2024 Final Grades: Midfielders

We’ve come to the middle of the pitch, after looking at the Thorns goalkeeping squad and the defenders from the 2024 season.

The midfielders.

The Thorns rostered nine midfielders at the end of 2024:

But…

Here’s the actual-playing-time tote board from last season:

One – Gabby Provenzano – was out all season with injury, so no grade whatsoever.

Four of the remaining midfielders got few, and two got almost no, minutes.

Sophie Hirst and Mallie McKenzie played one game each. Hirst a single minute in the final regular season home win over ACFC, McKenzie 12 minutes in the August away loss at Gotham.

That’s simply not enough to get any sense of their abilities, so:

Grades: Incomplete

Two others got a quarter hour or so at least once.

Olivia Wade-Katoa came in for the final fifteen minutes in the Opening Day trainwreck in Kansas City (wasn’t great, PMR +1/-2), and got a “no rating” (meaning did nothing of good or ill) for about a quarter hour in the away draw in Utah. Both matches were in the Peak Crap Coaching Periods from both Mike Norris and Rob Gale, so it’s hard to get any sort of sense of her skillset from them, so:

Grade: Incomplete

Marissa Sheva got more than junk minutes three times;
– About a quarter-hour in the win against ACFC here (meh, PMR +1/-1),
– Played the full second half against Kansas City here (but did little of note, PMR +1/-1), and
– Twelve minutes (sorta okay, PMR +2/-1) in the draw in LA.

Plus some junk time in three other matches. So:

Grade: C

Deep depth, not awful but nothing outstanding there, either. Everyone needs depth, and Sheva isn’t a trashfire, so, meh.

Update 12/12: Apparently really meh; the club waived Sheva (along with D’Aquila and keepers Kozal and Asman) later this week. All are free agents per the CBA and one – Asman – has already been picked up.

Not on this list because she was dealt in late midseason is Janine Beckie, and we’ll deal with her at the end of this piece, because she was part of the issues in midfield during 2024.

That leaves four who 1) remain here and 2) played real minutes. First let’s look at them as a unit. That’s…not as simple as it looks, because of the Peak Crap Coaching thing. For example, here’s our vaudevillian cane blogger Andre’ Carlisle’s passing diagram from Matchday 4, the away loss in Carolina that finally cost Norris his job:

Yeah, that’s a fucking mess. How’d his replacement do, then? Here’s KenBall on Matchday 9, whomping the dogshit out of Seattle here:

It worked, but what the actual fuck? Sam Coffey is giving Jessie Fleming a piggyback ride in the center circle, Hina Sugita and Sinc are swapping anecdotes in there, too, while Olivia Moultrie has Sophia Smith’s back as withdrawn forward. Go figure.

Here’s July, barely beating San Diego here:

I dunno what the hell that is, either.

Here we are in September losing to Chicago:

Here’s one of the three-back sets, the September Matchday 22 loss in San Diego:

A lot of the same problems; poor passing (Coffey, Fleming), players smooshed together (Fleming, Sinc) or isolated (Coffey, Moultrie).

The bottom line is that the midfield has been kinda all over the place this past season, both structurally and tactically, so perhaps we can look at the four regular starting midfielders as a group of players to get a feel for how they worked this year.

Here’s their “basic data” from FBRef:

What jumps out here are:
1) Moultrie was clearly the “attackingest” midfielder of the four (which we knew given that she also played at forward). She tended to bring the ball upfield (“PrgC”) or receive a pass (“PrgR”). Her xG is twice that of any of the other three, but her expected assists (“Ast”) is a fraction of…
2) Sugita and Coffey provided most of the passing support for the attack; their “Ast” and “PrgP” progressive passing numbers are either significantly or slightly better than Moultrie’s.
3) Fleming is kind of the odd-woman-out. Not a scoring threat, not providing assists, decent progressive passing but no other real standout stats. Looks like a player searching for a role.

Here’s their defending:

Interestingly that for all we tend to think of Coffey as “the defensive midfielder” it was Fleming who went in on the tackle more often; 15% more often. Coffey was tougher, though, winning almost 67% of her tackles to Fleming (and Sugita) winning half.

Moultrie, whose defending was pretty meh, won barely 40% of her challenges.

Coffey and Sugita were the ball-hawks, intercepting more than twice the passes Moultrie or Fleming picked off.

How was their success in the air? Right hand columns below:

Coffey? Good – won over half her aerial duels. Hina-san was okay (45%). The other two? Pretty rubbish – lost 60% or worse.

Worth noting that Coffey bossed the pitch recovering turnovers, too.

All this suggests that the Thorns midfield broke down as:

Sugita – full-on box-to-box #8, contributing to both attack and defense,
Coffey – the primary defensive #6, but getting forward when possible,
Moultrie – primarily some sort of #10 attacking midfielder, and
Fleming – hard to infer from the data, but based on the eye test a sort of shuttling #8

So. With that, let’s look at them individually.

Sam Coffey (MF, DM)

Age: 25 (will be 26 in December)
Games played 2024: 24 played, 23 started
Comparison with previous seasons:
2022 Final Grade: A
2023 Final Grade: A+

In 2023 I wrote:

“The 2023 squad had two players that stood head-and-shoulders above the rest. One, obviously, was Sophia Smith. Sam Coffey was the other, and the obvious concern for me in 2024 is that US Soccer will recognize that and steal her away as they did Smith, the greedy creatures.”

Well, they did, and so we lost Coffey for two regular season matches and three starts this past year.

But we also – as we saw above – lost some of Coffey to KenBall. He sat her deeper, and played her more like a pure destroyer. She scored twice last season but her xG per 90 minutes went from 0.9 in 2022 through 0.4 in 2023 to 0.7 in 2024, and her assists went from 8 in 2023 (0.37/90m) to 3 in 2024 (0.14/90m).

Here she is against some peers; first, overall:

The comps are Hina-san, Denise O’Sullivan, Croix Bethune, Andi Sullivan, and Rose Lavelle, who along with Bethune is there more for when we get to Moultrie and Fleming.

Respectable, as you’d expect. Here’s their defending.

Coffey’s the best of the tacklers (won ~67%, O’Sullivan is closest at ~56%…) and picked off almost as many passes as her teammate. Again…what you’d expect.

Passing?

Again; solidly within a group of good peers.

Here’s Coffey’s PMR plot:

What’s interesting is to compare last season to 2023:

Slightly higher team baseline the past season, and much closer to Coffey’s net than in 2023. Meaning that in 2023 Sam Coffey was notably better than her club; last season her club was a bit better on average, and Coffey was “less better” than they were.

So:

Grade: A-

Coffey’s slight ding is more on her coaching – stop me if you’ve heard me say this before – than on her. But the overall effect was to drag her down a bit. We’ll see if a new gaffer can change that. But in general another very good season from an excellent player.

Hina Sugita (mf, am-dm)

Age: 27 (will be 28 in January 2025)
Games played 2024: 21 played, 18 started
Comparison with previous seasons:
2022 Final Grade: A+
2023 Final Grade: A-

Sugita-senshu has been consistently among the best Thorns player over three seasons, and 2024 was no exception. Unlike her previous season she was not called up by the Nadeshiko. Unlike the previous season, however, she lost significant playing time to the horrific facial injury she suffered against Chicago here in September.

She also lost something to KenBall; consistency. Here’s her position in Ken’s formations by Matchday per FBRef:

1 (RM), 2 (RM), 3 (LM), 4 (RM), 5 (LM), 6 (RM/LM), 7 (DM), 8 (CM), 9 (CM), 10 (LM), 11 (DM), 12 (DM), 13 (DM), 14 (AM/DM), 15 (LM), 16 (DM), 17 (CM), 18 (LM), 19 (DM), 20 (DM) and then out with injury until the last regular season match and the semifinal.

Three games at right midfield, five at left midfield, seven at defensive midfield (usually either as a double pivot with Coffey or a more-defensive #8), three at center midfield (typically as a true box-to-box #8), one starting as an attacking midfielder then dropped back to DM, another started on the right then swapped across field.

Never more than three games at the same position in a row.

That’s ridiculous and part of the problem with KenBall.

Still, here’s Sugita’s PMR plot:

That’s…wow. Just wow.

We’ve seen how well Hina-san compared to some of the best midfielders in the league. How about some of the best in the world? Here they are in attack: Sugita compared to two of Barca’s stars, Bonmati and Putellas, Horan at Lyon, and two players from the WSL, Hasegawa at ManCity and Cuthbert from Chelsea.

The goals from Barca and Lyon feasting on their respective tomato cans make the raw numbers look lopsided…but look at the far right hand columns.

Hmmm.

Here they are defensively:

Better than the attackers – no shock – and comparable to Chelsea’s tough Scot.

Grade: A

I’m tempted to give her a plus just for not pelting Ken with onigiri for jerking her all over the pitch.

Jessie Fleming (mf)

Age: 26 (will be 27 in March 2025)
Games played 2024: 25 played, 21 started
Comparison with previous seasons:
Not applicable: signed from Chelsea in January 2024.

As we pointed out above, in 2024 Fleming seemed like she was seeking a role, and her early season was marred by hard work for little result.

But…here’s her PMR plot:

After Matchday 19 Fleming seemed to figure it out. Still kind of lacked a clearly defined role in the squad, but that was mostly KenBall, and her play was much improved on-field as a sort of shuttling #8, tho without any real bite in front of goal.

Here’s her comparative stats, first, baseline:

Shooting:

And passing:

While her passing is decent, Fleming didn’t really materially help the attack, either providing assists or having a crack herself. She shoots a lot – third behind the dedicated AM comps like Bethune and Lavelle – and puts a fair number on frame, about 30%, but just can’t put the biscuit in the basket. Her “non-penalty goals minus xG” is the worst of her comps.

Okay, so not a boss going forward. Defending?

Not bad. Way better than the AMs, solidly in the “utility midfielder” clutch on tackles, tho not as good at cutting out passes. Overall a decent DM.

Grade: B

I’d give Fleming a “C-” or even a “D” for her early season form, but her work in the final third of the season pulls things up…and I think Fleming gets downgraded because many fans expect her to be the player she is for the CWNT, and her situation here is just way different.

And, frankly, I think Fleming is still looking for a role.

She’s getting forward more…but not as effectively as Moultrie.

She’s a decent defender…but Sugita and Coffey are better.

Fleming is a good, solid starting-quality player who needs a gaffer smarter than Ken who can figure out where to fit her in more effectively.

Here’s our final starter,

Olivia Moultrie

Age: 19 (will be 20 in September 2025)
Games played 2024: 22 played, 18 started
Comparison with previous seasons:
2022 Final Grade: A-/B+
2023 Final Grade: B+

As we’ve discussed, Moultrie is primarily an attacker. She can defend, but she’s not really good at it and it doesn’t come naturally to her.

This past season that led to a couple of problems.

First, as noted above, the Thorns had several midfielders who were very similar; Moultrie, Fleming, Beckie, and Sugita, as well as Christine Sinclair, all wanted to push up, and all tended to prioritize attacking. That created a logjam at AM/FW and contributed to the chaotic mess that Norris/KenBall made of the midfield.

Second, it made things more difficult for Sam Coffey, Hina-san, and the backline when (as often happened) Sinclair and Moultrie were on the pitch. Defensively both players were…not helpful. “Like playing 10-on-11” was a common fan gripe about Moultrie and/or Sinclair not tracking back.

The thing is…look back at their numbers:

Even within KenBall Moultrie created more shot opportunities than her midfield peers. Her five goals – albeit one from the PK spot – were second on the squad after Smith and the best of the midfielders, tho it’s worth noting that her “goals to xG” numbers are behind Sugita and Coffey; Moultrie posted a +0.3 “non-penalty goals minus xG”, Sugita +1.4, Coffey +1.3.

That shows another Moultrie thing, though; she tended to be a wasteful shooter:

Second on the squad in shots but her “goals per shot” – 0.08, or about a 10% conversion rate – is the lowest other than Payton Linnehan, a 2024 draftee. That’s been a consistent problem; in 2023 Moultrie’s conversion rate was about 8%, 2 goals on 24 shots.

Here’s the thing.

Moultrie was a “Parsons pick” but has played largely for three head coaches whose line of “player development” credit seem pretty thin. And she seems to have suffered the worst from the tactical confusion that is KenBall. She’s been here so long it’s easy to forget how young she is; at nineteen if she was in a major NCAA program Moultrie might not have made the varsity squad!

So I tend to cut Moultrie a far amount of slack. She has a lot of upside, especially if she can come under the tutelage of a genuinely talented gaffer.

Grade: B

Let’s hope that happens soon.

We should talk briefly about the Missing Midfielder of 2024,

Janine Beckie

Age: 30 (will be 31 in August 2025)
Games played for Portland 2024: 16 played, 10 started
Comparison with previous seasons:
Not applicable: Signed from ManCity in the FAWSL in 2022 to play in 2023. Injured in preseason 2023, returned to play 2024, traded to Racing Louisville in August.

I said that Moultrie was the top scoring Thorns midfielder ahead of Sugita and Coffey, but the actual second-highest scoring midfield Thorn in 2024 was Beckie with three, plus a couple of assists.

If Fleming and Moultrie had role issues Beckie was a big part of that…because Beckie herself had trouble figuring out – no; her coaches couldn’t figure out – her role here, either. Somehow Norris and Gale managed to turn a veteran international into what looked like a mediocre journeywoman flailing about in midfield trying to do something.

She started the season as a monster in Kansas City, coming on after halftime and nearly dragging the Thorns back from the dead with a brace.

But from there things kind of went sideways. Here she was by Matchday 3:

“Beckie (65′ – +3/-5 : +4/-3 : +7/-8) Still not the force she was in Kansas City, and instead looks to be reverting to her pre-injury mean here. Works hard, but just not in synch with Smith, Weaver, or the AMs, which is obviously a coaching issue; she’s international quality as an individual. Not sure yet whether Kansas City was the exception, but it’s looking increasingly like it.”

Matchday 7 against Bay FC

“Beckie (76′ – +4/-1 : +4/-1 :+8/-2) It speaks volumes that half of Janine Beckie’s pluses are defensive; two tackles, two duels-won. When your wingers are doing a lot of your defending? You’re doing it wrong.”

Matchday 9 against Seattle:

“Beckie (28′ – +4/-0) Saw out the win, so fine, but still isn’t really breaking things open in attack, which is supposed to be her forte’.”

Matchday 11 in Orlando:

“Beckie (72′ – +4/-4 : +2/-2 : +6/-6) Active and energetic, but sloppy in possession and nothing dangerous; one good run and pass in the 35th minute (that was just too far ahead of Moultrie) but no shots and nothing else. Like Fleming, not doing for her club what she does for her country.”

Just to remind us how good she could be, here’s Matchday 13 in Seattle:

“Beckie (+11/-1 : +7/-2 : +18/-3) Woman of the Match. Pretty much everything positive the Thorns did at Lumin were because Beckie started something. I’ve been hoping to see something like this from her. It was wasted because there wasn’t anyone to take her up on what she offered, but if she can stay at this level when Coffey and Smith and Weaver return? That could be dynamite.”

Then regressing to the mean in Utah in Matchday 15:

“Beckie (28′ – +6/-0) Like her fellow Canadian Fleming, Beckie plays well, has good individual games, but somehow the sum of the Thorns parts she plays in are less than her individual efforts. That implies the failure is at a level above the individual, so…”

Had one more good match in San Diego and then was gone.

If a single player could stand in for all the “this is what went wrong in 2024” it’d be Beckie.

Here’s a player in her prime, a mainstay of a national team that has been in the top tier of international play during her tenure, that was somehow almost utterly nerfed for her club, whose frequent inability to lift the Thorns midfield play was cast in harsh relief by the occasional times she did do that lifting.

Beckie could be a game-changer; we’d seen that for her country.

That she seldom was is a pretty vicious indictment of her club’s management.

Grade: B+ (as an individual), C- (as part of the team)

Summing Up

After 2023 I wrote:

“Now the club has an opportunity to re-form the midfield using players like Fleming and Moultrie, incorporating promising newcomers like Linnehan, and returning veterans like Beckie. Can the 2024 midfield be crafted to work – consistently – at a level that the 2023 version reached only occasionally? You’d think so.

But then…given the individual quality here, you’d think that should have happened last season, too.

Overall Grade: B-“

Okay, well…no.

Different coach, same shit.

Instead of “…The endless fiddling with formations and rosters. The uninspired tactics. Things like playing Sugita wide to find space for Sinc, or playing Sinc instead of Rocky or Moultrie. Dunn and Sugita at DM…” it produced an even less-coherent primordial midfield soup; players out of position, stacked like cordwood in some places, missing in others, flailing because their coach didn’t provide them with a tactical plan, or one they could use successfully.

I honestly don’t see how this changes with Ken here in the spring.

The final mark for the midfield has to reflect that, having watched the mess Norris made in 2023, Gale made similar, or worse, mistakes last season.

Overall Grade: C-

When you have players of the individual quality Rob Gale had here in 2024 and you manage to make them look worse than those qualities?

That’s a bad look on you.

Next up: The Forwards