FAWSL 2019/20: Chelsea Women vs Manchester City Women – tactical preview

The race for the FAWSL is heating up and Chelsea have impressed everyone with victories over Arsenal and Manchester United in recent times. The Blues have shown signs of dominance in each of their games including a thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur in the Conti Cup in mid-November. Their next test will be title challengers Manchester City Women. The Citizens are Chelsea’s other major threat outside of Arsenal in their march to the title. Having beat the Gunners at Kingsmeadow, they now host Manchester City in what could be a defining moment in the season.

Manchester City started off the season well going undefeated for the first eight games, winning seven and including a dominant 5-0 win over Leicester City and 1-0 win over arch-rivals Manchester United Women. However, a defeat to The Red Devils in the FA WSL Cup started a run of poor form, losing their next three. It’s safe to say Man City haven’t had the smoothest of seasons but still remain in the hunt for silverware this season.

Chelsea Women, meanwhile, have ambitions of winning the league after their last win in the 2017-18 season. With no Champions League football to contend with, many are giving the Blues a major chance of picking up silverware ahead of Manchester City and Arsenal. Having beaten Manchester United, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur this season already, the Blues are well on their way but this game will test their credentials yet again.

This tactical analysis preview will look to provide an in-depth overview of Chelsea Women’s tactics and dissect how they can exploit and pry on Manchester City’s weaknesses. We have a Manchester City Womens focused preview analysis by Gavin Robertson on the game looking at their chances and tactics in the upcoming clash.

Chelsea Women’s style of play

Chelsea have regularly utilised a 4-4-2 (27%) formation this season with Emma Hayes looking to unleash her wealth of attacking talent together. Hayes has managed to fix the issue by changing from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2 but has shown her capability to adapt to the opposition put in front of her. However, against the big teams, she seemingly has a surprise up her sleeve.

Against Manchester United, she sprung a surprise by starting Ramona Bachmann in a 4-1-4-1 formation. The tactic proved to be effective catching Manchester United by surprise. As the analysis showed, it highlighted Chelsea protecting their wide areas where United were dangerous whilst keeping their backline pressed and hurried. We’ve only seen Chelsea use the 4-1-4-1 system sparingly (10%).

Getting Bethany England and Fran Kirby in the same lineup was a goal for the season and so far has proved effective. Chelsea look to play in the half-spaces using a combination of their forwards dropping into deep areas along with the wingers to create passing lanes and overloads. This is to provide service to England who has proven herself to be one of the most lethal finishers in women’s football.

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