Ramona Bachmann at Paris Saint-Germain 2019/20

While Olympique Lyon have made some significant moves in the transfer window already, Paris Saint-Germain announced their first major incoming player last week. The transfer of Ramona Bachmann from Chelsea is a coup for the Parisian club given the talent and long list of suitors that would have been after her signature. Paris Saint-Germain are getting closer and closer to building a squad that can challenge Lyon for the Division 1 Feminine title and Bachmann adds more quality and depth to their attacking line-up.

This scout report will look to breakdown Bachmann’s strengths and weaknesses and what role she will play for Paris Saint-Germain.

Player profile

Ramona Bachmann is a 29-year-old wide forward and a Swiss international. Bachmann has played for several teams including Rosengard, Wolfsburg, and Chelsea before joining PSG. Bachmann is a hard-working, attacking winger and her role is a reflection of her style of play, preferring to start wide and cut inside. Bachmann’s style is best described as a wide playmaking inside forward that cuts inside where she shoots, dribbles, or passes, depending on the situation. Her position differs for Chelsea and Switzerland which reflects her versatility. Bachmann is able to play across the front four positions with her skillset adapting to the position she plays in.

Through tactical analysis, we will analyse Bachmann’s strengths and weaknesses before seeing how they translate into Paris Saint-Germain’s tactics. We will start off by understanding PSG’s attacking structure.

Paris Saint-Germain’s attacking structure

Bachmann joins a PSG team full of attacking talent with a mixture of young and experienced individuals. From star striker Marie Antoinette Katoto and Jordan Huitema, to the experienced Nadia Nadim and Formiga, PSG have a good base to which they can build on this summer. The acquisition of Bachmann reinforces their squad with more quality to compete on all fronts including the UEFA Champions League. Understanding PSG’s system and formation will help us establish how Bachmann will fit in.

Paris Saint-Germain often line up in a 4-3-3 but have also used a variation of 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1, though the 4-3-3 is their most actively used system. The wide players are key components to their method of attack and build-up with Nadim, Katoto, and Kadidiatou Diani the first-choice front three. With attacking full-backs to match, PSG will look to be defensively solid in midfield to allow the front players more freedom, sometimes even creating a flat front four when attacking. The two wide players are positioned in much narrower positions as Diani is more of an inside-forward while Nadim is closer to a goal-scoring attacking midfielder (‘10’) that likes to play in the half-space / central areas. Katoto is very much a mobile striker interchanging positions with her two wide forwards, making PSG a very fluid team in attack.

Attacking & transitional phase & how she fits in at Paris Saint-Germain

Bachmann’s role and position mean her attributes revolve around dribbling and creativity in order to find and create space for her teammates. At Chelsea, she was deployed at left or right-midfield in a 4-4-2 but tended to come inside to pick up possession or stay wide when receiving the ball. In both situations, Bachmann will drive to the 18-yard box to try and take a shot but more often than not would find the two strikers. When you have two of the world’s best strikers in Sam Kerr and Bethany England, the tactics will cater to supplying them. The choice of action depended on the setup of the opposition. When Chelsea would counter-attack or had space to attack, Bachmann would drive into the oppositions half looking to take a shot.

This heat map indicates Bachmann’s movement across her time at Chelsea and we can see the most significant areas are both out wide and the central areas when she gets closer to the 18-yard box. Bachmann’s combination of direct running and nimble feet in dribbling makes her unpredictable in her actions and her movement becomes tough to track. There isn’t much activity in the defensive third but the heat map shows just enough to convey Bachmann’s defensive ability which will be discussed later in the analysis.