When Laura Wienroither ruptured her ACL in Arsenal Women’s UWCL 22/23 semi-final, one could be forgiven for assuming that the following season would include a lot of minutes for Noelle Maritz, Arsenal’s remaining natural right back. Instead, Jonas Eidevall has largely chose in the 2023/2024 season to employ the talents of Katie McCabe in the position. Maritz did feature in 8 of the 10 league matches, but only started 4 of them and played just under 400 minutes in total. Though it has been suggested by the likes of Arseblog News’ Tim Stillman that this has been done as a way of getting McCabe on the pitch any way Eidevall could (and this does certainly seem to be one aspect of it), it was telling that when Eidevall only had one true right back at his disposal, he chose to use a left footed player. So when Maritz departed the London club for Aston Villa in the January 2024 transfer window—the third Gunner to make that same move in the winter window in three successive years—it was no surprise.
Prior to Maritz’s departure, rumours swirled that her replacement would be Emily Fox, who’d most recently played for the North Carolina Courage in the NWSL. Now that Maritz has left, one could only take that as a given that the Fox deal has been finalised. So what are the Gunners getting in their possible new American fullback? And how would she fit into their overall tactical plan?
Background
Emily Fox began her professional club career as the very first draft pick in the 2021 NWSL draft, which sent her to the newly established Racing Louisville FC. Other first draft picks that may be familiar to non-American audiences include the likes of Rose Lavelle, Sophia Smith, Naomi Girma, and Andi Sullivan to name a few, so that fact alone establishes her in the upper echelon of American players. She came from the prestigious University of North Carolina team, where she played on the same squad as potential future Arsenal teammates Lotte Wubben-Moy and Alessia Russo and under former Gunner Heather O’Reilly as Assistant Coach. Fox quickly established herself as a mainstay of the Racing Louisville team, starting in all but one of their 23 matches and playing over 1,800 minutes. She remained there for another year before being traded in exchange for two players to the North Carolina Courage in 2023. Again, in North Carolina she was one of the core players as their left back, starting every match she played in.
Internationally, it took slightly longer for Fox to become indispensable. She had her debut in 2018 but due to an ACL injury in 2019, it wasn’t until 2021 and 2022 when she began to become the US’ first choice right back. However, once locked in during the Andonovski era, she remained. In 2023, she played in all but one of the US’ 12 matches, starting 10 of 11 games she featured in and playing the second most minutes of any player in the squad that year, only behind captain Lindsay Horan. Fox was even nominated as one of the candidates for US Player of the Year in 2023.
Player traits
Fox is an attacking fullback, plain and simple. She’s a comfortable dribbler with a tendency to try to drive towards the large open space rather than into traffic, and an excellent passer with a long range. Because of her propensity for dribbling, her passing tends to be quick and in the short and medium ranges, but very precise. Fox ranks in the 89th percentile for progressive carries for fullbacks, and the 98th percentile for pass completion. She’s a fluid player, capable of playing on either side of the pitch and even at defensive midfield at a stretch.
For the Courage in the 2023 season she played on both sides of the pitch, though primarily as an inverted left back. She described this as allowing her to be more involved in playmaking, and the pass networks (done by the ever excellent Arielle Dror) display this time and time again, no matter what side of the pitch Fox starred on. Courage’s playoff semi-final against Gotham FC exemplifies this.
Though this particular match ended in a loss for the Courage, it demonstrates how much NCC leaned on Fox in a high stakes match and the value in the passes that she was able to create. They depended on her and she stood tall.
Fox tends to cut inside, but what separates her from other inverting fullbacks is the areas she’ll do this in and just how far she’ll take her runs. Where other attacking fullbacks in the women’s game will primarily do the overlapping run on the outside, Fox will move centrally. Though the likes of McCabe will do this as well, they tend to stop around the higher part of the middle third so they don’t run into their attackers, while also helping to overload midfield numbers. Fox, on the other hand, will go straight on through the middle to the central attacking third. Sometimes the kinds of runs she’ll make are akin to what you’d expect to see from your midfielders rather than your fullback.
In her first—and so far, only—USWNT goal, Fox (number 23) makes her way to the edge of the box as Sophia Smith has been driving from the outside in.
The ball is briefly cleared, and Fox gets the ball from Andi Sullivan.
She turns, sees the acres of pitch in front of her right side, and makes her favoured drive into space.
She quickly releases the shot and it bounces into the bottom corner.
Arsenal and Fox
So how would Fox fit into the overall AWFC structure and current squad?
As mentioned above, Arsenal are not unused to the traits of an attacking fullback. Their three remaining fullbacks in McCabe, Wienroither and the starting left back in Steph Catley all fit this type and Fox adds another to the list, though perhaps with a bit more speed than the others. Maritz was the last of the more defensive, traditional style fullbacks the squad had and with her departure Eidevall’s telegraphed clearly that he wants all of his fullbacks to be of the more modern and attacking type.
That’s not to say that they’ll find themselves in identical spaces. Wienroither traditionally, and nearly always when in the attacking third, makes the overlapping outside run. McCabe and Catley have a habit of starting with the outside run like Wienroither, though will sometimes make a run or two through the inside channels. Fox, meanwhile, makes those inside runs more often than any of the other three. If McCabe is scoring from the edge of the box, it’s typically (but not exclusively) from a dead ball situation where she’s picked up the secondary ball. Fox’s way of cutting inside is more drastic than the others. From the Athletic’s graphic below (courtesy of this article), you can see Fox’s tendency to drive inside as a first and primary method.
Arsenal have made drastically more crosses this season than in prior ones, as shown by Yash here. Part of this is strategic, and part of this is by nature of the personnel available and their instincts and qualities. But it hasn’t necessarily resulted in the desired end product, and it’s made Arsenal more predictable. If Fox does end up joining them as expected, she’d add unpredictability in their buildup that could give them the space that they haven’t found as readily available this season.
High Risk and High Reward
Attacking and inverted fullbacks give a team numbers in possession, but they leave a team quite vulnerable on the counter attack. Having lost Rafaelle Souza and Leah Williamson at the end of the previous season, Arsenal have had to rely on their centrebacks who tend to be slower. Lotte Wubben-Moy’s speed has improved but it is not the strength of new addition Amanda Ilestedt, and having one quick CB won’t protect against an efficient counter. While Fox is quite fast and can recover rapidly, because of where she typically ends up on the field when in possession, if she’s required to track back quickly she would likely pick up the secondary run through the middle but not be able to help with the first wave of attacking threat. Teams have proven against Arsenal this season that one way to pick them apart is to exploit the space behind McCabe and commit numbers forward on the counter; this issue will likely remain with Emily Fox on the team. While Fox’s fluidity is a big asset, it is also playing further into the biggest Arsenal weakness.
Interestingly, when Eidevall had the option of both his right backs in Wienroither and Maritz in the spring of 2023, he tended to use Maritz and her defensive reliability for some of the most competitive matches. She was the one who started against Chelsea in the Conti Cup Final, and the one who started both legs of the UWCL semi-finals against Wolfsburg. By choice, he no longer has that option. It is intriguing that when faced with the decision of keeping a more defensively minded fullback or bringing in an attacking one he is choosing the latter, even knowing where the team have been exploited this season. Though it is in keeping with his emphasis on committing numbers forward and prioritising the heavy press, Eidevall’s been confronted a number of times with the outcomes of the vulnerabilities of this strategy. He is betting on it heavily now that he no longer has the option of a more traditional fullback.
Perhaps, however, it is not a surprise that this is where Eidevall is putting his chips, given the way that the women’s game is trending. Having both fullbacks be attacking ones and asking either the weak side fullback or your defensive midfielder to drop in as another centre back is becoming the norm for the most elite squads. Perhaps rather than a gamble it is an acquiescence, an acknowledgement. If this is the trend of the game, maybe your best bet is to roll with the tide and not fight it.
Any way you look at it, as an acknowledgement, trend, or choice, if Arsenal’s fourth fullback becomes Emily Fox, they’ll have gained an excellent choice. While she is an attacking minded fullback, her defensive game is just as strong and she will be a very valuable addition to their squad.
