the distance to goal from the start of a possession that ended in a shot, divided by the total distance travelled in the build-up to that shot. In layman’s terms, United look to play forward and towards goal when on the ball. 
Two-time World Cup winner Tobin Heath’s form had been living up to the marquee-status greeted by the signing, providing a direct goal threat and creativity from the wing during United's 10-2-0 start to the season that had them firmly in the title race. 
Heath’s January injury coincided with back-to-back defeats in the first two rounds of February, which, along with a defeat to Chelsea a few weeks prior, has seen the Red Devils lose touch with the top two with six games to play. After missing out on the title by points-per-game last season, Manchester City’s summer recruitment drive was hailed as one of the best in the division, seeing Rose Lavelle, Sam Mewis, Alex Greenwood, Chloe Kelly and Lucy Bronze join the club. Bronze returned to England following a trophy-laden spell with Lyon in France including three consecutive Division 1 Féminine and Champions League doubles, as well as a host of personal honours, including winning ‘The Best FIFA Women's Player’ in 2020 (Bronze wins Gold, etc, etc...) Ex-manager Nick Cushing ended his seven-year association with the club for a role with New York City FC in MLS, so management-rookie Gareth Taylor was promoted from a role in the Manchester City academy to take on the mantle. It's so far, so good for Taylor who, results-wise, has picked up where Cushing left off. A rocky start saw them go 3-3-1 in their opening seven fixtures, but Taylor has swiftly steadied the ship and that run has been followed up by a steamrolling nine game winning run. City now look set to go at least as close to regaining the title from Chelsea as they did in the last campaign, with City currently two points off top spot. Taylor’s tinkered with the setup to great effect, with the surface-level metrics looking even stronger than last year. xG per game has shifted up from 1.94 to 2.22, their xG conceded has dropped from 0.83 to 0.56 – and the changes in process that has led to those upgrades is evident. For starters, City are now pressing higher up the pitch. Their PPDA – Opposition Passes Per Defensive Action – has dropped from 10.30 to 6.30, and their Defensive Distance – the average distance from a team’s own goal from which it makes defensive actions – has increased by nearly five(!) metres, up from 48.9m in 2019-20 to a league-high 53.6m in 2020-21. For context, Chelsea have the next highest in 2020-21 at 49.9m. 
City are looking to keep the play in the opposition territory as often as possible and ideally in possession of the ball themselves – possession has risen from 55% to 65% - in order to utilise the creative talents of Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp, and Chloe Kelly. Kelly has transferred her Everton form into City colours after her summer move, completing the most dribbles in the division so far (2nd only to Chloe Arthur or Aston Villa on a per 90 basis) and creating the third-most xG assisted in the league from the right-flank. 
Looking to retain their title and in pole position to do so are leaders Chelsea. Despite the improvement in Manchester City’s metrics, it’s still the Blues who look the strongest side in the WSL this season, with virtually nothing between this season and last in either their 'xG For' numbers in attack or 'xG Conceded' numbers in defence. 
2019-20 WSL Player Of The Season and Player’s Player of the Season Beth England signed a new four-year deal in the summer and has picked up where she left off, supported by the returning Fran Kirby, world record signing Pernille Harder, and speedster Sam Kerr. The form of all four has powered Chelsea to the top of the table with each of them registering at least 10 goals and assists combined by the three-quarter stage of the season. You get a clearer sense of how devastating the Chelsea frontline have been when you consider than three of the top four players in the league for expected goals and expected goals assisted come from the London club. 
It’s not just the attackers that deserve credit, though. Defensively the Blues have been imperious too., conceding just 8 goals in 16 games, a total that just about tallies with their xG conceded of 8.8. The form of the defensive unit as a whole has been high but on the rare occasion they do get breached, goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger has been there to bail them out. Berger has faced just 15 shots on target in her 12 appearances this season, shots that have a post-shot xG value of 6.3, taking into account the shot location and shot placement. So on average we'd expect Berger to have conceded between 6-7 goals from the shots she's faced - she's conceded just three (plus one penalty and one own-goal). 
Assuming neither side slips up elsewhere, all eyes are on the top of the table clash between Manchester City and Chelsea on April 25th, which at this stage looks to be the title decider. You don't want to miss it.
Join us at StatsBomb Evolve on March 17th 2021 to discover how we're going to change the football industry, including the launch of our new data product, StatsBomb 360. To find out more, click here.
StatsBomb are more involved than ever with Women’s football, from the top teams in leagues across Europe to grass roots football in our local community in Bath, UK.
We have been actively propelling the sophistication of Women’s football, especially in the UK and in Europe, since we gave all FAWSL and France Feminine Women’s teams free access to our analytics platform StatsBomb IQ in 2019/20, along with all the detailed statistical modelling for the season.
We recognised there was more we could do to remove barriers in the Women’s game and help clubs themselves use data and analytics to enhance performance. While our quality data and insight can help drive improvements on the pitch, we needed to address barriers around cost and expertise for Women’s teams. Many teams leapt at the offer and integrated data analysis into their internal processes across tactical match and opposition analysis. We have also been working more closely with English Women’s teams in applying data and insight to develop coaching practices.
As we embark on the 2020/21 season, we will not only continue offering free data to FAWSL and France Feminine teams, we will also cover the top leagues in Germany, Italy and Spain and are offering free access to our analytics platform to ALL teams in those leagues as well.
We’re delighted to be able to offer this opportunity. Not only does it provide Women’s teams with the same opportunity as the Men’s in terms of sophistication of tools and data driven analysis, but also helps to create more exciting career opportunities that we hope will encourage more Women into the sports data analysis industry.
We are also embarking this year on a grassroots approach in our local community supporting Girls and Women’s football via Bath City FC Foundation. The Foundation is the charitable arm of Bath City FC working in areas of disadvantage using sport to effect change, and one of their initiatives is to improve skills and match-play as well as enhancing the football experience for girls in Bath, especially to avoid the drop-off at Secondary level. StatsBomb are supporting the Foundation with resources to help coordinate and link up the growing number of organisations passionate about Girls and Women’s football in Bath and the surrounding areas as well as providing design and tech expertise to help develop their marketing and communications.
Because Bristol City Women’s team will be based at Twerton Park this season, we are also thrilled that the world's best female football players will be playing in Bath. The opportunity this presents to raise the profile of Women’s football locally within schools and local communities is significant.
After this summer’s transfers, the FAWSL is undoubtedly the most talented league in women’s football today, and we cannot wait for this interesting season to get started this weekend as it kicks off locally with Bristol City v Everton this Sunday - even if we can’t enter the ground!
If you would like to get involved either on the pro side or grass roots, please do get in touch with Charlotte Randall, StatsBomb COO at charlotte@statsbomb.com.
An equal playing field is important to StatsBomb. We continue to look for new ways to support the acceleration of the Women’s game globally and as part of our commitment to International Women’s Day, we are opening up access to our 2019-20 and 2020-21 French Féminine data and analytics for FREE to all the teams in that league. Back in 2018, we wanted to propel knowledge of the Women’s game and offered our industry leading, quality data specification for a selection of Women’s leagues for free. This was alongside tuition resources, support and advice to help boost the application of data analysis in the Women’s game. It is exciting to see analysts, bloggers and fans creating analysis, data visualisations and gifs all entirely focused on Women’s football, especially where StatsBomb’s detailed data spec provides unique insight into pass footedness and defensive pressure activity that is not available in the public domain for the Men’s game. However, we recognised there was more we could do to remove barriers in the Women’s game and help the clubs themselves use data and analytics to enhance performance. As our quality data and insight can help drive improvements on the pitch, we needed to address barriers around cost and expertise experienced by Women’s teams. So in 2019, all FAWSL Women’s teams were offered free access to our analytics platform, StatsBomb IQ, along with all the detailed statistical modelling for the FAWSL 2019-20 season. Most of the teams have taken up the offer and have integrated data analysis into their internal processes across tactical match analysis and opposition analysis. We have also been working more closely with English Women’s teams in applying data and insight to develop coaching practices. This year, our ambitions are to increase inclusion in other European leagues, so we are excited to announce that we are offering FREE 2019-20 and 2020-21 data to all France Féminine teams. This includes completely free access to our industry leading analytics platform, StatsBomb IQ and training in using the platform. The platform is designed to be intuitive, easy to navigate and enables real practical insight. Whether comparing overall team performance on key metrics, evaluating players or reviewing matches, StatsBomb IQ enables a complete, one-stop solution for use from the pitch to the boardroom. We are hoping that by making our platform available from now through the 2020-21 season and giving free training from our highly experienced analysts, France Féminine teams can enhance their pre- and post-match analysis workflow. Continuing our ambitions to ensure that Women’s football does not miss out on the data revolution that is happening in the Men’s game.
There comes a time for any team where the number of points you’ve managed to accumulate in a season has gone beyond frustrating to just embarrassing, where opposition fans are looking at you in sympathy and speaking in hushed tones reserved for funerals, where conversations are entirely focused on what’s going wrong because there’s nothing else to focus on. But as the great football commentator and hobbyist poet, Robert Frost, declared, “Sometimes the coverage of teams in crisis—much like roads in a wood—diverge and we should really take a look at why”. How do you quantify a crisis, though? A team underperforming on their expected goals in every game of the season probably is cause for some consternation. A team that consistently loses possession and concedes goals without scoring any of their own should raise alarm bells. A mid-table team slipping to the bottom of the league would likely warrant concern, but maybe not as much as a team that routinely finishes in the top four doing the same. When a team that’s won the league twice in the last decade is firmly in last, with a single goal and a single point to their name, we’ve probably moved past concern and are sitting firmly in crisis territory. So why isn’t anyone wringing their hands over Liverpool Women? There’s really no arguing that Liverpool Women are in dire straits. In their last eight matches, they’ve managed to score one goal (a penalty) in the only game in which they picked up a point. The stark differences in trendlines for expected goals and expected goals conceded this season do nothing to assuage the panic or convince us that this is “just a slow start to the season”, especially because there’s no sign that the club believes there’s any cause to panic (we’ll come back to this later). 
It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly has gone wrong for Liverpool Women over the last two seasons because there’s just so much terribleness to choose from. Take the most basic aspect of scoring a goal: it’s not like Liverpool aren’t taking shots. It’s that the shots they’re able to take are either off-target or relatively easy to save. 
The few shots with a higher xG than 10% saw the opposition goalkeeper close to optimal position, as well as several opposition players in place to prevent scoring on a rebound. More than that, though, Liverpool strikers have rarely found the support they need in the box. Even the one exception this season fell short: Kirsty Linnett’s shot on goal against Birmingham forced an excellent save from Hannah Hampton and Rhiannon Roberts was quick to take a shot again from the rebound. Both shots caught Hampton just out of optimal position, but neither were able to actually score. 
So, while it’s true that Liverpool are underperforming against expectations, it’s also true that the shots they’re generating are simply not good enough. Even the club’s top goalscorer hasn’t been able to find the back of the net. And despite Liverpool being excellent at putting pressure on opponents and better than average at pressuring ball-holding opponents to win the ball, they’ve yet to see a single clean sheet in the WSL this season. 
At this point in the season (again: eight games in, one goal scored and one point gained), surely it’s time for a conversation on what exactly needs to be done to make the ball go into the net. Because here’s the thing: if something doesn’t happen pretty soon, Liverpool Women are going to be relegated to the Championship. And for a club that’s gone on (and on and on and on) about how this is one club and two teams, it won’t look great when the men’s side have been given absolutely everything they need to win the league and maybe retain the Champions League title, too. Those of us that do regularly wring our hands over Liverpool Women and just how terrible everything is have a laundry list of very simple requests (we also have a support group). We’ll take anything from investing just a tiny bit more money into the club (we’re not asking to be in the running to sign Sam Kerr but maybe a coach with some ideas about creating better chances would come in handy at this point?) to allowing the women access to the same training facilities at the men. The fact that Liverpool Women’s fans have to beg for basic resources that the club already has is particularly egregious when you look at every other big club and the amount they’ve invested into their women’s teams. Want to see how effective investing resources into a women’s side can be? Take a look at Manchester United Women, a newly promoted team coached by a former Red and featuring several former Liverpool players who are absolutely thriving at a club that is supporting them. And at the end of the day, that’s the real crisis here. Somehow the level of panic and agitation we see when teams like Arsenal Men or Everton Men start losing games, when they consistently underperform, when their star players start talking about leaving the team, just isn’t present in conversations about Liverpool Women. We’re not seeing any mainstream critical analysis of where the team is falling short. At some point the conversation needs to move beyond demands to support the team despite their struggles and rather towards the well worn sporting topic of what should be done to fix those struggles. Liverpool Women are a professional football team that are in a bad situation, but not an irreversible one. Treating them as anything but is doing them a disservice. A lack of discussion could well lead to relegation, and even more players and staff leaving for teams willing to have difficult conversations and address the problems those bring to light.
After the dismal showing by The Lionesses in front of a record crowd of 77,768 at Wembley, we can all breathe a big sigh of relief and get back to some Women’s Super League this weekend. There are several tasty looking fixtures too. It’s derby day on Merseyside and also in North London, but not to be outdone, league leaders Chelsea host new kids on the block Manchester United at The Cherry Red Records Stadium (the artistic ground formerly known as Kingsmeadow). According to expected goals, Emma Hayes’ Chelsea thoroughly deserve their top spot. Their non-penalty xG per game stands at 2.08, easily the best in the league, while the against figure is 0.65, narrowly second-best behind Arsenal’s. A goal and a half per game better off than opposition is impressive even if the opening fixtures have been fairly kind. Hayes has settled on a fairly robust 4-4-2-ish set up in recent weeks with either Fran Kirby or Ramona Bachmann playing slightly off the ever-ready Bethany England up front. With Chelsea putting teams on the back foot with their possession through a mix of both buildup from the back and direct balls into the channels, a lot of good attacking work comes from quick turnovers. Erin Cuthbert and Ji So-yun stand out in winning the ball back and Chelsea lead the way in high press shots. Here those two are combining for one of those: 
Ji is basically Chelsea’s go-to player. Dominant in so many metrics, the South Korean’s closest player match-ups in the Statsbomb database include Barcelona version Andres Iniesta, Liverpool version Philippe Coutinho and Manchester City’s David Silva. Enough said: 
Even against champions Arsenal, playing in a two v three in the middle of the park, she’s bossing it: 
What of Casey Stoney’s Red Devils, then? United currently sit fourth in the non-penalty xG difference table at 0.51 per game and sit fourth in the actual table too, leaders of the ‘best of the rest' group. That’s pretty impressive for a newly promoted side, no? With impossibly horrific opening fixtures against Manchester City and Arsenal, followed by Liverpool, Reading and Spurs, Stoney has tinkered about with the side, setting them up differently almost every time. Consequently, the squad has been well rotated already. Whoever is picked, though, it’s fair to say United like to defend deep and bring the opposition on: 
The team wallow at the bottom of the passes per defensive action (PPDA) table, allowing over 12 passes before making a defensive action. Even perennial bus parkers Bristol City get stuck in quicker than that. On average, United make their defensive moves well over 10 yards further back than upcoming opponents Chelsea. In goal, England No.1 Mary Earps is fairly well protected, as United are pretty good at preventing high-value shots, second only to Arsenal. She's having a good season so far, conceding only 2 goals when post-shot xG would expect nearly 5. While for England, Phil Neville has her playing out from the back, at United, she goes longer than any other keeper in the league. This showed while watching the England match live last Saturday. Earps didn’t appear switched on enough to doing things quickly and looked slow and deliberate with the ball at her feet. To be fair, however, Steph Houghton and Leah Williamson were also in a daze too. Left-sided midfielder, Katie Zelem is generally the hub of the team. That considered, you can see from her radar that perhaps United aren’t a run of the mill side: 
The pass sonar for Zelem also reveals how United might want to play Chelsea. Zelem’s pass completion is perhaps represented by how often the vertical ball is chosen over merely recycling possession. 
Looking back at the defensive viz for United we can see defensive pressure being applied into the far corners. In the opener against City, United repeatedly sent the ball down the sides and chased the superior footballing team backwards. United hunted in packs of 3s and 4s, bombing on to put City under pressure. This accomplished two things: it made them a threat on the counter, and forced City as far away from goal as possible, having to build moves from their own box while having opposition players cutting off passing lanes. Ultimately it didn’t work, but United did create good chances and were really unlucky not to score. It is almost written in stone that Chelsea will dominate the ball in this fixture, and it will be a fascinating cat and mouse game if United can prevent Chelsea from scoring early on. That's a big if, however. United are a physical team but so are Chelsea. United look like they can run all day at times, but if there’s one side that will stand up and fight it’s Chelsea. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chelsea make United pay at corners. I’m not convinced by Earps’ ability to relieve the pressure there. Chelsea have good routines and good aerial ability while United have the worst numbers in the league when it comes to conceding chances at corners. United do have a wildcard in youngster Lauren James. I first saw James properly last season running rings around older players and generally making things look too easy. Therein also lies James’ problem. All too often it seems so easy for her that she can’t be bothered. It would be brilliant if she turned up and shone in a big game like this. As it is, I’m not even sure she’ll make the starting line-up. Which is a shame because she can do this: 
Last Sunday, Liverpool Men drove Reds wild at Anfield when they beat Manchester City 3-1, extending their lead at the top of the Premier League table. This Sunday will be the first women’s Merseyside derby at Anfield since 1997 but the Red Women will enter it on the opposite end of the table as their male counterparts. After a winless start of the season, they are currently in the relegation zone. Liverpool Women are struggling so much that they have even lost to two second-tier teams in the Continental Cup. Liverpool may be a football-mad city with a strong rivalry, but it has not kept up with the likes of Manchester City or Chelsea in terms of resources and devotion to their women's team. When Liverpool Women visited the United States over the summer for a preseason tour, playing non-league teams at universities like Harvard and Notre Dame, Reds manager Vicky Jepson was impressed with the facilities there. “They really looked after us, she said. “It was a breath of fresh air to get that support. In England we get pushed to one side. We are not a priority. In the US, they were in awe of what we were doing but I guess that's just their opinion of women's soccer.” This is shocking, coming from a club that provides Jürgen Klopp’s team with anything he wants; for instance, a throw-in coach or a head of nutrition who provides the men’s team with locally sourced organic menus like roast venison loin with an herb and nut crust and roasted plums. Jepson had taken the preseason trip to the United States to be a sign that the club was starting to invest more in the women’s side. "This time last year we didn't have the best reputation as a women's set-up," she said. "There was a period where the game probably outgrew our club. We have managed to put ourselves in a very good position." Unfortunately, the results have yet to come. The team have only scored one goal in five games and will be going into this derby as the underdogs. So, why are Liverpool Women so surprisingly bad this season? Well, for one thing, their most prolific striker, Courtney Sweetman-Kirk, has been absolutely stymied on the pitch and has yet to score a single goal. Here’s a comparison of Sweetman-Kirk’s current season vs last season: 
Sweetman-Kirk entered the WSL three seasons ago as a Blue. Before Everton signed her, she had consistently been a top goalscorer in the second tier of the WSL and then went on to become a top goalscorer for the Toffees and earned WSL Player of the Month in November 2017. She then did the unthinkable and signed with Liverpool in 2018, where she went on to score 10 goals. Finishing was her claim to fame something she spoke about focusing on in training: “I work a lot on my finishing and I find that’s the thing that helps the most. You can’t always replicate the same pressure in training as in a match but the more you do it, the more I find it becomes a bit of an automatic thing. I watch analysis on opposition keepers too to see what their habits are, if they normally stay on their line or rush out for example.” She chose her scoring opportunities wisely as is evidenced by this shot map from last season: 
Compare that to this season’s shot map, which suggests that she's either forgotten where the goal is, or is struggling with a lack of service. 
In a rapidly changing league, Liverpool may not have been ambitious enough during the offseason to keep up with clubs like Chelsea who, adding strength to strength, have just announced the signing of one of the best players in the world, Sam Kerr. Everton, on the other hand, have escaped what had seemed like a predetermined fate to come in second to last place every season by exceeding expectations, and are currently in 5th place. So why are Everton so surprisingly good this season? While the Reds’ striker has been coming up empty, the Blues have one of the most in-form attackers in the WSL in Chloe Kelly. After only scoring once in 11 appearances last season before undergoing ankle surgery in February, Kelly has since rehabbed into the Bionic Woman. Playing mainly from the left wing she's scoring worldlies from way downtown and is currently the top goalscorer of the league, with four goals out of five games, beating out even Arsenal wunderkind Vivianne Miedema. 
Unfortunately for Everton, however, Kelly will miss the match due to a red card suspension, nullifying one of their most surprisingly successful weapons of the season. Everton also had a much busier offseason than Liverpool, with manager Willie Kirk bringing in six new players, one of whom was a new starting goalkeeper, Finland international Tinja-Riikka Korpela, who has kept three clean sheets and is currently tied with Mary Earps for the second-best goalkeeping record in the WSL. 
Two other new additions, Lucy Graham and Maeva Clemeron, join Kelly as the top three in combined tackles and interceptions on the team, the backbone of a revamped Everton defense. 
A strong home fan turnout at Anfield, a 54,000 capacity seat stadium, could help bolster the Reds to beat the odds and win on Sunday. Both teams have suffered low attendance in the past, but Everton’s tendency to have the lowest in the WSL continues even after the World Cup bump, with an average home game attendance of just 383, up from last season’s paltry 192. Liverpool is faring better with an average of 1,180 so far this season, which will be shattered on Sunday. But regardless of turnout, the match could provide an extremely rare occurrence: an Everton win over Liverpool at Anfield.