Women’s Community Shield 2020: Chelsea Women vs Manchester City Women – tactical analysis

The new WSL season is only a week away, and the Women’s Community Shield, which hasn’t been played since 2008, is this year’s curtain-raiser. We got the first opportunity to see how Chelsea Women and Manchester City Women will play this season, which provided us with some interesting things to contemplate. This tactical analysis will look at both teams’ strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately this match came down to Chelsea scoring goals and Manchester City not doing so. This analysis will therefore look at how both teams’ tactics ensured this result.

Lineups

Both teams chose a 4-3-3 formation for this game. Chelsea Women started with Ann-Katrin Berger in goal; their regular back four of Maren Mjelde, Millie Bright, Magdalena Eriksson and Jonna Andersson; instead of a midfield diamond, they had new signing Melanie Leupolz, Sophie Ingle and Ji So-Yun forming a midfield three, whilst Fran Kirby, back from injury, and Guro Reiten played either side of striker Sam Kerr.

Manchester City Women, meanwhile, started with Ellie Roebuck in goal. 19-year-old Esme Morgan, who was on loan at Everton Women last season, played at right-back, with England captain Steph Houghton, Gemma Bonner and Demi Stokes joining her in defence. The midfield three consisted of Jill Scott, Keira Walsh and Caroline Weir, with the attack consisting of new signing and former Everton striker Chloe Kelly on the right, Lauren Hemp on the left, and midfielder Georgia Stanway in a “false nine” role through the middle.