Jess Park is the future for England and Man City – now WSL title-chasers must ensure young Lionesses star isn’t held back by Vivianne Miedema’s arrival

There is only so much you can learn from pre-season, but one of the biggest takeaways from Manchester City’s summer tour of Australia was that no matter how head coach Gareth Taylor envisaged fitting Vivianne Miedema into his starting line-up, it could not come at the expense of Jess Park, the 22-year-old playmaker who has marked herself out as someone capable of playing a crucial role for both the Cityzens and England for many years to come.

On Sunday, as City opened their new Women’s Super League season away to an Arsenal side expected to be a title rival, Park underlined just why so many felt that way. With the scores level at 1-1, she snatched a loose ball out of the air and, from 20 yards, showcased remarkable technique to fire it into the top corner to give City the lead.

While Miedema, the WSL’s all-time top goal-scorer, came to the fore in the women’s game as a No.9, in recent times she has been more prominent in a No.10 position she seemingly prefers. That is where she has been slotting into this City XI, but that is also where Park has made her own mark for the club.

Taylor took a risk on Sunday by playing them both, something which contributed to Arsenal carving out a number of chances on the counter and eventually taking a point from the game, which ended in a 2-2 draw. But goals from Park and Miedema also showed the reward such team selection brings. The young England star has a big future for club and country – and the City boss has no small role to play in ensuring she can thrive alongside his marquee summer signing.

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  Attack-minded approach

  In a way, it wasn’t a surprise to see both Park and Miedema in City’s line up on Sunday. After all, they briefly played in the same midfield in pre-season and both started, and scored, in the 5-0 thrashing of Paris FC just a few days earlier. Plus, they are two of City’s best players, so it made sense for both to be involved from the get-go in such a big game.

  However, the defensive risk that a midfield featuring two very attack-minded players presents was evident throughout the match. The gap from City’s centre-backs and Yui Hasegawa, in holding midfield, to Miedema and Park in their more advanced positions was often huge and there for Arsenal to exploit when they recovered the ball. That’s not to say City’s playmakers don’t work hard and commit to their defensive work, more that they have a lot of ground to make up because of the structure of the midfield and the demands of the team’s pressing.

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    ‘Have to be on the front foot’

    No one will have had a better view of that than Taylor, who took a seat right up in the top tier of the Emirates Stadium for the first hour of the match. “It’s tough,” he said of the space. “We understand that we give up some territory when we press the way we do. We press a lot with our wingers, that’s no secret, and then obviously you can be kind of disjointed with the back four and Yui, but the players have to do it. We have to be on the front foot.

    “I think our pressing wasn’t on it today, whereas in Paris on Wednesday, it was phenomenal and it just allowed us to dictate the pace of the game and play almost like a half-pitch practice, and that was our intention today. At times we did that. When we got it right, we forced them into mistakes that allowed us to maintain possession then around the edge of their box. We were close to it today and it’s always like half a metre here or there that we’re not quite in the right positions. But there’s plenty to build on, for sure.”

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      High risk, high reward

      What is a concern is that, because City are one of the best teams in England, most opponents will attempt to play on the counter when they come up against them, and they will be further encouraged by the gaps they saw appear in the Arsenal game on Sunday, particularly when the Gunners beat the press.

      What are Taylor’s alternatives? He could beef up the midfield with a player not as attack-minded as Miedema or Park and drop one of them to the bench. He could push Miedema into the No.9 role at the expense of Khadija Shaw, who won the WSL Golden Boot last season. He could move Park into a wide role, where there is already ample competition in Chloe Kelly, Lauren Hemp, Mary Fowler and Aoba Fujino. Essentially, if he wants Park and Miedema in the same team, in roles that they excel in, without sacrificing something significant elsewhere, it is only with some risk.

      Many thought it would be a case of one or the other and that, given her world-class talent, Miedema would win that battle for inclusion in a first-choice XI. However, that Taylor is choosing to play both underlines just how important Park is to his team. That is a real testament to the work she has put in throughout 2024.

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      Patience is a virtue

      After all, 12 months ago, Park wasn’t starting for City. Through the first 13 weeks of the 2023-24 WSL season, she had made just nine appearances, all from the bench. Her total game time stood at just 151 minutes.

      She kept working hard though, approaching those opportunities with a determined attitude while taking her chances to shine in the League Cup, in which she made five starts, scored two goals and registered one assist before City were eventually defeated by Chelsea in the semi-finals.

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        Opportunity knocks

        It was patience that was rewarded in unfortunate circumstances, when Jill Roord suffered a devastating ACL injury in January. The Dutchwoman joined the club last summer for a bumper fee and was proving to be worth every penny, contributing with six goals and two assists from midfield through her 11 league appearances until the cruel setback.

        When City visited Chelsea for a huge game in the title race in February, then, Park was handed her first league start of the campaign. You wouldn’t have known it from watching the match, as the 22-year-old was the best player on the pitch as City came away with a hugely significant 1-0 win.

        “She’s always been there,” Taylor said of Park after the game. “She’s had to be patient, but her training levels and her attitude have been first-class, and I think is a real example for any young player. You look at Jess and you see, physically, okay, she’s not the biggest, but her agility is very good, her ball control and her technique are very, very good. With Jess, the thing that’s going to make her world-class will be her final action, but she is improving a lot on that, working hard in training, and she’s really contributing to the team at the moment.”

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        Stepping up

        Park hasn’t looked back since. She started and played the full 90 minutes in each of City’s final nine games in the WSL season, racking up four goals and five assists. She has carried that form into the new season too, with three goals and an assist from her first three games.

        What’s particularly encouraging is that she has no problem turning up in these big games, despite her relative inexperience at the very highest level. In between that starring role against Chelsea in February and her strike against Arsenal last week came a two-goal display in the Manchester Derby at the Etihad Stadium, with pressure seeming to only bring the best out of this talented 22-year-old. That has surely contributed to Sarina Wiegman trusting her more on England duty too, as Park was granted just a second start for her country in April and a third in July.

        Even more exciting is how Park has clearly developed in these past seven months. Taylor pointed to her final action as an area for improvement back in February and last week, unprompted, he pointed to clear signs that she has started to bring more quality to the table in that respect.

        “What we were always challenging Jess with when she re-broke into the team last season, when Jill was injured, was that she was doing so many good things, but can we have the icing on the cake, the final action, the assist, the goals?” he said. “She’s done that really well, started the season hot, scored two in Paris in the week, and to come here and score a spectacular goal is really impressive. I think as well with Jess, she gives you everything she’s got. For someone who’s quite diminutive in terms of her size, she’s pressing in the 93rd and 94th minute, really putting the miles in.”

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          New challenges

          After City fell agonisingly short in the WSL title race last season, losing it to Chelsea on goal difference, Park’s focus over the next few months will be on performing to as high a level as she can for her club to help them go one better this time around. However, at the back of her mind will surely be next summer’s European Championship.

          As someone with just nine caps to her name, the aim will simply to be on the plane to Switzerland. Yet, given the quality she can bring to the table, if Park can maintain this form and reproduce it when on Lionesses’ duty, there’s no reason why she cannot battle to start for her country given how open the competition to be England’s No.10 is.

          Those chances will be boosted if Taylor remains bold and continues to play the 22-year-old alongside Miedema, rather than opting for one or the other, especially because such an attack-minded approach helps to bring the best out of both players and many more in his team. But there is also the question of what that looks like when Roord returns, which she is close to doing. Given her impact at the start of last season and the quality she possesses, the Netherlands star will provide real competition in midfield.

          All Park can do is keep performing, keep working hard and keep grabbing the headlines when given the chance. She’s done that brilliantly throughout 2024 and, given how she has responded to pressure so far, she is surely only going to step up to the challenge and continue to mark herself out as a player who could be the future for both Man City and England.