Chelsea Women have sat relatively comfortably at the top of English women’s football over the last two seasons, having secured the WSL title in each of those campaigns.
However, they face increased competition this time around, with Emma Hayes reacting to this by introducing a new style of play that will give them an edge.
This new setup uses wing-backs to increase The Blues numbers in all areas of the game, and this tactical analysis will pick out the positives and negatives of Chelseas formation, seeing how it has improved their attack but also given them a few defensive issues in the early stages of the season.
The Wing-back Role
Before analysing their attack and defence, we need to explain Chelsea Women’s tactical approach to games with this new formation.
In the last campaign, Chelsea struggled to get numbers into the same areas of the pitch when attacking, and it was often down to England star Fran Kirby and Australia striker Sam Kerr to provide the threat in the middle, with little consistent help from elsewhere.
However, this has now changed, with the wing-backs ensuring that Chelsea have a constant supply of balls into the middle, as well as getting more players into the central channel to create opportunities.
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