“We want to be a WSL club”: Why the sky is the limit for Southampton after a strong start to life in the Championship – tactical analysis

Whilst the men’s World Cup will of course take centre stage for football fans over the next month, with the men’s domestic seasons all grinding to a halt, it is worth remembering that there will still be plenty of women’s football to enjoy, with some very interesting games on the horizon.

In the Championship, things are really starting to gather pace, as teams at the bottom fight to avoid the drop and those higher up the league set their sights on the promised lands of the WSL. One of the teams that many thought would struggle this season would be Southampton FC Women, who were promoted from the National League in the summer after seeing off Wolves Women in a playoff match. However, a run of five wins and only one defeat in their first eight games has seen the side coached by former Arsenal Women attacker Marieanne Spacey-Cale occupy third place in the league with just over a third of the campaign gone, putting them firmly in the title fight.

This tactical analysis will look at why they have made such a promising start to the campaign, taking a closer look at their tactics in attack, midfield and defence and highlighting the different ways that they have caused problems for their opponents and why their teamwork in all areas has been central to their good form.

Attacking play

Last season, in the Southern Premier Division, Southampton FC Women managed to score a highly impressive 99 goals in 26 league games, and have already found the net on 11 occasions this time around. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the offensive side of the game is not something that they struggle with, so it is a good place to begin this analysis.

The main reason that they have been so potent at the top of the field is because they have players in that area who are full of confidence and who always know what their roles are. Ella Pusey, in the red circle here, was their top scorer last season with 25 goals, but it is her movement that makes her such a threat in the final third.

In this situation, she has noticed the spaces in the Sheffield United Women defensive line and is looking to exploit them, with her running between two opponents here and meeting the pass from Ella Morris, which travels through another gap in the line. What this shows is that she constantly gives her team passing options and helps them to keep their opponents on the back foot, with the rest of the team knowing that she will be in the right position to receive the ball whenever they have a chance to launch an attack, and the ease with which she rounded goalkeeper Bethan Davies to score here indicates that she will be a dependable goalscorer for her team as the campaign goes on.