Guro Reiten, Chelsea's wing wizard
Guro Reiten, Chelsea's wing wizard
Reiten has reinvigorated her Chelsea career by playing at wing-back, but how did this come about and is this a long term solution?
Tactical diversity has become a key element in a coach’s repertoire. Top teams have had to be creative in finding solutions to opposition plans but also in changing their systems to suit a certain set of players. Roles have become fluid and transparent, dictating and reflecting a team’s style as the position itself has become more of a placeholder to augment the tactical strategy.
You see Barcelona’s use of Fridolina Rolfö at left-back and Bayern Munich’s Guila Gwinn used as a faux full-back that is exceptionally explained here by Om Arvind. Though these are two more extreme cases given their natural roles, arguably one of the more impressive transformations has come from Guro Reiten of Chelsea.
Pernille Harder has been Chelsea’s standout player playing in a left inside-forward position, becoming more involved in play but arguably Chelsea’s most prominent success otherwise has actually been Guro Reiten in her new left wing-back role. The Norwegian winger was in and out of the team last season but has now come back strong in a new, yet unfamiliar role and making a starring impact.
Emma Hayes started the season with a new system trialled at the back end of last season moving into a 3-4-2-1 formation. This meant some players needed to be repositioned but one of the benefactors of this change has been the Norwegian winger. Now, under a new system and a new role, Reiten has been one of Chelsea’s best player so far but how has she adapted to it?
More broadly, when Reiten moved to Chelsea in the summer of 2019, she came off the back of a good World Cup with Norway, cementing herself as an electric winger which convinced the Blues to make the move. Her first season saw her continue to display more of the same form but after Chelsea splurged on bringing in Sam Kerr, Pernille Harder, and Melanie Leupolz, Reiten’s role was more that of a rotation option. She managed 1,391 minutes in 2020–21 and so far has managed 505 minutes which puts her well on her way to beat her last season’s tally.
There is a general sense Chelsea have, by and large, found a system that has given their best players the freedom to play whilst masking their deficiencies. Their start to the season has been turbulent but while the system has its ups and downs, Chelsea’s move to a back three makes sense. The front three are able to play closer to the box whilst also enabling two wing-backs to provide width in space which is replicated in the passing network versus Juventus. Reiten, though a natural left-winger, has been able to adapt to a wing-back role using her attacking traits as the driving force.
The multi-faceted midfielder has brought natural width to this Chelsea side. What I mean by this is that none of Chelsea’s other players are naturally width occupiers with the exception of Erin Cuthbert – who is more scrappy, to say the least. This is further highlighted by Reiten’s heat map which clearly shows how high and wide she’s played this season.
Playing at left wing-back inherently puts her higher up the pitch which has given her the freedom to attack the opposition box, pushing back the full-back. Chelsea’s structure is specific until the final third which encourages creativity. There are two obvious advantages including overloads in the half-spaces as well as a reliable crossing source. One of her most effective traits is her supply from the wide areas and each cross seems like a well-choreographed routine with Reiten finding space from an interior pass, launching an exquisite and accurate cross.
Such is her quality that she ranks second for average crosses per 90 minutes in the WSL with 5.64. While this has translated to one actual assist, the winger ranks 12th when it comes to second-assists in the WSL, which means she’s playing the front three in where they can make the final pass. A lot of Chelsea’s meaningful goal creating sequences come between the front three, so having Reiten more involved lessens the load and provides an alternative option.
Against Juventus, 15 of Chelsea’s 35 attacks came down the left side which points towards the influence both Reiten and Harder are having on this attack. The Scandanavian duo seem to complement each other perfectly as they slalom between positions and create shot-creating opportunities.
She isn’t just a wing-back in the modern sense. Reiten’s acceleration and dynamic dribbling have been her main assets, driving inside aggressively both on and off the ball. The collegial attacking responsibility remains with Harder, Kerr, and Kirby but having the converted wing-back running at defences means there is an opportunity for overloads in the box and someone to find an extra yard of space.
This was highlighted in Reiten’s run against Wolfsburg who had trouble containing Reiten’s directness, causing them to make challenges in dangerous positions. Wolfsburg’s defenders attempted a tackle on an onrushing Reiten but she was still able to press forward and they needed two more players to dispossess the Norwegian, giving away a set-piece as a result.
The Norwegian thrives in quick, counter-attacking-based teams but has become more accustomed to the possession-based style that Emma Hayes has employed. In doing so, she’s started to understand the spaces she needs to be in and has become a lot more threatening because of it. We’ve already seen Reiten take up some excellent attacking positions when Chelsea attack down the right.
Against Brighton & Hove Albion, Reiten had what could be considered as her best performance, in what felt like an accumulation of the lessons learnt about the position. The goal she scored typified her role and the difference she’s brought to the side.
The goal against Brighton had also highlighted her positional intelligence when she made a good run into space and benefited from Chelsea’s switch of play from the right. Arriving at the right moment meant she was able to gather and shoot, giving Chelsea the lead. The move inside itself was quick from a set-piece, but Fran Kirby’s presence of mind to turn and time her pass for the incoming Reiten meant the wing-back had time to take a touch and shoot.
When it came to the Wolfsburg game, you saw Reiten really use the spaces afforded to her to run into when there were counter-attacking opportunities, but on the other end of the spectrum, you saw how she was faced with a Juventus side willing to sit back and allow play to happen in front of them. This inherently meant Reiten saw more of the ball and needed to up the tempo in order to find any openings. It’s telling that she made an impressive four crosses and five long passes across 90 minutes.
Where we might see some doubt creep in is when Hayes attempts to use a back four. We saw her turn to the 4-3-3 system against Juventus that helped improve their attacking fluency but it saw Reiten move to left-back. Realistically, she isn’t a left-back and defending isn’t her strong suit. Bonansea’s goal cannot completely be blamed on Reiten given the nature of a wing-back role (Magdalena Eriksson’s positioning could have been better), but there is a chance that Chelsea get exposed down the left.
The only counter-argument I can make here is that Chelsea’s use of a back four could come from a position of dominance, where they are on the front foot. Reiten hasn’t been tested too much defensively which comes down to the heavy possession-based style Chelsea employ but the remaining games against Wolfsburg and Juventus will reveal a lot about how Reiten will thrive as a long term solution.
This graphic pinpoints the origin of Juventus’ crossing areas that illustrates a high volume coming from their right. Four of their eight attempts were successful, though only one cross was made parallel to the box. Joe Montemurro respected Reiten’s pace and possibly instructed his team to unsettle Chelsea by playing in early crosses from the ‘Kevin de Bruyne’ area. It worked, given Bonansea’s goal, but it is an area that should be watched carefully moving forward.
It remains to be seen if Reiten’s long-term future will be at left wing-back given there could be a propensity to go back to a four if things don’t work out later in the season. But there is no doubt that Reiten’s emergence as an electric wing-back has been compelling under Hayes’ benevolent man-management. So far, the Norwegian has proven to be an effective option on the left side of defence at a time when Chelsea needed to innovate. Will she be able to thrive on the biggest stage against the heavyweights of women’s football remains to be seen but there is little doubt that Reiten has bought herself a new lease of life at Kingsmeadow.
Photo by Julian Finney - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images