Leanne Kiernan: Finishing with a Flurry
Can the Liverpool forward display her end of season form in Ireland's games against England and France?
When Leanne Kiernan came on against Leicester City in Liverpool’s final game of the 23/24 season, it would have been fair to describe her season as a frustrating one. After an ankle injury in September 2022 kept her out for the majority of the season and she was excluded from Ireland’s World Cup squad, lingering fitness issues had limited Kiernan to only four starts and fewer than 400 minutes in the league. She had scored a critical goal in Liverpool’s recent shock win over Chelsea, but that had been only her second league goal in the last two years.
All that seemed like ancient history as Kiernan scored three goals in less than half a hour to both demolish Leicester City and thrust herself into the forefront of Eileen Gleeson’s thoughts as the Ireland manager tries to kickstart an attack that struggled in the first four Nations League games this spring. We will look why Kiernan thrived against Leicester and how that could help the Girls in Green in their upcoming games against England and France.
With an hour gone against Leicester, Liverpool were fairly comfortable with a one goal lead. They had the option of playing direct to their two forwards, with Sophie Roman Haug’s strength in aerial challenges providing Mia Enderby with second balls to chase. Leicester were also vulnerable to giving the ball away, with this example showing how Roman Haug nearly found Enderby for a tap-in.
When Kiernan came on in Enderby’s place a couple of minutes later, her role seemed pretty similar. With Liverpool’s wingback and center mids creating overloads on the flank, there would be opportunities to get on the end of crosses. Kiernan’s first touches were a little tentative, but a neat touch from Fuka Nagano helped her escape pressure and start a Liverpool move down the left. When Ceri Holland cut back to deliver a right-footed cross, Kiernan was in position to head home.
Down two goals, Leicester started to commit more players to an aggressive press. With their midfielders following Liverpool’s tightly, that left space for Kiernan to drop in and spray a pass to the other flank, with the defenders on Leicester’s right side still struggling to prevent players from cutting inside.
As Leicester adapted and followed Kiernan more closely when she dropped, her hold up play became a little more hit and miss.
As Leicester continued to push players higher, a lack of fitness or athleticism began to show as Liverpool players could drive forward through midfield almost at will. Here, Jutta Rantala (#8 for Leicester) can’t get close to either Jenna Clark or Melissa Lawley as they carry the ball forward.
Recognizing that Kiernan wasn’t thriving as a hold up forward, but that opportunities to carry the ball forward were appearing more and more, Liverpool manager Matt Beard moved her to the left wing around the 80th minute. The impact of positioning her to run into space was immediate, as a long ball forward created an opportunity for her to cut inside and score a second goal.
Leicester continued to press aggressively and created a couple good chances by winning the ball back in midfield.
However, that pressing also left more and more gaps, and Kiernan eventually punished them again. One missed touch left her with space to turn and run near the center circle, and Leicester still couldn’t stop an attacker from checking inside onto her right foot.
Ireland fans will be excited to see Kiernan playing like she’s finally recovered fully from her ankle injury, but the next challenge will be establishing herself as a threat against the higher level of competition at the international level. Ireland have still yet to register a goal against their opponents in the Nations League A Group, and Eileen Gleeson will be desperate to regain some attacking momentum. With Kiernan’s best performance in quite some time coming against an opponent who had to chase the game, Ireland need to avoid conceding the early goals that have marred their campaign so far. If they can force an opponent to commit numbers forward and leave more space for the Irish forwards, hopefully Leanne Kiernan can score like this at the international level as well.