Océane Hurtré: One of the WSL’s Best-Ever Debut Seasons in the Making?

· TheAnalyst

Océane Hurtré is lighting up the WSL in Birmingham City colours and is already threatening to make history. Are we potentially about to see one of the league's best debut seasons ever? The post Océane Hurtré: One of the WSL’s Best-Ever Debut Seasons in the Making? appeared first on Opta Analyst .

Birmingham City may be languishing near the foot of the WSL table, but one player has given their campaign a very different complexion.

At just 22, Océane Hurtré has arrived on English football’s biggest domestic stage with the poise of an established star, the speed to unsettle defences and a habit of showing up when her team needs her most. Her September WSL Player of the Month award highlighted just that, and six matches into her WSL career, she is already threatening to make history.

Hurtré’s six goals in as many league appearances equalled the most ever scored by a player in their first six WSL games, matching Rachel Williams’ achievement also for Birmingham in 2011. With seven goal involvements already to her name, Hurtré has also surpassed the seasonal totals of all but seven players in Birmingham’s WSL history, and there are plenty of matches remaining.

Only Khadija Shaw (7) has scored more league goals than Hurtré this season. Keeping pace with the league’s most established attacking talent, the winger has emerged as a beacon in a side still finding its feet following promotion.

Hurtré’s brace against Crystal Palace was the first by a Birmingham player in the WSL since Louise Quinn in April 2022. Yet it is not simply the volume of her goals that has caught the eye; it is the manner, too.

Last time out against Arsenal, her blistering run and delicate finish over the advancing Misa Rodríguez to give the Blues an unexpected lead encapsulated a player whose greatest asset is her ruthlessness, showing maturity beyond her years when the pressure is at its highest.

That composure transcends club football, too. Hurtré marked her first senior start for France with a goal and an assist, strengthening her case for a place in the squad for the next World Cup should she sustain this form.

All in all, it’s been an excellent start to the season for her, but especially in the WSL.

An Ideal Role

Hurtré’s emergence is all the more striking when set against her first season with Birmingham.

She scored just three goals in WSL 2 last term, accounting for a mere 6.7% of the team’s total. She was also moved around the pitch, however, with only 48% of her minutes coming on the left wing. This season, that figure has risen to 84%, while she has spent the remaining 16% of her minutes on the opposite flank compared to just 4% last term.

The change is significant.

Birmingham averaged 58.8% possession in WSL 2 last season; in the top flight, that figure has fallen to 33.3%. Rather than being able to build attacks through long spells on the ball, the Blues have increasingly had to exploit space quickly when possession turns over. Hurtré, with her acceleration and direct running, is ideally suited to that approach.

Against Arsenal, the route to goal was a clear example. Neve Herron threaded a pass through the heart of the Gunners’ defence, allowing Hurtré to burst into the space behind and finish. It was a simple sequence, but one that exposed the danger Birmingham pose when they can turn defence into attack before opponents have time to reset.

The Blues have recorded seven shots from fast breaks this season, with only London City Lionesses (nine) and Manchester City (eight) managing more. Hurtré and Lauren Hemp lead the WSL with four shots apiece following fast breaks, while Hurtré has also registered the joint-most shot-ending carries (11) across Europe’s top five leagues.

More striking still, Hurtré leads the WSL outright for goal-ending carries with four. Across Europe’s top five leagues, only Barcelona’s Claudia Pina matches that total. These are not merely statistics that speak to her speed; they point to a player establishing herself among the world’s most dangerous players.

Among WSL forwards, only Hemp (78) has completed more progressive carries (in-possession movements taking the ball at least five metres upfield) than Hurtré (58), while her average carry distance of 14.6 metres puts her third among forwards, highlighting how she can propel her side up the pitch and out of pressure, a defining feature of her game so far in the top flight.

Her threat is not confined to transition, though. Hurtré has delivered 35 open-play crosses, the second most in the WSL. That breadth of contribution makes her more than a counter-attacking outlet: she can also provide service from wide areas and stretch opposing defences.

Ruthless in Front of Goal

For all her ability to carry the ball, it is Hurtré’s finishing that has really grabbed the headlines. She has six goals from 2.68 expected goals (xG), with only Victoria Pelova (+3.39) overperforming in relation to xG by a greater degree in the WSL this season than Hurtré (+3.32).

Such a level of overperformance highlights the standard of Hurtré’s finishing this season, converting chances that would typically be difficult to score from. Unsurprisingly, then, her goals per 90 is through the roof.

The winger’s output is especially remarkable given how little time she spends in the penalty area. Hurtré has recorded just 20 touches in the opposition’s box, ranking 33rd in the WSL. Yet she has produced more goals than almost anyone in the division, reflecting how clinical she’s been.

Hurtré has accounted for 75% of Birmingham goals output (6/8), 42.8% (2.68) of their xG and 45.5% of their shots on target. It remains to be seen just how sustainable her form is, but for now, these figures show how heavily the Blues are relying on her in the final third.

Birmingham’s direct speed, a measure of how quickly a team advances the ball towards the opposition’s goal, stands at 2.04 metres per second, the fastest in the WSL this season. Their passing sequences have also become slightly shorter and quicker, reinforcing the shift towards a more direct approach.

Hurtré sits at the heart of that, giving Birmingham a way to bypass midfield pressure, attack space and make limited possession count. The fact Birmingham have the joint-most goals (three) following high turnovers and all of them have been scored by Hurtré is evidence of her effectiveness in this respect.

A Debut Campaign for the History Books?

Sam Kerr ’s 21 goals and 28 goal involvements for Chelsea in 2020–21 remains the benchmark for a debut WSL season. Rachel Williams ranks second for debut-season goalscoring, having netted 13 times for Birmingham in 2011, while Beth Mead ’s 12 goals in 2015 place her third.

Hurtré has a way to go to challenge these full-season totals, but she already ranks seventh for goals scored by a player representing a promoted club in a single WSL season.

If she maintains her current trajectory, she remain firmly in the conversation.

The question is how far she can take this form and whether we will look back on these opening six games at the end of the season as something of a flash in the pan or the start of something special, a history-making debut campaign.

If she manages such a feat, Hurtré will have surely marked herself out as one of the WSL’s next superstars.

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