A box to box midfielder with the abilities to attack, set up teammates and shoot herself
So far Leonhardsen Maanum has earned 47 caps for Norway and she’s scored 6 goals. She was a part of Norway’s National Team in the Euros 2017 and at the World Cup in France 2019. Leonhardsen Maanum scored the winning goal vs Wales, in a qualification match, to get Norway a spot in this summer’s upcoming UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, which will be played in England.
Leonhardsen Maanum joined her current club, Arsenal WFC ahead of the 2021/22 season and she joined the north London club after playing in the Damallsvenskan in Sweden, with Linköping FC. She has won one Swedish league title with Linköping, back in the 2017 season. The Norwegian started her career in her home country’s top-flight league, Toppserien, where she has represented two clubs; Lyn and Stabaek. She played 67 matches in Toppserien before she moved to Linköping FC in 2017.
But who is Frida Leonhardsen Maanum the footballer? What are her skills and what does she bring to her team?
Emma Lennartsson, former teammate in Linköping FC
“In my eyes Frida, in many ways, is a complete football player, because of her vision of the game. She wants to take part and solves many situations out on the pitch due to her technical skills and her game perception. Frida assists her teammates with nice passes that break lines because of her way of reading the game before things happen.
She is a good offensive midfielder, but nowadays she also knows how to defend, because during her time in Linköping we worked a lot to improve her defensive skills. On top of that, Frida is a very humble and wise person who thrives to be better and develop every day.”
Leonhardsen Maanum’s best qualities lie within the offensive part of the game, there’s no doubt. In Sweden she played a huge part of Linköping’s attacking game, placed 2nd in the league of taking the most shots before she left in the middle of the 2021 season, just behind Stina Blackstenius. Since joining Arsenal, most of her game time has seen her in the central parts of the midfield, playing a deeper position in a more defensive role. One of Leonhardsen Maanum’s goals from 2017 when first joining Linköping FC shows her shooting skills.
Norway often play a formation with two wing-backs in front of a back three, where she has often been a part of a double pivot, competing for her spot in the starting XI against Vilde Bøe Risa, but lately and during the Algarve Cup we saw Leonhardsen Maanum operating higher up the pitch in a more offensive minded role..
Using the scouting tool Transfer Lab, we can see Leonhardsen Maanum’s metrics in the centre midfield ‘Box to Box - ’ player profile.
Looking at her profile it shows that her quality lies in: carries, touches in the final third and passes into box.
Her carries are in the 66th percentile while the touches in the final third are in the 78th percentile. In this clip below, Leonhardsen Maanum manages to cover the ball and even dribble herself out after being pressed, before she finds the space to pass the ball out wide to her teammate.
She also presented herself in the Women’s Super League quite early in the ongoing season with this goal.
After a very successful start of the season for Arsenal, they have had a period of struggle since the beginning of December after losing the FA Cup final vs Chelsea. It will be mighty interesting to see where the Gunners’ head coach, Jonas Eidevall thinks that Leonhardsen Maanum will fit in at the Arsenal midfield for the rest of the season. In the more defensive role or in a more attacking minded one?
About TransferLab Scouting Tool:
TransferLab is a scouting software that goes beyond raw numbers. Feeding the data through our unique algorithm, the platform produces a host of predictive metrics which add depth and colour to the basic stats that are generally used within the football industry.
Applying these metrics to over 100,000 players in our database, TransferLab allows you to scout players to a level previously unavailable to most clubs. With the extensive suite of tools available within the platform, you can now discover players much more efficiently than ever before.
You can read more about TransferLab here.