Everton Rumours: Martina Piemonte

efcwblog
9 min readMay 30, 2023

--

Over the past few weeks Everton have been linked with numerous striker options as they look to bolster an attack that currently has just one fit senior striker. The names linked to the club have ranged from Signe Bruun, to Sophie Haug and more often than anybody else, AC Milan’s Martina Piemonte.

The Toffees have done some outstanding business since the arrival of Brian Sørensen last Summer. Bringing in a variety of young and talented players through the door at Walton Hall Park, and Piemonte certainly fits that bill at just 25 with her prime years still ahead of her.

A lot of Everton fans and the wider WSL fanbase may be a bit unfamiliar with Martina Piemonte, as her best football has came in Serie A Femminile, a league that not many UK based football fans will be tuning into every week. This breakdown of her career and her play style aims to enlighten those UK based fans on what they can expect if Piemonte does end up an Everton player, and if she doesn’t, it’ll hopefully still be a good read anyway!

Player Background

From a very early age Piemonte was seen as a future star of Italian football, at the age of just 14 she signed a professional contract with her hometown club from Ravenna, Riviera di Romagna. After a promising first couple of seasons, the striker then went off to the Under 17 World Cup with Italy, in which a talented team featuring future stars such as Lisa Boattin, Manuela Giugliano and Valentina Bergamaschi finished 3rd at the 2014 edition of the tournament.

Two moves, first to USD San Zaccaria and then to ASDCF Verona, followed that tournament and by the age of just 19 Piemonte had scored a very impressive 39 goals in 62 games combined in her spells at both those clubs. At this point clubs from around Europe were circling around the talented teenager who had showcased her clear eye for goal. It’s probably no surprise that a 19 year old 6 foot 2 striker who had a great goal record for every club she’d played for was a target for a multitude of clubs, but there wasn’t a plethora of Italian women’s footballers playing outside of Italy at that point.

Martina Piemonte would become one of those few players doing so when she made the move to Sevilla in Spain in the Summer of 2017. Still a teenager, and playing outside of Italy for the first time in her career, the forward struggled to make a real impact at Sevilla and was only given a single season to prove herself. 6 goals in 20 games wasn’t an awful tally for a debut season by any means but just a year after joining the club Piemonte was on the move to Roma, and then back to Spain a year later with Betis, and then back to Italy after a year with Fiorentina. Those three spells combined yielded just 6 goals in 51 games.

Following those disappointing few years, the now 23 year old at this point made the move to AC Milan in 2021. This move was already the 7th transfer of the then 23 year olds career and to many it wasn’t seen as a big acquisition for Milan, Piemonte was about to prove all the doubters wrong though. In her first season with the club she only played 8 league games but scored 4 times, her overall game had improved and she was rewarded with a place in the Italian 2022 European Championship squad. Not only that, but she also managed to find the net against France in the opening game of the tournament.

This past season was perhaps the best season of the 25 year olds career, as she struck 18 times and added 4 assists in 30 games in all competitions as AC Milan finished 4th in Serie A. This obviously led to interest from around the continent, with Arsenal and Everton being the most regularly reported suitors, with Arsenal apparently pulling out of the running it now seems that the Toffees are in pole position to land the Italy international.

With that being the case, what could Martina Piemonte bring to Everton’s strike force if she were to sign? It’s time to delve into what has made the Italian one of the most sought after strikers in European football.

She’s really, really tall.

Let’s start off with the obvious one, Piemonte is 6 foot 2. This would easily make her the tallest player in the Everton squad and one of the tallest players in the league. Being this tall means she is naturally a target for a lot of crosses and long balls, as she’s able to pin her defender and use her frame to get in a good position to attack the ball, this is something she does very well and is also something Milan have rightfully exploited as they rank 3rd in Serie A for crosses this season while Piemonte herself ranks 2nd in the league for aerial duels contested.

Despite only scoring 3 headed goals in the league this season, Piemonte has still created chaos every time the ball has been played into the area, and just her general presence and size draws attention away from other attackers in the penalty area.

Indirect free kick for Milan
As the ball is flighted in you can see Piemonte as the most advanced Milan player, she’s already positioned herself behind the defence.
Despite actually running a bit too far ahead of the ball, she improvises brilliantly and directs a spinning header into the far corner to score.

Set pieces are naturally always a threat with Piemonte on the team, but she’s also a big serial threat in open play too.

Here, the ball is out wide on the right, with Piemonte making her way into the box
By the time the ball is crossed in, Piemonte has found just a little bit of space behind her defender to attack the ball
The best part, the striker literally leaps above the goalkeeper to head the ball and score. No stopping that.

As I mentioned previously, just the presence of Piemonte can give your team an advantage when you’re playing the ball into the box. The likes of Nico Sørensen and Aggie Beever-Jones if she stays at the club will benefit hugely from all the attention defenders will give to the Italian. The following is probably one of my favourite examples of what she can offer her team and all she really does in this goal is stand still in the box.

Ball is once again out wide. With Piemonte occupying the penalty spot and her teammate Vigilucci arriving at the back post.
As soon as the ball is crossed in, the Como right back feels she has to get tight to Piemonte because of her threat in the air.
This allows Vigilucci to just stroll into the 6 yard box unmarked and score. All down to the gravity of Piemonte in the box.

Everton at the moment don’t particularly cross a great amount, but you would imagine the introduction of Piemonte would change that. Players like Nicoline Sørensen and Elise Stenevik are genuine high quality when it comes to delivering the ball from open play and set pieces and a 6 foot 2 striker can only benefit from that. It gives the club an entire new dimension.

Finishing and General Shooting.

I’ve spoken a lot about the heading ability and her threat when crosses are coming into the box, but how does Piemonte fare with the ball at her feet? Things like 1v1s, general shooting technique, shot selection.

The first thing I want to note because I think it’s one of her best qualities is her absolute two footedness. Especially when combined with the power she generates in her shots. It’s very rare for a player to be able to blast the ball with both feet but Piemonte does it regularly, and she makes it look effortless.

The Italian is right footed, although it’s genuinely difficult to tell, she takes penalties with her right foot but the stats are very interesting. Keeping in mind she’s right footed, the striker this season has scored 5 goals with her left foot, 4 with her head and 5 with her right foot. The eye test backs up this two footedness too.

It’s difficult to show the power of a shot in still images so I’m not going to do my usual examples here, I will however post a few clips when this article goes up of Piemonte absolutely hammering the ball into the net.

One of my only doubts about Piemonte is her finishing in 1 on 1 situations, while she has such a powerful shot that doesn’t mean you always have to go for the power route. When 1 on 1 Piemonte lacks a variation of finishes, this hasn’t hindered her too much as she’s still over performing her xG but if she added a clinical edge in these situations you could argue she’d have 18–20 goals this season rather than the 13 she has currently.

Link up play

Piemonte has all the tools of a classic hold up play, link up forward. She’s 6 foot 2, she has a first touch like a pillow and her overall technique is outrageous. There are a lot of things the forward does well in this regard, of course when it comes to winning long balls and flicking the ball behind the defence for an oncoming teammates or just simple little layoffs she’s a big asset.

It’s worth noting that you’d struggle to find a better link up striker in the world than Everton’s current number leading markswoman Katja Snoeijs, but Piemonte does have a range of nice tools at her disposal and she uses them well to be. competent if not spectacular at linking everything together.

The Italian has also chipped in with 4 assists this season, which doesn’t sound like a lot but is more than some of the WSL’s elite forwards such as Beth England, Alessia Russo, Pernille Harder, Stina Blackstenius and Lauren James managed.

One of the main reasons for these assists and her overall creation for others is her appreciation of players positions on the pitch. It sounds simple but she can spot that a teammate is in a good position and acts accordingly, a lot of strikers solely think about how they can get themselves a goal but the AC Milan forward always looks to create the best opportunities for the team, rather than herself.

Here you can see the ball is in the box, rather than mindlessly sprinting into the area, Piemonte comes short and shows for the ball.
After receiving, she neatly turns and plays a nice simple layoff into the oncoming Vigilucci, who fires the ball into the back of the net.

A lot of what Piemonte does is simple, but effective. Executing a perfectly weighted layoff might not look exciting but it’s a genuinely really good quality for a striker to have.

AC Milan’s goalkeeper has the ball, absolutely zero danger for Juventus you would think.
One long ball towards Piemonte, who of course wins the header.
The flick on header is angled perfectly and sets through Asllani, who scores.

Now imagine those flick on headers to an Aggie Beever-Jones or Nico Sørensen running in behind the defence…

Milan have just won the ball high up the pitch, rather than running towards the middle of the penalty area, Piemonte makes a run to pull wide.
When the ball does eventually reach her, how many strikers shoot in this situation?
Piemonte instead drives the ball back to Asllani who now has an easy finish and scores.

Good Signing?

Martina Piemonte would represent a great acquisition for Everton and is someone I hope the club pursue once the transfer window opens. She is completely unique in her size and the way she plays the game, I’m not sure how many defences in the WSL are equipped to deal with a six foot two striker who can also come short and play like a midfielder.

The Serie A is a step below the WSL in terms of quality, but this signing would leave the club with two quality striker options, a luxury not many teams have. You also have the option of pairing both Snoeijs and Piemonte together, as Snoeijs has shown she can work brilliant off a striker partner like she did with Bunny Shaw at Bordeaux.

Of course you have to consider the fee and aspects like that but in terms of player profile, age and overall quality, Martina Piemonte would represent great business for the Toffees.

--

--

efcwblog
efcwblog

Written by efcwblog

Regular Everton Women (and WSL) content, articles and analysis. Ran by Steph Conroy. @sjconroy17 on Twitter.

No responses yet