FEATURED: Three players that starred in Everton’s solid WSL season | OneFootball

Everton enjoyed another solid season in the Barclays Women’s Super League in 2023/2024 with the Merseyside club recording an eighth-place finish.

The Blue Girls had to overcome their fair share of challenges this year with manager Brian Sørensen having to juggle a hefty injury list througout the campaign. Sørensen also had to work with one of the lowest budgets in the league due to Everton’s continued financial constraints.

With Everton having to negotiate difficult hurdles week-on-week, their end of season ranking of eighth marked an excellent campaign in which everybody at the club pulled together.

Now that the season is over, WSL Full-Time have taken a look back at Everton’s campaign and we’ve identfied three players that really made a difference for the club.

Courtney Brosnan

Goalkeeper Brosnan featured in 20 of Everton’s 22 league matches in 2023/2024 and she was in inspired form for much of the campaign. The Republic of Ireland international made 95 saves across the season, more than any other goalkeeper in the league. She saved 75.4% of the shots that she faced, a statistic that can only be bettered by Chelsea’s Zécira Mušović and Manchester City’s Khiara Keating.

Brosnan was one of just four Barclays Women’s Super League goalkeepers to save a penalty kick in 2023/2024 while she ranked top when it came to claiming crosses in the box (21).

It is fair to say that Brosnan is a key player for Everton and they will be hoping to keep her for next season.

Megan Finnigan

Defender Finnigan is an Everton legend having been on the club’s books since she was just nine years of age. In a season which was dominated by injuries, Finnigan was Everton’s most reliable player. She played more minutes and made more starts than any other Everton player this season.

In 2023/2024, only Brighton & Hove Albion’s Guro Bergsvand (31) blocked more shots than Finnigan (26) while the Everton defender was ranked in the Barclays Women’s Super League’s top 10 for overall blocks and for clearances made. Finnigan was Everton’s most successful player when it came to passes. She completed 86.1% of her passes, a completion rate which ranked her in the top 20 players in the league.

Finnigan continues to impress in an Everton shirt and it’d be no surprise if England came calling in the not-so-distant future.

Clare Wheeler

Australian international Wheeler enjoyed her most productive period to date in an Everton shirt this term. The 26-year-old was one of just two ever-presents for Sørensen’s Blues.

Wheeler was Everton’s top tackler in 2023/2024. She made 63 tackle attempts, winning 40 of them, making her the fourth-best tackler in the league. Wheeler’s 34 attempted tackles in the defensive third was only bettered by Tottenham Hotspur’s Ashleigh Neville (42). The midfielder was ranked fifth when it came to blocks while only Liverpool’s Emma Koivisto (44) blocked more passes than Wheeler (37). Wheeler completed 38 interceptions, the league’s fourth-highest, while she ranked joint-second for tackles and interceptions (101) behind Bristol City’s Amy Rodgers (109).

In a season in which Everton really had to roll up their sleeves and dig deep, Wheeler was at the forefront of that. She is a player whose career is going from strength-to-strength in England.

Everton’s eighth-place finish is their fourth-highest ranking since the club returned to the top tier of English football in 2017.

Statistics: FBREF