The England playmaker hasn't been at her best in 2023, whether for her country or in the Women's Super League. Are there any signs that could change?
In football, there are confidence players, those who are excellent when they are in a good place but difficult to watch when they are not. How good these players are when they are on top form makes it tougher to watch them when they are not, because the talent and the magic in their boots hasn’t disappeared forever – it just needs to be rediscovered. Ella Toone, the Manchester United and England star, is one of these players and, sadly, that confidence seems to have gone missing lately.
To watch Toone in full flow is to watch a game-changing attacking midfielder pick apart a defence. The 24-year-old is brilliant at occupying spaces from which she can seriously hurt an opponent with the passes she can play or the way she can shoot from various positions. She’s a very good footballer, there is no doubt about that.
But we’ve not seen Toone in full flow for a while. Right now, she cuts a frustrated figure, one for whom the ball just doesn’t bounce right, whose touch betrays her more often than usual and whose defence-splitting passes aren’t coming off like they used to. More worryingly, games seem to just pass her by at the moment.
Whether for United or for England, examples of her brilliance have been few and far between in recent months. But what is wrong with Toone? And how do club and country help get her back to her best?
Getty ImagesHighest of highs
After making her mark at United on a consistent basis, Toone’s opportunities for England started to come thick and fast, and the European Championship in 2022 was the high point of it all. Operating as an impact sub, replacing Chelsea star Fran Kirby from the bench in all six games, she excelled, with her goal in the final against Germany the stand-out moment.
Her fresh energy, creativity and sheer fearlessness on the biggest stage made her a game-changer throughout the tournament, and the role she played was crucial to the Lionesses’ being crowned champions of Europe.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesRunning with the momentum
The way Toone started the 2022-23 season suggested that she could go from being an impact sub for England to an effective starter. She played well in the Lionesses first two games after the Euros and her form at club level was superb.
Going into the Christmas break, Toone had three goals and five assists from just nine Women’s Super League games, making her one of the most productive players in the division. Those numbers were helping United look a really dangerous prospect in a season that would end with them finishing in a Women’s Champions League spot for the first time in their short history.
GettyDropping off
But after Christmas, things changed. Toone failed to find the back of the net and only racked up three assists in the second half of the WSL season, which spanned 13 games.
It was form that carried over into the international breaks, too. Since the Euros last summer, the 24-year-old has been directly involved in just six goals in 19 appearances, three of those in the 10-0 thrashing of Luxembourg. There have been flashes of brilliance, with her goal in the World Cup semi-final against Australia certainly the biggest, but they have not come with any regularity.
“She has struggled a little bit for consistency since impressing in the Euros,” Casey Stoney, Toone’s former coach at United, said of her in a column for during the World Cup. “That is understandable. I experienced it as a player. Recovering from the high of your first major tournament is difficult.”
But with the Euros over a year ago now, that can’t continue to be the reason for a lack of form. There has to be more at play, and the eye test suggests that Toone doesn’t have her usual confidence, something you need in spades to be a creative force.
The statistics back that up, too, showing that she’s not playing as many passes into the final third or taking anywhere near as many shots in the WSL in 2023 as she was in the first half of the 2022-23 season, when she was last at her most productive.
GettyConstantly in the firing line
But Toone has barely had a break since the Euros, either. She started all 22 of United’s WSL games last season, with only four outfield team-mates playing more minutes. Three of those were defenders and the fourth was Katie Zelem, the team’s captain.
For England, it was a similar story. An injury to Kirby meant Toone was the only tried and tested option in the No.10 role at Sarina Wiegman’s disposal. In fact, no one played more minutes for the Lionesses between the 2022 Euros ending and the knockout rounds of the 2023 Women’s World Cup starting.
Despite not being at her best, Toone was rarely given a rest, a chance to refresh and just have a bit of time out of the firing line. At United, this came down to a lack of depth in a squad still being built, with the most obvious alternative in her position – Vilde Boe Risa – not favoured under head coach Marc Skinner. Indeed, the Norwegian left to join Atletico Madrid this past summer.
With England, there were options in the squad, be it Jordan Nobbs, Laura Coombs or Jess Park. But Wiegman isn’t a coach that rotates much, and so until Lauren James emerged as a game-changer in an attacking midfield role just before the World Cup, Toone remained almost ever-present.
The 24-year-old has played 33 games for club and country in 2023 and started 30 of them. She is due a break.