Following the decision this week to end the WSL prematurely, a number of teams will be worried about their futures, with relegation in particular yet to be decided. Bristol City Women may have had a disappointing season overall, but their transfers have been one of the best in the league in terms of adding players that made a difference. Striker Ebony Salmon was one such signing and has been their top scorer this season, and New Zealand midfielder Olivia Chance has also proven to be a really good addition to the team.
This scout report will look at Chance, through tactical analysis, and see how her positioning and movement helps to create space for her team to play in. The analysis will also look at how her link-up play with the forward line helps Bristol’s attacking tactics too.
Creating space in midfield
To begin this analysis, we will look at how Olivia Chance creates passing options for her teammates with her movement forwards.
In this image, we see how Bristol City Women are facing the Chelsea Women midfield, and have to find a way past them. Chance is on the outside of the midfield and is looking to run around the defence, using the space in the wide channel, as indicated by the arrow. By making this run, Chance has enabled Bristol to play the ball around Chelsea’s midfield, although they are not through on goal because the Chelsea defence still needs to be beaten, but is out of the picture. This is one such example when Chance has seen where the space is and is looking to enable her side to play around them.
The key point to take from this example is that Chance’s movement has enabled Bristol City Women to play the ball around Chelsea Women’s midfield, with very little chance of the ball being intercepted on its way through. Had Bristol been made to play the ball through the midfield, there was more chance of this happening.
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