Chelsea is home to an exceptionally talented player who has surprisingly remained under the radar in terms of media attention. This player is none other than Lauren James, whose performance in the 2023–2024 WSL season has been noteworthy. Despite her significant contributions to the team, especially in terms of assists and goals, her achievements have not been widely recognised as she deserves.
Her level of productivity on the field has been remarkable, standing out as a key contributor to Chelsea’s success. This scout report is dedicated to exploring the unique qualities that make Lauren James such a valuable player.
In this report, we will look close to quantitative data and qualitative aspects of her performance. Our goal is to determine if the statistical evidence is in sync with the perceived excellence of her play, thereby offering a thorough evaluation of Lauren James as an exceptional talent in the world of football.
Contents
- Biography
- Seasonal stats
- Positions/roles
- Ball progression
- Dribbling
- Key passing
- Shooting
- Assisting
- Expected goal contribution
- Comparison with peers
- Final thoughts
Biography
- Name: Lauren James
- Date of birth: 29–09–2001
- Nationality: English
- Position: Striker, winger
- Contract expires: 30–6–2027
- Soccerdonna market value: 345.000
- Current club: Chelsea FC Women
- Previous clubs: Chelsea (Y), Arsenal(Y), Manchester United
- International: England (20 games)
Seasonal stats
If we look at this specific pizza plot, we can say a few things. But before we turn into the meaning, it’s good to stress that this mostly gives us a stylistic idea of the player rather than a definitive performance one. It’s also a general template used for all players, so it just gives us an indication.
What we can see is in the attacking metrics is that she scores extremly well in the shooting metrics compared to her peers, not great at the assists metrics, but is again high in the shot-creating actions and the expected goal contribution — which can be expected for an attacker.
In terms of the passing data, she does perform very well and above average for almost every metric in the 77th percentile and up. Only in progressive passes, you can see that she scores below average in the 45th percentile.
The defending metrics, aren’t something you should pay too much attention to if you would like to rate her overall, but two metrics she scores high compared to her average peers: tackles and aerial duels won — this means that she is doing very well in the air and when in defensive mode, she is more of a reactive player than a proactive player.
Here you can see the more complete radar percentile ranks on the left, as you can see James scores pretty well overall. There are only two metrics where she scores below the 50th percentile rank (tackles and interception, Defensive actions) — the rest she scores at least above average and most of them she scores very high. In 13 metrics she scores higher than the 75th percentile.
On the right you can see the same information, how she scores compared to her peers, but this time you see it in a different visual + the actual raw data is included as well.
Position/roles
In terms of positions, there is not a lot of variety in where she plays. She plays as the striker or attacking midfielder on the wing in the different formations that Chelsea plays: 4–2–3–1, 4–4–2 or 3–4–2. The point is not to say Chelsea play this way and this way, but to emphasise that she can play as the sole striker, in a two or as the attacking midfielder on the wings.
The more interesting question is what role she can play in an attack. There are four different roles in the attack: goalscoring striker, target striker, classic winger and wide playmaker.
In the two tables above you can see the goalscoring striker profile and the target striker profile. In both profiles we see James on the top of the table, and this means that she is stylistically the closest to a perfect goalscoring striker and/or a target striker. She scores 96,04% similarity and 96,85% similarity to the profiles we looked at.
In the two tables above you can see the classic winger profile and the wide playmaker profile. In the first profile, James is on top with 97,97% similarity and in the second profile, James is second with 98,48% similarity.
It’s evident that Lauren James comes very close to the specific data profiles as I have set them out, but it’s also important to know that I’ve only looked at players who have played in the CF position. When I add the actual wingers to this specific database, the numbers will change here.
Ball progression
The modern striker isn’t only concerned with dribbling and crosses — but he/she also needs to be comfortable on the ball and progress play from it.
In the scatterplot above you can see the progressive metrics of progressive passes per 90 and progressive runs per 90. James does well here as she scores above average in the progressive passes metric, and above the progressive runs metric. As you can see, she is one of the best strikers in ball progression.
Dribbling
How good is Lauren James in her dribbling? Let’s find out in this scatterplot below
In the scatterplot above you can see how well the player are scoring in terms of volume of dribbling and the success rate of those dribbles. As you can see James has the fourth most dribbles per 90 of all the attackers, but in the successful metric, she is more successful. Only Malard has a higher dribble completion.
Key passing
Every player makes passes in a game, but which passes actively contribute to the progression and construction of an attack? You can see that in the bar graph below regarding key passes:
When we look at the bar graph above we see the type of pass and the percentile rank that goes with that specific metric. For Lauren James, we can see that she scores in the 77th percentile and up for all of these specific metrics, except for assists per 90 and third assists per 90. There she scores in the 51st and 45th percentile compared to her peers.
Shooting
In the scatterplot above you can see the metrics of shots per 90 and expected goals per 90 combined. As you can James scores above average for both metrics, but with a very high volume of shots but a close to average expected goals per 90.
When we look at the expected goals and the actual goals we see that she averages 0,5xG per 90 and 1,26 goals per 90 — this means that she is significantly overperforming on her expected goals.
James often comes in the position to shoot, but how does he do in the quality of shooting?
In the shot map above you can see from where James has conducted her shots in the 2023/2024 WSL season. She had 43 shots of which 11 went in goal. She generated a total xG of 5,85 — the latter meaning that she is overperforming with +5,15.
Assists
As you can see she has an expected assists number of 0,16 per 90 and while others do score better on that front, she has an actual assist number of 0,11 per 90 — which means he is underperforming quite significantly per 90 minutes.
Expected goal contributions
If we look at the expected goal contributions per 90 minutes we can see something very interesting. James is expected to contribute to roughly 0,66 goals per 90 minutes. In her case, she isn’t as complete as other strikers in this regard, but she is more of a goalscorer than she is a player who sets someone up in front of goal.
Comparisons
Final thoughts
Lauren James has been enjoying an exceptional season with Chelsea, raising questions about her ability to perform consistently in both domestic and European competitions — and rightfully so. Nonetheless, domestically, she has emerged as a prolific player, frequently finding the back of the net and contributing assists with remarkable consistency. Her remarkable pace, exceptional one-on-one skills, and dribbling prowess make her a formidable threat against any defense.
When it comes to directly contributing to goals, she has been shining brightly with her impressive goal-scoring and assist-generating abilities. As the ongoing season progresses, Lauren James continues to rack up goals for her Chelsea side, making her a key figure in their quest for success.