View: Aston Villa have landed pass master in Jordan Nobbs
Aston Villa Women confirmed the signing of Arsenal midfielder Jordan Nobbs on an 18-month contract on Thursday (5 January).
It represents a positive start to the transfer window for Carla Ward as she looks to improve her side’s current seventh-place position in the Women’s Super League.
30-year-old Nobbs is an experienced campaigner and will provide Villa with added midfield quality and depth for the second half of the season.
The attacking midfielder has featured sporadically for the Gunners in the first half of the season and currently has two goals to her name, with her last Women’s Super League appearance coming against the Villans.
She managed to get on the scoresheet that day and she could well be an astute signing from Ward. Arsenal are among the better sides in the country and for Nobbs to be a part of their set-up for a long period of time clearly indicates that she is more than capable of making an impact for Villa.
Furthermore, she’s at an age where she will be able to perform at a high level until her contract in the West Midlands comes to a close.
Although Nobbs hasn’t been overly prolific in an attacking sense for Arsenal, she’s a player who can bring other players into the game and allow Villa to maintain sustained periods of pressure.
She will look to operate in a slightly more advanced area of midfield and drift across the whole width of the pitch. Nobbs is essentially a typical playmaker, who likes to be involved in chance creation, rather than looking to score.
As per Wyscout, Nobbs has averaged just over one through ball per 90 minutes in the 2022/23 season, which puts her in the top 20 players in the whole of the Women’s Super League. Furthermore, she seems to have real quality when it comes to her distribution, with the 30-year-old averaging a 88 per cent pass completion rate.
At times, against the better teams in the league, Villa have struggled to maintain consistent periods of pressure and having a good technician such as Nobbs who can pass and hold the ball in tight spaces could be vital for Ward’s side in the second half of the season.
She isn’t a player who will look to beat an opponent, with her dribble success fairly low at 26 per cent. However, only 15 players have averaged a high number of completed passes per match than Nobbs.
This feels like a really smart piece of work from Villa, which could lead to Villa’s other attacking threats such as Alisha Lehmann, Rachel Daly and Kirsty Hanson receiving a higher number of chances.
In other Aston Villa news, Rachel Daly should be played as centre-forward for the Lionesses in 2023 after her stunning campaign in the West Midlands.