Veinte Futbol: September 2025

Why Birmingham have the best wide players in the WSL2

Birmingham missed out on promotion by 2 points on the final game of the 2024/25 Women's Championship (now WSL2) and one of the key areas they looked to strengthen over the summer was their wide depth. The Blues allowed Choe Yu_Ri to leave in the summer, and Lucy Quinn missed a large part of last season due to injury. Lee Geum-Min has been moved to the bench after playing a big portion of last season on the left flank. With new signings Lily Crosthwaite and Veatriki Sarri coming straight in to the starting lineup, the Blues are now enabled to more effectively use the wide areas and have more direct threats on their wings.

Rebecca McKenna & Rebecca Holloway have fairly similar roles within the team to provide width in the build-up stages & occupy the spaces that open up when the ball goes out to the wingers. Because of Birmingham's high defensive line, they're both able to break up the pitch quickly when the ball turns over in the defensive or middle 3rds. It seems so basic - because it is - but Birmingham have been able to constantly have their wingers stay wide in the middle 3rd or when they're nearing the final 3rd for the fullbacks to underlap them to exploit the spaces opened up by the opposing defences not picking them up when the play slows down.

Rebecca McKenna has been a constant source of energy on the right flank for Birmingham so far and, although she has not directly contributed to a goal, she's been cleverly picking up spaces on the inside right channel to create space for her to carry into the box and fire in crosses to the back post where her teammates have been in position for any rebounds that have come back out to them. Against Bristol, she was able to pick up space as the midfield line hadn't recovered, so she was a short option for Simone Magill who had peeled into the wide right channel. Her eventual deflected cross forced a save out of Fran Bentley in goal. Similarly, against Newcastle this weekend, she was a big part of the Blues' 2nd goal as she had rotated ahead of Crosthwaite on the right flank to move into the space vacated by Demi Stokes closing down the English winger. Crosthwaite's ball in behind allowed McKenna to get into the box which panicked the Newcastle defence into a botched clearance, and made it 2-0.

Magill with the ball on the right and McKenna has space ahead of her.

McKenna gets on the ball near the box.

She gets into the box to get her cross off.


The cross forces Bentley into a good save.

Rebecca Holloway was part of 2 almost identical goals in the first game of the season against Bristol City as she was able to pick the ball up in space against a fairly settled Bristol back line where she, in the case of the first goal, laid the ball off outside to Sarri while continuing her run inside the Greek winger to square the ball across the box for Magill to backheel in. The 2nd saw Sarri holding the width again on the left before slipping Holloway through to fire another low cross towards the 6 yard box for Magill to finish past Bentley again.

Holloway lays the ball wide to Sarri.

Sarri returns the ball to Holloway.

Holloway gets her cross in.

Magill backheels it in.

Similar to the first goal, Holloway is on the inside of Sarri looking to run into the space.

She gets another low cross off.

Magill is able to score under Bentley

On the right wing new signing, Lily Crosthwaite has been a big upgrade to start the season as they finally have a definitive starting player there compared to last season where they rotated - in part due to injuries - between Cho Yu-Ri, Lucy Quinn & Ava Baker. Her hot start has seen her bag 2 goals & 1 assist in her opening 3 games off the right which has been due to her excellent spatial recognition on & off the ball, her ability to beat her opposing fullback off the dribble - which is something she looks more comfortable doing compared to last season when she was at Durham - and her crossing which is now at a respectable 33% (Sofascore) success rate. Similar to McKenna behind her, Crosthwaite likes to stay wider to hold width down the right flank. As alluded to earlier, their dynamic often sees Crosthwaite get on the ball out wide at a fairly early stage of possession, where she can hold the ball up & face up her opposing fullback to allow time for McKenna to underlap her into the space created by the fullback pushing out to mark the English winger or any gaps that can appear nearer to the inside-right near the opposing midfield line.

Crosthwaite's speed off the ball does make her a target for balls in behind which can play into when they look to play more direct as they possess good long ball players in Lucy Thomas & Shannon Cooke who can find her from deep positions. There have been times when she has pushed inside off the ball by staying narrow and either positioning herself between left-centre-back and left-back to receive through balls to attack the goal or she can carry into the box and look to cross from close range on her right foot where she can even use the outside of her right foot to curve the ball like a left footer would in that position.

Lily Crosthwaite picks up the ball on the right flank.

She gets by her 2 defenders and into the box.

Once she's in the box, she spots the run at the back post & attempts to cross on the outside of her right foot.

Holloway narrowly misses the cross at the back post.

The other new signing on the wing for Birmingham was Veatriki Sarri, who joined after leaving Everton on a free to rejoin the Blues after leaving in 2022 after 1 season in the top tier. Whereas Crosthwaite is really only comfortable playing on her right foot, the Greek winger is much more comfortable playing with both feet as she can carry, shoot & pass the ball on the left flank. This versatility allows her to cut inside on her right foot or to go down the line where she can play the ball into the box on her left foot. This was best showcased by her goal against Sunderland where she received the ball from Simone Magill on the left wing before facing up Jess Brown who kept backing off, allowing her to move the ball towards the penalty spot while wrong-footing Brown before curling the ball into the far side of the goal.