The Forward Line: Four BWSL Forwards You Need in FM26

Welcome back to our FM Series; this week, we are back at the top level and moving forward. The last few weeks have been about the players who make teams tick from the back and through the middle; this week is about the ones who make things happen at the other end of the pitch.

The Barclays Women's Super League has some of the most exciting attacking talent in world football. There are players here who lead Europe in goals, others who make defenders look like they are standing still, and some of the most talked-about forwards in the game. The front line of the BWSL is not a place for the faint-hearted.

In this piece, we will highlight four of the best forwards in the BWSL and showcase their FM attributes and impact in real game scenarios.

Right then, let’s get into it.

Lauren James

Lauren James doesn’t do ordinary. The Chelsea and England forward is one of the most exciting players in the league. This season has not been straightforward; her gametime has been limited through injuries, but when she has played, she has been virtually impossible to stop.

In FM26, her profile reflects everything that makes her so difficult to account for. Her Dribbling is rated 17, Technique 18, and Flair 18. James is physically imposing, technically outstanding, and creative in ways that most defenders simply cannot prepare for.

Add in her Acceleration and Vision, and we have a forward who can beat any defender in almost any situation imaginable, making it virtually impossible for opponents to stop her.

James is at her most dangerous when she has a defender in front of her. Here, we can see why opposing coaches lose sleep trying to work out how to stop her.

She receives on the left wing, and her marker sets herself, ready to show her outside and away from the goal. James has other ideas, though. The Chelsea winger shapes to cut inside onto her right, dragging the Leicester defender across, before chopping back onto her left in one clean movement. The separation she creates is instant, and suddenly she has space to drive into. The cross comes in from the left, and Leicester are scrambling.

This is her Dribbling and Technique doing the work, coupled with her two-footedness, making her one of the trickiest wide players in women’s football. Most players have a preferred side or a predictable direction, giving defenders half a chance of stopping them. James is different; she’s Fairly Strong with her left and Very Strong with her right, which means she’s a genuine threat in either direction.

This season, she’s averaging 6.33 dribbles per 90 with a 75.56% success rate, showing that she’s one of the best in the league with the ball at her feet.

James is dangerous on either side, and it’s not just in terms of chance creation. She provides Chelsea with plenty of goal threat, due to her ability and willingness to shoot from just about anywhere on the pitch.

Here, wide on the right, James takes the ball and goes. One touch to set herself, and she is driving infield, her marker trailing in her wake as she cuts into the central area. There’s no hesitation or looking for a teammate; she hits a fierce, low drive into the bottom corner that the goalkeeper cannot get close to.

The combination of physical power and technical quality is what makes James so difficult to defend when she gets the ball in wide areas with her head up. She doesn’t need much of an invitation; in fact, she very often doesn’t need any invitation at all.

Defenders sometimes think that if they surround her, squeeze the space, make it uncomfortable, it will force an error. This example against Liverpool shows what happens when they try.

James drops into a pocket with Liverpool players closing from every angle, trying to force a mistake or a backwards pass. The ball sticks, her first touch taking it away from the nearest challenge and buying her the fraction of a second she needs. A quick combination with a teammate opens the smallest gap, and James has the space she needs to thread a perfectly weighted pass into the box, looking for her teammate's run at exactly the right moment.

Her First Touch of 17 makes the initial control possible under that kind of pressure, and her Vision of 16 turns it into something dangerous. James combines both, and Liverpool's press has come to nothing. Her xA of 2.44 from just 760 BWSL minutes this season shows this is not a one-off. She creates in spaces where most forwards wouldn’t even try.

Alessia Russo

There are strikers who score goals, and then there are strikers who make a team function. Alessia Russo does both. The England forward has eight goals and four assists from 1,775 minutes this season, and has become the focal point of the Arsenal attack thanks to a range of attributes that go far beyond just putting the ball in the net.

Her xG of 11.46 is the highest of any forward in the Barclays Women's Super League this season, a figure that speaks to how consistently she arrives in the right positions at the right moment.

Her quality is evident throughout her FM26 profile. Off The Ball rated at 19, Finishing at 18, Determination at 18, and First Touch at 17. These are the numbers of a striker who makes her team better in every phase of the game, not just when she has the chance to score.

Russo has the ability to influence the game from all over the pitch. Her willingness to work for the team means she is more than happy to receive the ball and create for others. In this example, against Leicester, we can see this side of her profile, and why it makes her so difficult to account for as a defensive unit.

She drops deep, away from her marker, and receives with her back to goal. One touch to control, another to turn, and suddenly she is facing forward with Leicester scrambling to recover their shape. She then plays a perfectly weighted through ball to Foord, who runs into the box and forces a shot on target.

The movement to drop and receive is what creates the situation in the first place, and the first touch under pressure is what gives her the time and space to pick the pass. For a striker rated primarily on her Finishing, moments like this are a reminder that Russo's value to Arsenal goes well beyond the goals she scores.

We’ve seen how Russo can play key passes to teammates making runs in behind the defensive line. Here, we can see her making one of those runs.

She’s on the shoulder of the Spurs defender, checking her run to stay onside as Olivia Smith picks up the ball. The timing is everything, and Russo gets it exactly right, breaking clear the moment Smith releases the pass. The ball is perfectly weighted, she is through, and from that point, there’s only one outcome. She rounds the goalkeeper and calmly slots it home.

The goal looks simple, but the movement that created it is anything but. Russo's intelligence is what makes the chance possible. At 0.58 xG per 90 this season, she is generating situations like this more consistently than almost any other striker in the league, and with her quality, the outcome is almost inevitable.

Russo's off-the-ball movement isn’t just about finding space in behind. Here, we can see the other dimension of her runs, the ability to arrive between defenders at exactly the right moment and make herself difficult to deal with in the air.

The cross comes in from the right, high and inviting, and Russo has ghosted between two West Ham defenders, timing her run perfectly. The header is clean and precise, and Arsenal have their goal.

West Ham have two defenders next to her in the box, and neither of them can get to her. Her Off The Ball of 19 means she reads where the cross is going before it has been delivered, and her positioning between the two defenders is the result of intelligent movement rather than physical dominance alone.

Her Heading (16) does the rest. For a striker who is already averaging 5.23 touches in the box per 90 this season, moments like this are a reminder that Russo is a threat from every type of delivery, and opponents struggle to find an answer for her.

Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw

Bunny Shaw has played a starring role in Manchester City’s title charge this season. She has netted 18 goals and contributed four assists as the Citizens claimed the BWSL title after a ten-year wait.

Trying to stop Bunny Shaw is one of the hardest problems a defender in this league will face, and her FM attribute profile gives us a window into why.

Her Finishing is rated at 19, Strength at 18, Heading at 18, and Composure at 18. These are the attributes of a complete centre forward, a player who can hurt you with her back to goal, in the air, in behind, or in the tightest of spaces.

She is physically imposing in a way that very few strikers in the league can match, and has the technical quality that means defenders cannot simply rely on their own physicality to keep her quiet.

Watch Bunny Shaw without the ball and you will learn more about her than any highlight reel can tell you.

In this example, City are building an attack and Shaw is in the box. The key point here is that she is never still. First, she drifts to the near post, holds her position, reads the situation, and the moment Kerolin picks up the ball on the right she is already moving.

By the time the cross comes in she has gone from near post to far post, arriving at exactly the right moment to meet the ball with a powerful and precise header, driven into the top corner, and the goalkeeper has absolutely no chance.

Her Anticipation of 16 and Off The Ball of 17 are what drive the constant repositioning, the ability to read where the ball is going before it has left the foot of the player crossing it. At 182 cm she is already a physical handful for any defender in this league, but the intelligence of her movement makes her truly unplayable in the box.

Bunny Shaw isn’t the kind of forward who waits for the perfect chance, she creates her own. Here, drifting out to the far side of the penalty area against Aston Villa, finding acres of space for herself. The ball arrives, she curls a shot towards goal from an angle that has no right to trouble the goalkeeper, and it comes back off the post.

The Jamaican international is averaging 4.32 shots per 90 this season and it’s fair to say that she’s not just shooting often, she is also from angles that most forwards wouldn’t back themselves from.

In FM terms, her Finishing of 19 and Technique of 16 are what make attempts like this more than just optimistic, and her Composure of 18 means there is never any panic in the execution regardless of the angle or the pressure.

Shaw's goal record naturally grabs the headlines, but this example against Manchester United shows why she is so much more than a finisher.

A long ball is played forward and she takes it on her chest, back to goal with a United defender marking her tightly. She holds her ground, brings the ball down cleanly, and plays it off first time into Fujino, making the run in behind.

In Bunny Shaw, Manchester City have a striker who can receive under any kind of physical pressure, control a difficult ball, and her ability to immediately think forward rather than backwards is an asset that goes far beyond the goals she scores.

Manchester City don’t just rely on their number 9 to score. She is the one who makes everything around her work, and moments like this show why she has been so vital to their title winning campaign.

Jess Park

Jess Park has been one of the most exciting forwards in the Barclays Women's Super League this season. She has contributed six goals and five assists from a wide role, and at 23 years old she is establishing herself as one of the most dangerous attacking players in the division.

Her Dribbling is the standout attribute in FM26, rated at 17, while her Technique, Flair and FIrst Touch are all rated 16, demonstrating she is a forward who is always looking to take people on, drive at defenders, and create something from nothing. Add Acceleration of 16 and Composure of 13, and we have a wide forward who is direct, unpredictable, and increasingly difficult to stop once she has the ball and space in front of her.

Park is not a forward who does things the easy way. This example against London City shows what makes her such a handful when she gets the ball in wide areas.

She receives on the left and immediately drives infield, cutting onto her right foot and taking on the first defender. Then the second. She reaches the edge of the area, having created plenty of space for herself, and the finish is emphatic.

This whole move is a demonstration of what Park’s Dribbling and Technique look like in action. Her ball carrying ability gets her into a shooting position, and the technique makes the finish possible after a driving run with defenders around her.

Averaging 2.89 progressive runs per 90 this season, Park is consistently picking up the ball in wide areas and driving at defenders rather than looking for the simple pass. She is a forward who can create something from nothing on either side, and can carve out opportunities for herself.

Park is at her most dangerous when she’s given the opportunity to roam. In this example, drifting in from the right, she finds a pocket of space in a congested area and receives with defenders around her.

She takes a touch to turn, carries forward into the tight space, and plays Malard in behind with a pass that has to be perfectly timed to beat the London City defensive line. It is, and the French international finds the back of the net. The whole sequence happens in a small area with very little room for error, and Park executes every part of it cleanly.

For a forward primarily known for her directness and dribbling, this is a great reminder that Park's game has more layers than it first appears. Manchester United give her the freedom to find these pockets and create the moments that wins games.

This example against Spurs shows the other side of her game. A Tottenham player makes a run in behind and looks to have created something, but Park has tracked her every step of the way. The Manchester United forward covers the ground efficiently, sticking closely to her opponent, making sure she gets a foot in at exactly the right moment.

Her Acceleration of 16 is what makes the recovery possible in the first place, without the pace to close the gap, the Spurs player is away and the chance is gone. A forward with lesser desire does not track that runner, doesn’t get back in time.

FM managers who want a wide forward who contributes at both ends of the pitch should look no further than Jess Park, the combination of attacking quality and defensive willingness makes her one of the most rounded profiles in the BWSL database.

Conclusion

In this piece, we have looked at four forwards and a multitude of reasons for you to spend your entire FM26 transfer budget in one window.

From Shaw's relentless movement and finishing to James cutting inside onto either foot like defenders are simply suggestions. Then there’s Russo arriving in the right place at the right time more consistently than anyone else in the league and Jess Park shooting from distance and finding the back of the net, the BWSL database has something for every system and every style.

Next time, we are heading into the BWSL 2 and turning our attention to the forwards. The second tier has been full of surprises throughout this series, and we have a feeling the attackers are not going to disappoint. See you then.