London City's Full-Backs Are Rewriting Their Attacking Blueprint
Lucía Corrales and Jana Fernández have turned London City Lionesses' flanks into a genuine attacking weapon, with the data showing two very different routes to the same effect.
Late in the first half against Manchester City, Lucía Corrales drove forward down the left and shaped to cross. By the time the ball arrived, Jana Fernández had sprinted the length of the pitch to attack it inside the box, only to see her shot drift past the post, according to The Analyst (Opta).
The chance came to nothing, but it summed up a shift in how Eder Maestre's side now attack. Alexia Putellas, Daniëlle van de Donk and Kadidiatou Diani make up the attacking line that draws most of the attention, yet a meaningful share of the team's attacking threat is now generated from the back line.
Why the full-backs changed the equation
Corrales and Fernández give London City two distinct ways to break down opponents, something that was largely missing from their first WSL campaign, per The Analyst. On the right, Fernández has built a strong understanding with Diani. On the left, Corrales and Van de Donk combine to similar effect.
The roles are not interchangeable. Corrales remains an overlapping outlet, getting beyond the winger ahead of her, while Fernández increasingly drifts into the half-space and the penalty box itself, operating more like an auxiliary attacker than a traditional right-back.
The collective effect shows up in the numbers. London City have generated the second-highest expected goals total in the league this season at 21.9, a measure of the quality of chances created rather than goals actually scored, The Analyst reported.
Against Manchester City specifically, London City produced 1.69 xG in the first half alone. Only one team has posted a higher first-half xG total against the champions in a WSL fixture: Manchester United, who managed 2.44 back in January 2025. The champions had to make nine blocks that day, a tally they had matched only once before in the league, against Brighton in March 2025, and London City won the ball back 17 times in the final third, more than any side has managed in a single WSL game this season.
Fernández has kept her positioning but sharpened her finishing
Fernández was already a fixture last season, appearing in every WSL game alongside Isobel Goodwin as the only outfield players to do so, The Analyst noted. Her instinct for finding dangerous pockets of space was already there. What has changed is what she does once she arrives.
Her touches inside the opposition box have risen from 1.0 to 1.7 per 90 minutes year on year. She is shooting more often, up from 1.0 to 1.5 attempts per 90, and the share of those efforts hitting the target has climbed sharply, from a rate of 0.24 per 90 last season to 0.50 this term. Chance creation has also ticked up slightly, from 0.9 to 1.0 per 90.
Notably, the frequency with which she tries to beat a player has dropped, down from 2.5 attempted dribbles per 90 to just 1.2. Read together, the figures point to a player who is taking opponents on less often but converting her advanced positioning into end product far more reliably than before.
The Manchester City game illustrated the point directly. Fernández had four shots, more than anyone else on the pitch, worth a combined xG of 0.53, her highest single-game total in the league this season. She scored London City's equaliser, her second league goal of the campaign, a tally bettered among WSL defenders only by Chelsea's Ellie Carpenter with four.
She was not only an attacking presence. Fernández made 10 final-third entries, second on the team only to María Pérez, and her 81 touches were bettered only by Putellas. Defensively she led London City with six tackles and eight duels won, underlining a two-way contribution that now defines her game.
Corrales has moved into a more advanced, creative role
Corrales' progression has taken a different shape since joining from Barcelona in the summer of 2025. Her two assists this season are the joint-most among WSL defenders, and her expected assists tally of 1.08 ranks sixth in the division, a measure of the quality of chances she has set up for teammates. Crossing volume underlines the same point: her 23 open-play crosses this season put her third in the league for the metric.
Where Fernández has pulled inside to add goal threat, Corrales has leaned into width and delivery, functioning as the chief overlapping outlet on the left and the source of service into the box for Van de Donk and others.
What it means for London City going forward
The two profiles complement rather than duplicate each other. Corrales supplies width and crossing volume; Fernández supplies late box arrivals and a sharper finishing edge. Together they have turned London City's full-back positions into a second creative layer behind the front three, one that forced a champion side into uncomfortable defensive numbers even in a game London City did not win.