Olivia Smith
Arsenal, 2025-
Olivia Smith became the first female footballer to be transferred for £1m when she signed for Arsenal from Liverpool in July 2025. The Canadian attacker joined the London club just two months after they had won the Women’s Champions League. Her signing is a statement of intent as Arsenal aim to win a first Women’s Super League title since 2019.
Born in Canada in 2004, Smith made her debut for her national team at the age of just 15 years and 94 days. After a spell with semi-professional North Toronto Nitros, she signed her first professional contract with Sporting Clube de Portugal in July 2023, before moving to Liverpool for a fee of £200,000 a year later. In a fruitful season with the Women’s Super League club, she became the first woman to score at Anfield, then scored twice against Manchester United in the women’s team’s first win at the stadium. Her performances, including nine goals in 25 games, were enough to see her named Liverpool’s Player of the Year and earn that world-record move.
Below, our UEFA-licensed coaches have analysed Smith’s game…
Technical analysis
Olivia Smith is a right-footed attacker who has played in both a wide-right role and as a central forward. One of Smith’s main strengths is her ability to attack spaces behind the opposition back line, as a willing runner who often looks to penetrate beyond. When moving from a wider space, she curves her runs and adjusts her timing to remain onside for longer, which gives teammates more time to pick a pass. She can run across the back line for slipped passes through, but also makes well-timed runs to receive balls over the top – especially from the opposite side of the pitch (below). This diagonal pass in behind allows Smith to receive in central positions, despite starting wide. This, in turn, enables her to attack the goal with fewer touches.
When used in a more central role, Smith has looked to penetrate the spaces beyond whenever possible. At times she could have better manipulated her direct marker, though, by using a different movement just before moving in behind. This will be needed when playing against higher-level opponents – especially in central spaces, where defenders rarely want to get dragged out of line. A small movement the other way may help Smith to better explode in behind on the second movement. Given her age, it is to be expected she will improve her game with more top-level experience.
Another attribute the 5ft 4ins attacker possesses is the upper-body strength to hold off recovering defenders when running beyond, or receiving between lines – especially in central spaces. This means she can jostle and protect the ball as she receives on the move, without the need to considerably slow her running pattern.
Finishing
Smith has demonstrated a range of finishing and is able to use both feet when attacking the goal directly. When receiving in behind from a wide position, she is adept at driving attempts across goal, or finishing deftly in 1v1 scenarios. The same can be said of her 1v1 finishing from central movements, such as when she has played as one of a centre-forward pairing. With bodies around her, she has shown the ability to shift and shoot powerful attempts at goal, sometimes with little backlift. She has also scored by following up rebounds, and landing on loose and second balls, as well as direct from free-kicks. Clearly, she has a strong mindset and desire to be in positions to score as often as possible.
Ball-carrying
With the ball at her feet, Smith is very agile and can shift away from defensive pressure. In tight areas she is nimble, balanced and drops her shoulder well to move around an opponent. When coming in from the right, her ability to drop the shoulder and burst inwards towards the inside channel helps connect centrally – or gives her the option to drive towards the penalty area. She can calmly but purposefully shift and move the ball to the side of her opponent (below), subtly picking the moment to burst away and drive.
In addition, she can attack bigger spaces with simple knock-and-runs, using upper-body strength to bump and shoulder her opponent as she moves past. She will slow down her opponent, lure them in, then skip past. Sometimes she pairs this with a faking action, such as preparing a pass or cross. As her opponent slows, she then touches beyond and bursts away with the ball, evading pressure and penetrating high up the pitch.
Out of possession
Smith is tenacious without the ball and will press, duel and compete for possession against any opponent – including imposing centre-backs. She can force and lock play one way when pressing, curving her movements to force the ball into a pressing trap, supporting teammates, or using the touchline (below). She is a strong tackler and can use her low centre of gravity to remain agile, quickly reacting to an opponent’s touches of the ball. When pressing higher, her energy and aggressive running – paired with a willingness to tackle and duel – give her more opportunities to attack through regains or forced errors on the ball.
Right-winger
At both Liverpool and Sporting, Smith attacked as a right-winger. Used in a 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2, she provided attacking width, a 1v1 threat and movement in behind. She dominated opponents with dribbles inside, progressing the ball forward and creating chances for teammates when slightly deeper. With forward runs from her centre-forward teammates and adaptive movements from the number 10, Smith was able to to drive inwards and make incisive passes to those looking to stretch in behind. Those movements also created space for Smith to continue dribbling inwards and break into the final third (below). Movement forward from the far-side player in a double pivot also allowed Smith to pass across the pitch, especially when this pivot joined the attack from deep.
Smith provided crosses for the likes of Cláudia Neto, Diana Silva and Raphino at Sporting, and Sophie Román Haug, Cornelia Kapocs and Mia Enderby at Liverpool. Her penetrative movements provided secondary support around central-forward teammates, making runs to put herself in goalscoring positions around dropping or pinning forwards.
Wing-back
As well as playing as a right-winger, Smith also played briefly as a wing-back in Sporting’s back-five structure. In this position she was required to carry the ball, attack 1v1 and cross. With less wide support than when she has attacked in a team with a back-four, as a wing-back she had to rely more on her dribbling to progress up the pitch, attacking on the outside more often.
Centre-forward
Smith also played as a centre-forward for Liverpool and Sporting, typically within a 3-5-2. In this role she was required to make movements in behind to run on to longer passes, switches and through balls. For example, peeling off the shoulder of a defender to give the central-midfield three an option in behind (below).
Being central, as opposed to coming off the wing, she was focused on creating enough time and space to create an attempt directly on goal. In this centre-forward role she also needed to shift and shoot more often, due to greater defensive pressure around her.
As well as her penetrative movements as a centre-forward, she looked to receive between the lines. There, she could connect and combine with number-eight runners from midfield, or her central-forward partner – the latter often being much more of a physical presence compared to Smith’s agile, 1v1 dribbling threat. Many of the midfielders at Sporting and Liverpool, meanwhile, were happy to provide runs from midfield. Here, Smith managed her positioning to avoid making the same run. This illustrated her growing intelligence when used centrally, accompanying her creative dribbling and ball-carrying as a wide attacker.
“Olivia is an exciting young player and we believe she can make a big contribution here at Arsenal,” said the Gunners head coach, Renée Slegers, upon Smith’s arrival. “We’ve been impressed by her mentality and character, excelling in two European leagues at such a young age.” The stage is now set for her to take her game to the next level at the Emirates Stadium.
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