Manchester United have made some big strides this season. Having qualified for the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) group stage for the first time ever, the Red Devils also made it through to the knockout rounds after winning four of their six games and now face Atletico Madrid in February’s playoffs for a place in the quarterfinals.
Since United gained promotion to the Women’s Super League (WSL) in the 2019-20 season, the club have added bigger names and improved their squad depth in a bid to compete on all fronts. Manchester City and England midfielder Jess Park and Fridolina Rolfö were the latest additions in the summer, the latter joining from three-time European champions Barcelona, and Marc Skinner’s side have only doubled down on their approach in January.
After adding former San Diego Wave defender Hanna Lundkvist just days prior, United then reinforced their attack by signing 28-year-old forward Lea Schüller from Bayern Munich on a 3½ year contract for an undisclosed fee.
The Germany international spent 5½ goal-laden years at Bayern after joining them from SGS Essen in the 2020-21 season, and helped them clinch four league titles in five years. She won the Golden Boot award in the 2021-22 season, with 16 goals, and was also voted German footballer of the year in 2022 for her performances.
Schüller has an incredibly consistent track record in front of goal: having scored 10+ goals in each of the last seven seasons in the Frauen Bundesliga. On top of her 103 goals from 180 games for Bayern in all competitions, she has 54 goals in 82 caps for Germany as well.
So how will she help United in their quest to reach the top?
Position
A central striker, Schüller thrives at finding space behind the defense and inside the box. Her impeccable movement, coupled with great acceleration to zoom past defenders, gets her into one-vs.-one situations with the goalkeeper where she is able to finish.
She is also able to ghost in between the center backs and attack any incoming crosses, so could be classified as a «fox-in-the-box» style of striker.
Strengths
Schüller has excelled at finding the back of the net in different setups and is a pure goal scorer with a variety of finishes in her repertoire. Her goal-scoring record for club and country speaks for itself, and she has consistently delivered since her breakthrough in the Frauen Bundesliga as a 16-year-old.
Her quality to get shots off from close proximity to the goal enables her to accrue high expected goal (xG) value. This season, Schüller ranks in the top five for non-penalty xG per 90 minutes among European forwards, and is only behind star names like Manchester City‘s Khadija «Bunny» Shaw and Barcelona‘s Ewa Pajor.
It’s her spatial awareness and the timing of her runs in and around the penalty area that allow her to be in the right areas at the right time, and those are a major reason for her consistent xG overperformance across seasons.
Generally, she isn’t very heavily involved in her team’s buildup phase, and instead relies on service from her teammates.
Schüller only stands 5-foot-8 tall, but she has a tremendous leap that allows her to take control in the air. She generates a lot of power on her headers, even from a standing position, and is able to direct her efforts well. Indeed, since the 2023-24 season, only VfL Wolfsburg striker Alexandra Popp has more headed shots (67 vs. 39) and only Bayern midfield Pernille Harder has more headed goals (11 vs. 8) in the Frauen Bundesliga than Schüller. In fact, almost 35% of her shots and 30% of her goals in this period have come via headers.
Things to work on
While not a high-volume shooter, Schüller’s focus is on optimizing her shot quality by getting into good positions prior to letting fly. Her average shot distance over the last four seasons hovers around the penalty spot (12 yards), highlighting the specific area she is most active in, and 21% of her total touches over the last four seasons have come inside the opponents’ penalty box.
That leaves room to get a little more involved in other areas, while it will be interesting to see how she pairs up with a player of a similar profile at United in Elisabeth Terland.
How will she fit at Manchester United?
With Schüller’s arrival, United are faced with a problem of profile overlaps. In Skinner’s system, the central striker is often provided service by the wingers and aren’t expected to be as heavily involved in the build-up phases.
While that means Schüller is a perfect fit in theory, what she offers is eerily similar to United’s current option: Terland. Both strikers have an eye for goal and thrive inside the box thanks to their movement, but they operate on their own, so that means there is only room for one in the XI.
Terland has been leading the line for Skinner’s side since the 2024-25 season and finished as their top goal scorer last season. In the last two seasons, 80 of her 90 shots in the WSL have come from inside the box — 22 from headers.
Although there are similarities in their style of play, Schüller has an edge in terms of her aerial prowess, speed and experience. While Terland’s aerial duel success rate hovers around the 40% mark, Schüller hasn’t posted a rate below 50% in the last four seasons. Transitioning from the Frauen Bundesliga to WSL will force her to face slightly more rigid low blocks but her quality should shine through and she can provide a reliable and similar alternative for United’s system.
With Celin Bizet unavailable as she is pregnant, Skinner has used Melvine Malard and Park as the nominal wide players this season. However, both like to cut inside, create opportunities in behind the defense, and present themselves as options around the penalty area; Schüller will complement their fluid style of play better, replicating a lot of the qualities she put to use when playing alongside Jovana Damjanovic or Harder at Bayern.
The German has a knack of making incisive runs in behind without getting caught offside too much, which should help add another dimension to United’s attack. And, as the team’s ambitions continue to grow, Schüller could provide the right impetus and depth to reach their targets.
