Photo Credit: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images
Ryan Williams has turned heads for her electric chance creation this season. The North Carolina Courage right back bubbled under the surface for years as a good soldier for then-head coach Sean Nahas, but has now blossomed under new head coach Mak Lind. Her three assists tie her atop the fullback assists leaderboard this season, and tie her career-best assist total with 16 games to go.
While the modern National Women’s Soccer League is no stranger to attacking fullbacks (look no further than the emergence of Lilly Reale, Avery Patterson and Gisele Thompson), Williams remains unique, because nobody is putting herself in a better attacking position than she has.
First, we should note the overall trend toward attacking fullbacks. No longer is the league solely driven by a Meghan Klingenberg type, a fiend for an overlapping run whose rarity only shone the spotlight all the brighter on her. As it has in the men’s game, the increasing presence of fullback involvement in attacking play has been sharp and notable, as the below graph shows.
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