Ella Toone WEuro 2025 analysis

Ella Toone Euro 2025 analysis

Introduction 

WEuro 2025 was a bit of a strange tournament for Ella Toone. Toone became a hero for England in the final of Euro 2022 by putting The Lionesses 1-0 up against Germany. A trademark run in behind allowed her to chip the ball into an empty net after getting onto the end of an excellent ball over the top from Keira Walsh put her 1v1, against an on-rushing Merle Frohms.

Walsh sends the ball in behind the German defence.

Toone chips over Frohms.

She then wheels away celebrating.

On top of that, a year later she would continue to step up in another crucial moment as she put England 1-0 up (again) against tournament hosts Australia in the semi final. Appearing unmarked on the left side of the box, Toone managed to curve the ball into the far right corner with outrageous technique. 

Russo holds the ball up in the box.

The ball is played towards Toone in space.

Toone hits the ball towards the top right corner.

The ball hits the top corner and England are 1-0 up.

Circling back to this past tournament, and Toone didn't get her name in the spotlight nearly as much compared to Chloe Kelly, Hannah Hampton and Michelle Agyemang. I still wanted to look into how Toone still made an impact on the tournament and her profile more generally.

All stats are from Sofascore and Fotmob. Apologies for the quality of the images too.

Goal contributions

On the surface 2 goals and 2 assists from 1.94 expected goals and 1.24 expected assists across 6 games seems pretty impressive, although they all came vs Netherlands and Wales (she got 1 goal against the Dutch and 1 goal & 2 assists vs Wales). Her goal against the Dutch was well taken, as she found herself in open space at the top of the box, to receive a pass from Alessia Russo. She was able to run into the space and finish smartly, low to the keepers left side.

Toone arriving late on the outside of the box.

She then finds herself in acres of space as the defence has collapsed near the 6 yard box.

Toone attacks the space and finishes low on her left foot.

Against Wales, Toone's first contribution was to score to make it 2-0. Russo gets to the cross before Olivia Clarke could claim the ball. Russo managed to round the Welsh keeper and then find Toone in space in the box. After her first shot rebounded back to her, Toone was able to fire into the net from close range. 

Toone is on the top of the D waiting to run into the box.

Russo has rounded the keeper and Toone is on the penalty spot in position for a cut-back.

After her first shot rebounded back to her, she smashes the second attempt high into the net.

Her first assist saw her overlap Lauren James on the right flank to attack the space near the byline, in order to deliver a pinpoint cross for Lauren Hemp to head in from close range.

Toone looks to overlap the stationary James who is baiting Wales to press her.

Toone gets on the end of James' pass down the line and looks to cross to the back post.

Hemp finishes off the cross with a header at the back post.

The final assist involved her linking up with James again on the right flank with a 1-2 to get into the box, and lay the ball across for Russo to tap in from 6 yards out.

Toone and James linking up once again on the right flank.

Toone runs in behind the defensive line again anticipating a ball in behind from James.

She cuts the ball across the 6 yard line back to Russo in space.

Russo has an empty net to slot the ball into.

On-ball attacking threat

Toone managed 10 shots across the whole tournament, with 8 out of the 10 shots coming in from inside the opposition's box.

Given that her role within the team was to be a second striker that would crash the box, overlap/run beyond Russo and make the most of England's strategy to create most of their chances from crosses(England were able play 8 successful crosses from 27 per game). The above graphic represents where you'd want Toone to be shooting from (even though she missed 2 big chances and had some of her shots blocked).

While Toone nominally lined up as the number 10 behind Russo she mostly looked to attack the inside right half-space channel (see graphic below), although she was given license to float along to the left wing to create overloads at points. 

Rough representation of the right half-space channel.

Ella Toone's WEuro 2025 heatmap.

Although Georgia Stanway usually plays slightly higher than Keira Walsh in the midfield pivot, in this tournament she was given more license to occupy more advanced on the left side of midfield to mirror Toone's coverage on the right side. 

Georgia Stanway's heatmap for WEuro 2025.

Toone's crossing was surprisingly threatening which, before the tournament, wasn't something I expected her to do much of, as it's not really something you associate with her profile for Manchester United. As mentioned earlier, one of her 2 assists actually from a pinpoint cross to Lauren Hemp against Wales. Even when her crosses didn't find a specific target, they did create chaos for opposition goalkeepers.

Toone recovers the ball on the left flank and looks to cross into the box.

The ball flies dangerously towards the 6 yard box.

Italy clear the ball after it deflects off of goalkeeper, Laura Giuliani. 

I'd still argue that she was unusually passive this Euro's. The best example that I noticed was when she got onto an excellent through ball from Hemp in the latter stages of the quarter-final against Sweden. In a 1v1 situation with Swedish keeper, Jennifer Falk, she chose to square the ball to Stanway who couldn't get to the ball before Nathalie Björn, resulting in a turnover when England were in desperate need of a goal. 

Toone points where she wants the ball in behind the Swedish backline.

She gets on the ball in an advantageous position.

Oddly, she tries to square the ball for Stanway who is blocked off by the Swedish defence.

She did struggle in tighter spaces when she was on the ball and did get dispossessed 5 times and only won 44% of her duels. 

Toone getting barged off the ball by Guijarro (p1).*p=part.

Toone getting barged off the ball by Guijarro (p2).

Toone getting barged off the ball by Guijarro (p3).

However she did have one flashy moment which saw some neat close control allowed her to resist the pressure that Patri Guijarro was putting on her near the right flank.

Toone on the ball with Michelle Agyemang ahead of her, and Guijarro closing her down.

Toone chops the ball to her left to allow Guijarro to fly by her.

She's then able to turn out of pressure.

Ans then lays the ball of for Bronze who has space to receive the ball.

Off-ball attacking threat

It wasn't just in the box where she seemed passive either. One of Toone's biggest weapons is her attacking positioning and understanding of spatial-manipulation off the ball, so seeing her not attack the space behind the midfield line more than she did was a bit odd. This example against Italy stood out.

Toone is alongside Hemp looking to break towards Italy's box.

She peels off into the centre.

Hemp eventually squares the ball to her.

Instead of attacking towards the right side or towards goal, she opts to bring the ball back towards the left flank.

You could argue that because she played as a shadow striker (a number 10 who will look to act as a secondary striker as well as playmake) that her modest 45 touches per 90 isn't too bad, given that England averaged 56% possession (apart from against Spain where they only had 35%). This is where Toone's game usually shines, and while she still was able to find plenty of good attacking positions, she was often overlooked by her teammates (which was understandable in some moments of the game state where they wanted to hold the ball for longer after being on the backfoot). She was still keen to point out when she was in space either in build-up or on the break.

When England were looking to build through the thirds, she'd constantly either drop in or move into open space to provide a passing angle for either a defender, or Keira Walsh to break the lines.

Toone gestures that she wants the ball from Walsh.

She's able to receive with her body facing towards Bronze.

Toone gets the ball back from James and is able to run into the space near the centre circle.

She then plays it out wide for Greenwood as England have moved play from right to left.

Defensive contributions on-ball

Across the tournament she made 3 tackles, 3 interceptions and recovered the ball 21 times - 8 of which were recovered in the final 3rd. Her role as an attacking-minded midfielder wasn't really to put up high defensive numbers off the ball, but any disruption that she was able to cause allowed England to stay higher up the pitch.

Off a loose pass Toone is able to close the space here.

She comes away with the ball and Walsh is able to face towards goal.

Again, Toone is able to cut off Guijarro's drive.

Toone completes her tackle.

 

Defensive contributions off-ball

England's pressing structures meant that Toone either pushed up to form a front 2 , stayed as a 10 behind Russo with James and Hemp holding the width (that sometimes looked like a lopsided 3 bank of 3 in midfield as James dropped back) or in a bank of 4 with Walsh behind and Russo in front.

Toone in a staggered front 2.

England's bank of 3 behind Russo.

England's lopsided lines of 3.

Toone in the bank of 4 with Russo above and Walsh below.

England's general idea was to try to discourage teams from playing through the centre of the pitch too easily, but where Toone excelled was when she was tasked with giving the opposition's midfield pivot minimal space to turn into when their team was in build-up.

Toone sticking closely to Manuela Giugliano in Italy's build-up (a).

Toone sticking closely to Manuela Giugliano in Italy's build-up (b).

As most would've anticipated against Spain, England didn't hold the majority of possession throughout the game. That said, the whole team showed their excellent levels of stamina as they were eventually able to make things more difficult for Spain as they game went on. Toone was able to put a good amount of pressure on Patri and Aleixandri when Spain were on her side.

Toone presses Patri Guijarro high up after Coll tries to work the ball out to Spain's number 12.

After Guijarro laid the ball off to Paredes, Toone looks to shut off the pass back to Guijarro in the centre and give Paredes less time on the ball.

Summary

So Toone wasn't completely unplayable (in a good or bad way) this tournament, but she did put in a shift as a starter - other than when she came off the bench against France but she still added pressing intensity to attempt to get England back into the game. Her knockout stage heroics weren't needed this year, yet she did solidify that she's a nailed on starter in the number 10 role for England.