Loan watch: Araya Dennis
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| Photo credit: Leicester City Women on Instagram |
In what was ultimately a very busy summer for Spurs Women in terms of squad turnaround, Araya Dennis found herself on loan to last season's relegated side in Leicester City. The 20 year old, former England youth international, was the only player that Spurs loaned out (not including players who left on dual-registrations), as the East Midlands side brought her shortly before the Summer window deadline to reinforce their wide options.
The biggest positive going for everyone involved is that she is getting consistent starting minutes in a decent side, despite Leicester's downturn in form against some of the high-flying clubs in the league. She has started 5 out of the opening 6 games (with a further 2 appearances in the Players Cup) in the league ahead of winter arrival, Alisha Lehmann, although she has yet to record a full 90 in the WSL2. Rick Passmoor has so far given her a defined role on the right wing in his 4231, which is something that Dennis has been lacking during her Spurs tenure as she has been shifted between being a forward, a winger and fullback.
As for the actual on pitch positives, she has shown herself to be a quick player that suits counter-attacking football as an outlet to run in behind the defensive line. Passmoor has established a dynamic in his frontline on the ball. Paulina Nystrom is their main number 9 who can drop to receive the ball and allow Dennis to push higher up to get in behind. This can create something of a slanted shape with Dennis holding her line more narrowly, particularly when the ball is on the left flank with either Missy Goodwin or Poppy Pritchard as the width holders who can look to either go inside or down the line.
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Dennis looking to break in behind Southampton's back line on a counter.
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| She did get tackled but managed to bring the ball into the final third. |
Her functioning as a runner in behind actually highlights something that Spurs have lacked this season. Cathinka Tandberg plays as a target forward for Spurs, and she often doesn't have a runner to aim for when she has to take long passes down, With the exception of Kirsty Hanson, Matilda Vinberg, Olivia Holdt & Signe Gaupset all want the ball to feet when they're out wide (to a lesser extent with Holdt) so it can be easier for play to break down when there's an opportunity for the ball to go forwards.
Back to how she works in this Leicester, their on-ball structure is also another function of Leicester's fairly fluid movement (when it works properly) as their left side necessitates having their left winger stay wider as Asmita Ale tends to stay further back compared to Mayling on the right who is The Foxes main source of width on that side. When she is on the ball side out wide she can receive the ball comfortably with her back to goal to shield the ball, or face up her fullback to then pick out a pass, in situations where the play can slow down or this can allow her RB, in Sarah Mayling, to overlap her.
She has also shown herself to be particularly dangerous in the inside right channel and the half spaces in the final third, to thread the ball through into the box. The best examples of this were the goal that she set up for the 1-0 against Sheffield United in the first game of the season, and when she set up Poppy Pritchard against Newcastle, although she wasn't able to generate a goal from this. It is interesting to see her play the role of an inverted forward that almost acts as a second number 9 for Leicester, as this could be the sort of role that she could be asked to play at Spurs.
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She receives the ball in space in the final 3rd.
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| She then manages to bait her opponent in and then pushes the ball past her to get into a more central position. |
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| Even though her pass ends up being a tad bit late, which gives Pritchard less time, she managed to get into a dangerous position. |
Dennis is still a very raw player, that needs as much game time as she can get at her age in order to continue her improvement. Although she is quick off the mark when she sprints, her 1v1 ability is something that could improve with an increased emphasis on her taking her full-back on more often when she's out wide. Her close control on the ball is decent, especially when she receives the ball, but adding a layer of trickery and unpredictability when she's on the ball would add an extra layer of threat to her game.
Another aspect of her game that still needs refining is her off the ball play. There have been instances where she's in a good position to receive the ball from her teammate, but she either doesn't look ready to receive it or she doesn't give her teammate the adequate spacing to take advantage of the space around her.
Part of this problem is made more evident for viewers given that Rick Passmoor is one of, if not, the most vocal head coaches (which is, depending on your perspective, either incredibly annoying or somewhat informative) across the top two tiers of Women's football and fairly constantly issues instructions to individual players so it can feel like she is quite restricted in what she can do when she's near the ball.
It is of course early in the season and the hope among Leicester, Spurs and Araya herself, is that she will continue to get regular minutes and continue to grow her confidence because she has shown plenty of positive signs, which hopefully will be able to be shown off at Spurs next season.
