English rookie earned a spot in the Angels’ rotation.
Miri Taylor was Angel City FC’s third NWSL Draft pick for 2022, and she had rather long odds to make the roster, but make it she did.
While 4th round selections can earn contracts and become good NWSL players, that’s far from assured as some teams do a better job scouting than others. In addition, Taylor, born and raised in England and a former Chelsea Women and Arsenal Women’s player, was an international and so ACFC needed to use an international roster slot if they wanted to sign her. But they did, and probably her pedigree playing for the likes of Emma Hayes made Angel City think they could have a steal after an NCAA career at Hofstra University.
Taylor didn’t end up fully breaking into the core group favored by Freya Coombe, but among the players not in that core cohort, she seemed to gradually win the coach over and win playing time.
Here are Taylor’s competitive stats with Angel City in 2022:
Taylor’s most productive stretch came from mid-June to early-August, when she started five of six games for ACFC. There wasn’t a ton in terms of counting stats, but she didn’t seem out of place in Angel City’s midfield, as a player with more attacking-minded traits than most of the other options on the squad.
The sample size is small, and with the 2022 Angel City squad stratified between players who seldom played and those who pretty much always played, Taylor was one of the few players who seemed to earn more playing time as the season wore on. Still, we didn’t see a ton of her on the field, and so she remains a bit of a question mark.
The good news for an English player is she can leverage NWSL and a return home to play in the WSL to maximize her options. I don’t know if Taylor will be back in 2023 at Angel City, but if not, she should have options in England. However, as a player who clawed her way to more playing time, I could very well see her coming back, and hopefully in year two, she can find more purchase and become a bigger contributor. Time will tell.
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