A Box Midfield — How Chelsea can navigate without Kerr & Fishel moving forward
Emma Hayes is only left with one striking option, so what should Plan B be?
The ripple effects of Mia Fishel's ACL injury have reverberated through the corridors of Cobham, leaving Chelsea with their second recognised striker now sidelined due to a long-term injury. Prior to Fishel’s setback, Sam Kerr had stood as the main senior striker, and her injury in January had compelled Emma Hayes to expedite the acquisition of Mayra Ramirez in January from Levante. Ramirez was brought in with the intention of providing rotation and ample cover alongside Fishel, but this recent injury to the American has thrown a spanner in the works.
With Fishel now sidelined and Ramirez as the sole genuine number nine left in the squad, Hayes faces the challenge of reassessing her tactics for the remainder of the season. Will she seek to identify another makeshift striker from within the team, or does she need to develop a plan B? But the ultimate question now is: How does one adapt the style of play when their strikers are absent?
Chelsea’s style of play at the start of this season was similar to the way they had ended the last one, by playing Kerr through the channels and using her as a reference point to be able to play higher up the pitch. The Australian was excellent at linking up play, allowing the inside-forwards to come inside, and encouraging them to attack the spaces more, all whilst being Chelsea’s clutch goal-scorer.
However, Chelsea have encountered challenges without Kerr recently. Despite the notable victories this season, the defeat to Manchester City underscored the team's struggle to maintain a cohesive structure in her absence. The presence of Bunny Shaw in particular was a notable distinction between the two teams.
Chelsea’s summer transfer window saw them make several additions to the side with many younger players that were viewed for the future. The ones that slotted straight into the first-team consist of Sjoeke Nüsken, Mia Fishel, Ashley Lawrence, and Catarina Macario. These additions didn’t necessarily scream that Chelsea were changing their style, they more so showed them looking to enhance it. This is especially the case with the additions of Nüsken and Macario who were brought in to elevate the midfield positions and give Chelsea a different dynamic.
To tactically deal with the recent injuries, Lauren James now becomes Chelsea’s main talisman and building the team around her strengths could be the way forward. Moving the focal point from the centre-forward position to the No. 10 position facilitates James’ strengths by positioning certain players around her. This certainly is a move Hayes should and probably will make. However, I think Hayes can revert to a more system-based tactic rather than a person-based plan whilst still playing to James’ strengths.
The Kerr injury could present an opportunity to use some of the fringe players and allow for more of the team to synergise and create a more cohesive tactical plan to benefit them in England and Europe. This involves using Nüsken, Jelena Čanković, and Fran Kirby as the key components; there is enough in the squad in terms of personnel who can help James with the goal-scoring burden and contribute to a more unpredictable Chelsea team.
The two key fundamentals in this proposed system are how Chelsea can leverage the midfield to create passing lines and position players in space to create chances for James and Ramirez. Hayes’ current structure is already good and gives Chelsea a good base to work off of — if anything, my suggestions aren’t going to change much of the original style, but rather add a few tweaks to try and elevate the strengths of the players at hand.
The main concept is to transition Chelsea from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-Box-3 system in possession to create midfield superiority and width from their key wide players. This makes Chelsea use more positional play by spreading players across the pitch and creating superiorities. This also helps to use the best qualities of certain players whilst giving themselves enough variety and tactical flexibility to adapt to the opposition.
Starting with the in-possession structure, the main concept is to retain the 4-2-3-1 shape that has served them well and look to create more positional rotations in the forward areas by converting them into a 3-4-3. Chelsea’s current build-up system relies on the ball-playing abilities of their centre-backs. The strengths of their two defensive midfielders means they’re able to build out centrally using their core ball progression abilities as well as their defensive positional awareness.
Chelsea’s two defensive midfielders rely on being deeper in build-up to provide a passing option even when teams want to press them higher up the pitch. Alternatively, Chelsea’s centre-backs have also opted to use diagonal passes into the channels as a source of build-up. When Kerr was present, there would be a much bigger scope for them to lure the opposition high and quickly transition through high passes forward, especially late in games. The threat still exists through Ramirez, but more so with her hold-up play rather than straight runs in behind.
Having the two DMs at the base of midfield has often seen the No. 10 isolated further up the pitch, especially when the opposition sit off Chelsea. While we’ve also seen Chelsea play with a disciplined No. 6 and a slightly further forward No. 8, it leaves Chelsea short in certain midfield zones susceptible to transitions and isolated presses. The idea of bringing in the box midfield is to ensure superiority in build-up and transition whilst protecting the defence.
Bringing four players into the central areas will give Chelsea numerical superiority especially when using four players that are comfortable in possession and pushing them towards a more control-heavy style. The tactics board shows how Chelsea could look in reality: instead of inverting the full-back into midfield, the left-winger would drop in to create the second No. 10 position alongside James and the two central midfielders.
Pushing these players into these central zones will allow Niamh Charles and Johanna Rytting Kanneryd to push high and create width, thus both creating space for the central players to overload the midfield and offer wide passing options. By moving Reiten in as an extra No. 10 and Charles as the de-facto left-winger, it makes Chelsea overload on the left side to isolate Kanneryd on the right and allow her to get to the byline to cross or cut inside into the box in space.
As far as the striker goes, both Ramirez and Kirby could also benefit from this system. While Ramirez can run the channels and use her exceptional hold-up play to create opportunities for James to pick up return passes or make third-man runs, Kirby’s inclusion as a striker can allow for James to interchange positions more regularly and for Kirby to run the game from a slightly deeper position. This creates an unpredictable forward line that enables Chelsea to rotate and generate spaces for their team to exploit through constant movement.
In principle, any time Chelsea come up against a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, they should have an overload and advantage against most midfielders with the striker also being able to drop into midfield if needed to move players around and generate space.
Chelsea have regularly played a transition game, but there should be more focus on control of possession through passing between the lines. Chelsea don’t lack ball carriers but ever since the departure of Ji So-Yun, they’ve not had a proper deep-lying playmaker who can unlock defences regularly. Erin Cuthbert, Nüsken, and Melanie Leupolz are all competent passers, but none have the finesse or vision to unlock a defence. For me, the answer lies in Čanković.
Chelsea’s Serbian midfielder has yet to play meaningful minutes so far this season, only managing 190 minutes in the WSL. However, given Chelsea’s injuries, Čanković playing as one of the two central midfielders could be a way for Hayes to assert more dominance in games by giving Chelsea a dynamic midfielder with passing, vision, and a box-to-box ability.
This is Čanković’s passing network from the game against West Ham last season. The Serb averaged an 81% pass accuracy across 1,080 minutes that season with a return of 4 goals and 4 assists. While the contributions may not be very high, her impact on games was quite visible. This was seen in many instances such as the standout pass to Sam Kerr against Arsenal at the Emirates, which helped to draw the game level. That sort of vision and passing is missing from Chelsea at the moment and could elevate their game without Kerr in the side. This following statistic has the caveat of a low sample size of minutes, but 14.4 progressive passes per 90 this season for Canokovic does offer a glimpse of her ability for Chelsea. This will balance out with more playing minutes but it’s still plausible that she remains Chelsea’s highest progressive passer.
How does she benefit Chelsea in this structure? Given the front three is likely to be Ramirez, Reiten, and Kanneryd, Čanković will have three different options to play passes into. Reiten can receive in the half-spaces and drive forward, while Ramirez offers a long ball option with excellent hold-up play and the ability to occupy channels. We’ve seen her runs to the byline and cutbacks have especially benefited the likes of James who crash the edge of the box to shoot. Kanneryd is Chelsea’s wild card whose dribbling and off-ball running could be utilised in switches of play. Given Chelsea’s focus on using Charles and Reiten to progress the ball forward, Kanneryd offers an excellent switch option for Chelsea and Čanković to use and create space centrally.
Out of possession, Chelsea will move to a standard back three with two centre-backs and a right-back forming the defence. Chelsea’s back line is comfortable in playing out from the back and except for Charles, the rest of the defence is much more comfortable in defensive situations. Moving to a 3-2 rest defence structure gives Chelsea enough coverage against any transitions and their players enough time to adjust to the attack of the opposition.
The board here shows the coverage the defensive line and midfield have in counter-attacking situations and where Hayes and Chelsea can benefit from stopping their opposition from having a lot of space to attack.
Natalie Björn has surprised many with her quick adaptation at the heart of Chelsea’s defence and she gives the team a little more agility and speed against high-speed attackers with Bright providing strength against stronger centre-forwards. However, a player who would benefit more from this system is Ève Périsset. The French defender is a solid right-back but seems to be more suited to a right centre-back role, which could enable her to enhance her defensive abilities, become an inverted full-back, and provide crosses in certain situations.
Hayes’ era at Chelsea is coming to a close and her objective will be to secure as much silverware as she can. The way things have turned recently these last three months at Chelsea could end up becoming her greatest achievement if she were to win the WSL and/or UEFA Women’s Champions League, despite the odds facing the team at the moment. Without a backup recognised striker and an out-of-sorts Kirby, Hayes will have to adapt her tactics and impose a slightly new style on a squad that is used to playing in a certain way if she is to navigate her way through the rest of the season and achieve that objective.
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