The talented teen has been on the brink of a first-team breakthrough for a couple of years now, catching the eye in last summer’s pre-season tour of the متحد States, just weeks after Williamson had waxed lyrical about her as a speaker at Oxford Union. "She’s exceptional," the إنجلترا captain said. "She will take my shirt one day."
In the first two weeks of the new season, that’s exactly what Reid has done, replacing Williamson in the Arsenal XI for wins over London City Lionesses و وست هام in a perfect start to the WSL campaign for the Gunners.
She might not have the experience of Wubben-Moy and Codina but the Arsenal academy product is more than justifying her selection and showing just why head coach Renee Slegers has given her such a big opportunity.
The talented teen has been on the brink of a first-team breakthrough for a couple of years now, catching the eye in last summer’s pre-season tour of the United States, just weeks after Williamson had waxed lyrical about her as a speaker at Oxford Union. “She’s exceptional,” the England captain said. “She will take my shirt one day.”
In the first two weeks of the new season, that’s exactly what Reid has done, replacing Williamson in the Arsenal XI for wins over London City Lionesses and West Ham in a perfect start to the WSL campaign for the Gunners.
She might not have the experience of Wubben-Moy and Codina but the Arsenal academy product is more than justifying her selection and showing just why head coach Renee Slegers has given her such a big opportunity.
It really didn’t start well for Reid, either. With just 15 minutes on clock on the opening weekend, it was her rather naive challenge on Kosovare Asllani that brought the Swede down in the box and paved the way for the newly-promoted London City Lionesses to take a shock lead at the Emirates Stadium.
This was only Reid’s second start in the WSL and her first at this iconic venue, where more than 38,000 fans turned out to watch their team in action for the first time since their دوري أبطال أوروبا triumph over برشلونة back in May. It was always going to test her nerve; now, it was about to test her resilience.
And Reid passed that test with flying colours, recovering from the early lapse to enjoy an extremely impressive performance. Before the foul on Asllani, she looked settled, unperturbed by the occasion. Once that incident occurred, she seemed to compartmentalise it and just continue doing what she was doing before.
The teenager won nine of her 11 ground duels in what was the most eye-catching aspect of her performance, as she was dribbled past just once and didn’t commit another foul after the penalty. She also won two of her four aerial duels, was successful in both of her attempted dribbles and had a pass accuracy of 84 per cent, completing 32 of 38.
“Credit to Katie, and the rest of the team, after that penalty,” Slegers said afterwards. “She just kept on playing and came back. She showed strength.”
Reid’s reward was that she kept her place last week, when the Gunners travelled to West Ham. There, she was even more impressive, standing out as one of her team’s best performers in a 5-1 win. This time, it was her ability on the ball that shone, helping Arsenal to break lines and put serious pressure on the Hammers as they recovered from 1-0 down to secure a comfortable victory.
“Katie Reid has done really well tonight,” Emma Byrne, the Gunners’ former goalkeeper, said on سكاي سبورتس. “She offers to receive all the time, no matter where she is and how much pressure she is under, which is the sign of a really confident player. She is up there for the most progressive passes in the game. That’s what you want to see from your centre-backs, especially in such a ball-playing team like Arsenal.”
That quality on the ball is one of the big reasons why Williamson was so glowing in her praise of Reid last summer, as she doubled down on her rave reviews of the teenager in an interview with Arseblog. “Katie Reid is one of the best young kids I have seen come through,” she said. “She is wonderful technically and she is Arsenal.”
It’s an aspect Reid has developed plenty since joining the club, a switch which resulted in her playing girls’ football for the first time, having spent her childhood playing in boys’ teams. “It was interesting because I’d been used to a very quick, very physical game, but with the girls, their tactical understanding was better, their decision-making was better and their manipulation of the ball was better too, so I got to develop that side of my game,” she explained last year, in one of Arsenal’s matchday programmes. The impact Arsenal has had on her in that sense is certainly showing.
It’s never easy to break through as a young centre-back. It’s not like an attacking position, where a player can accumulate substantial substitute appearances quicker, or where giving a start to a promising prospect isn’t as big a risk for a manager to take when compared to doing so in such a vital position like in the heart of defence. As such, despite being a highly-valued member of the first team last season, one kept around by then-head coach Jonas Eidevall rather than being sent out on loan, Reid found her opportunities to be few and far between.
But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t learning and developing. She was training with players like Williamson, who just lifted the بطولة أوروبا trophy for a second successive tournament; like Steph Catley, nominated for this year’s Ballon d’Or; like Wubben-Moy, part of England’s two European triumphs and their run to the Women’s World Cup final; and like Codina, who helped إسبانيا defeat the Lionesses to become world champions two years ago.
“I think with young players that have a growth mindset, their development can go quick, if they’re open to learn and if they’re humble and work really hard. Katie is that type of personality,” Slegers said earlier this month. “Of course, she’s had some great role models in the squad with Leah, Steph, Lotte and Laia Codina, too, so she’s learned a lot.
“But also, she brings a lot herself with the qualities that she has,” she added, explaining that it’s not just what Reid has learned from others that has led to this moment. “She’s very composed under pressure, she’s fast, she has physicality, so there’s a lot of things that we like in centre backs that she brings.”
It’s unclear how things will look when Williamson does return, and it’s likely that Slegers will switch things up in the heart of defence as the fixtures start to pile up, not least because Reid’s body will not be used to the rigours of playing week in, week out in what is widely regarded as the best women’s league on the planet. There’s also always the risk of a drop in form when it comes to any player, never mind a teenager. “We accept that she’s young and she needs to build experience,” Slegers noted.
But what Reid has shown at the start of this season has been incredibly impressive already, especially for someone who had made just four starts for Arsenal prior to the new campaign getting underway. There’s every reason for fans of the Gunners to get excited about yet another centre-back coming through their fruitful academy and her progress is one for England supporters to keep an eye on, too. That’s true both for the future and – given the uncertainty surrounding Williamson’s return date and Wubben-Moy’s lack of minutes – maybe even the present.
