This weekend’s FAWSL fixtures brought us the final matchup between this season’s top three sides. Manchester City Women travelled to London to face Emma Hayes Chelsea Women side. Both sides have aspirations of ending the campaign with a league title, which increases the impetus on this match.
Each side has found some very good form in recent weeks. Manchester City Women have been running rampant against some of the smaller sides in the league, with some new tactics resulting from injury issues. Chelsea Women have continued from strength to strength this season. Only dropping points to Brighton and Hove Albion in the second match of the season, they have gone on to earn impressive victories over Arsenal and Manchester United.
In this tactical analysis, we will look at the tactics Hayes used to come away with the 2-1 win over Nick Cushing’s Manchester City Women’s side. This game went back and forth for the majority of the match before Chelsea Women’s pressure paid off, scoring two goals to seal the win after going down. This analysis will take a look at the specific tactics that proved trumps on the day.
Lineups
Chelsea Women (4-1-4-1): Berger; Mjelde, Bright, Eriksson, Andersson; Ingle; Cuthbert, Bachmann, Ji, Reiten; England
Manchester City Women (4-3-3): Roebuck; Beckie, Houghton, Bonner, Stokes; Walsh, Weir, Scott; Wullaert, White, Hemp
Chelsea Women set up in the shape that proved successful against Manchester United Women two weeks ago. Fran Kirby missed out on a place in the squad through injury, but this was the only notable absentee. As we will discuss later in this piece, Chelsea used some different formations in-game to defend against City.
Cushing kept his team the same as in previous weeks. Janine Beckie continues at right-back in the absence of Aoife Mannion. Tessa Wullaert began on the right side, but during the match, she was given the freedom to roam around the pitch in support of Ellen White up top. Caroline Weir occupied a deep position closer to Kiera Walsh to add defensive stability for this match.
Chelsea Women’s quick start
From the first whistle, Chelsea looked to press Manchester City high up the pitch. While they initially lined up in a 4-1-4-1, in their initial structure was a 4-4-2. Using this, Ramona Bachmann was brought forward to play in support of England upfront. Using this two-striker tactic, Hayes tasked her side with restricting City’s midfield from receiving passes from their centre-halves. As one of Bethany England or Bachmann went to press the ball, the other would look to make sure that there were no central passing lanes to find. They specifically marked Kiera Walsh in this dynamic, as they were well aware of her ability to cause danger from her deep playmaker position.
City were then forced to look for wide options, which had a ripple effect higher up the pitch. Stokes and Beckie were both forced to hold deeper positions than they normally do. This kept them from having the same attacking effect on the match as they normally produce. Their positioning away from the players higher up the pitch meant that once they received possession in these deeper areas, they could find forward options many times.
Above you can see an example of this structure set up by Chelsea. When Bonner receives possession, England positions herself to be able to press Steph Houghton if a pass is made there, or step inside if a pass is made into the midfield. Bachmann directly blocks the passing lane into Walsh. Demi Stokes recognises this and drifts wide to allow for an outlet. Chelsea Women delay their pressing in this area to encourage this pass. In the image below, you can see that Gemma Bonner has made the pass into Stokes. As soon as this pass is made, Erin Cuthbert jumps forward pressing Stokes. The press resulted in the away side losing possession in their defensive half.
Chelsea were able to win possession back in dangerous areas on numerous occasions, but could not capitalise on the chances they were able to create. Below you can see an example of Haye’s side pressing City into a turnover. This represents a dangerous area for City, as they are attempting to push numbers forward to get a grasp on the match themselves. Chelsea break quickly and through some intricate play find England in a one-v-one on the right. She beats her defender only to be thwarted by Roebuck in goal. This opportunity represented the first of many Chelsea would get in the remainder of the match.
