Inside Sonia Bompastor's Tactical Idea: What to expect at Chelsea

What can we expect to see at Kingsmeadow next season from Chelsea Women's new coaching import from Lyon.

With the Emma Hayes era well and truly over, a new chapter in the life of Chelsea Football Club begins with Sonia Bompastor's arrival as the new head coach.

In truth, there weren’t that many candidates on offer that fit the bill of what was needed as Chelsea’s head coach. High-level coaching, man-management, and tactical thinking were the criteria but given that the pool of coaches to take on a job the size of the one at Kingsmeadow was already small, Bompastor seemed like the most logical choice. Laura Harvey and Casey Stoney were both considered but each ultimately decided to stay in the NWSL. 

With the UEFA Women’s Champions League now over and Hayes already kicking off her USWNT career, it’s time to look into Bompastor’s tactical philosophy and what we can expect her squad to look and play like next season.

I’ve covered Bompastor’s Lyon side over the last couple of years where you can read more analysis on her style here and here. However, I’ll illustrate her ideology and tactical style here to better understand how Chelsea’s squad could fit them. This article will be split into two, the first covering her tactics to know how she sets up her sides and the second detailing Chelsea’s squad’s effectiveness and where Bompastor might look to strengthen.

Setup, build-up, and out of possession structure

During her 3 year tenure, Bompastor’s Lyon wasn’t filled with an intricate tactical system, rather it was a much more simple setup that relied on the quality of individuals coming together as a collective. Bompastor’s principles are based on adaption and domination. She put these pillars into a simple game plan and allowed the team the freedom to come up with solutions. The tactics come from the nature of execution rather than well-thought-out drilled patterns of play. In contrast, Hayes was much more flexible in her system and adapted to the opposition game by game. 

Systematically, Bompastor is wedded to the 4-3-3 but did also dabble with the 4-1-4-1. The more important factor was the game's context and the players' position in certain areas. She used a holding midfielder and two forward-thinking box-to-box central midfielders to patrol the midfield. The full-backs are aggressive but must be technically sound in the build-up or able to work in advanced pockets. Flying full-backs and inverted wingers are staples where Bompastor wants to create overloads and underloads in the wide areas to switch play and create 1 v 1s for the opposite winger and space for her target-man striker and technical No. 8s to run to in the middle. 

Their build-up play varies — mixing long balls and short passing from the back, depending on the opposition's pressing structure and style. The decision to play from the back hinges on the available space; typically, they play with a high line due to their possession-heavy approach and the defenders' ball-playing abilities. Wendie Renard excels at ball-playing but struggles under intense pressure and pace. Griedge Mbock is the most composed under pressure, but her unavailability has made Vanessa Gilles the default first choice instead. Gilles, while more aggressive, is not necessarily inferior. Their 2-1 build-up structure suits their high line, allowing the full-backs to push up. The two centre-backs and defensive midfielder usually cover the necessary spaces, but they are also willing to go long if needed. 

In this example, you see the acres of space Lyon has to play out from the back. They can afford to leave both centre-backs alone with the opposition, choosing to sit back and catch Lyon in a much deeper position. The eventual wide ball to Selma Bacha means the team can lure the opposition to move wide and hit them in any vacant spaces. The midfielders play a key role in this type of build-up where they’re positioned to drop into vacant half-spaces and look to be the link in a sequence of passes. So a Van de Donk or Horan would drop in between the full-back and defender to bypass a mid-press and look to drive out of those situations before playing it wide towards the full-back or winger.

Bompastor’s team also resorts to long balls into the wide areas when under pressure. The goalkeeper typically targets the wingers or full-backs in advanced positions against high-pressing teams. Rather than rigidly adhering to playing out from the back, Bompastor adapts her strategy, giving Chilean goalkeeper Christiane Endler the freedom to play long if needed. Endler often aims for the No. 10 or striker, who attempts to win the first ball, with a nearby central midfielder picking up the second ball to continue the progression.

While the data shows Lyon as the lowest-ranked team in D1 Arkema for long balls (33.92 long balls per 90 minutes) it doesn’t necessarily mean they avoid this approach. In fact, they’ve recorded the highest accuracy rate at an impressive 60.4%. Similarly in this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League, Lyon ranked third-lowest in long balls with 35.65 per 90 minutes, with only PSG and Barcelona registering fewer.

As you can see here, Paris Saint-Germain are pressing Lyon in numbers and Endler does not hesitate to launch a ball forward, bypassing the Parisian midfield. While Melchie Dumornay loses out on the aerial duel, Daniëlle van de Donk picks up the loose ball and puts Lyon on the ascendency.

The profile of their defenders and the possession-heavy nature of the team justify playing higher up the pitch and utilising the space from the back. This approach allows the centre-backs time to interchange and pick out the midfielders, creating opportunities for overloads and switches of play.

Out of possession, Lyon employs a very aggressive pressing approach, alternating between a 4-2-4 and a 4-2-3-1 hybrid formation. In this setup, the No. 10 occasionally pushes up alongside the central striker. The objective is to press high and prevent teams from easily playing out from the back, forcing them into misplaced passes and allowing Lyon to win the ball high up the pitch. This strategy combines both zonal and man-to-man pressing, with players marking individuals while also boxing them into pockets to induce errors.

The pressing structure is key and starts from the front. While the striker sets the tone for the press, it revolves around the No. 8/10 hybrid player. This player is tasked with blocking the opposition pivot player and forcing the ball wide or long. In either scenario, Lyon can overpower the opposition through overloads or by winning aerial duels.

The double pivot is primarily a defensive screen, but whenever an opposition central midfielder dropped back to their defensive third, this meant one of the double-pivot was now free to press and shadow. The full-backs were also expected to jump forward if the wingers started to push up. Sometimes there would be a situation where one of the full-backs inverts to create a double-pivot, thus allowing the second central midfielder to push forward. As a result, Bompastor requires athletic and tactically intelligent players in those positions. An example of their pressing structure yielding results is shown below.

Attacking Mechanisms

Sonia Bompastor typically rotated between Amandine Henry and Damaris Egurrola as her No. 6s but then opted for the more pragmatic and disciplined anchor in Damaris during the last two seasons. This allowed Henry to move further forward and use her creativity to serve the attacking line. After her departure, Sara Däbritz, Lindsey Horan, Amel Majri, and Daniëlle van de Donk all rotated as the No. 8s, providing press resistance and technical quality on the ball. It’s safe to assume that Bompastor likes more technically creative midfielders with some physical traits to occupy the central areas to create goal-scoring chances, control the tempo, and contribute out of possession.

The central areas were arguably Bompastor’s most important focus in servicing the rest of the team. Though the goals were centred around the front line, the midfield was the engine that enabled the full-backs and wingers to find and drive into space to create the 1 v 1 battles, overloads, and, connect in build-up. They created offensive transitions by being the receivers before playing quick passing exchanges to get the ball forward as fast as possible. As mentioned earlier, in build-up one of them will help facilitate as the third player in a passing sequence. Similarly, in attacking transitions, the midfielders will contribute in the half-spaces to become links to the wide players and create space for themselves to run into the box to get on the end of cutbacks or crosses or take shots as seen below.

Horan receiving possession deep, turning and finding Van de Donk in the pocket for her to drive through the oppositon defensive structure before some individual brilliance not only opens space to take the shot but leaves the door open for Majri to receive on her left.

As you can see here, Däbritz, Majri, Horan, and Van de Donk all contributed with goals and assists, supplementing the main goal scorers to take up the majority of the workload.

The striker in Bompastor’s system has a dual function both as a focal point for interchanging passes around the box and taking up crosses from the wide areas. The striker is responsible not just for scoring goals but crucially for creating space for the two inside forwards to operate. Delphine Cascarino and Kadidiatou Diani both played as inverted forwards and focused on winning their 1 v 1 battles from the overloads in midfield and the striker taking up the focus of the centre-backs. 

Amongst this is the importance of the full-backs. Both Selma Bacha and Ellie Carpenter excel at ball progression and are Lyon’s chief architects. Their primary responsibility is to make movements and get into good ball-receiving positions to whip in crosses and switches of play. Their speed causes issues for opposition teams and, given their tendency to pull players away from their positions, open up space in other areas.

A significant aspect of Bompastor’s game plan involves her use of Ada Hegerberg. The Norwegian striker is still regarded as one of the best strikers in the world and even though she’s been injured for the better part of two seasons, she’s still a worthy option. Bompastor’s preferred centre-forward profile seems influenced by Hegerberg’s presence, but there is no like-for-like replacement at the club. Melvine Malard, Melchie Dumornay, and Eugenie Le Sommer have all been tried and tested, with Le Sommer as the closest to being effective. 

As a result, there’s been less of an emphasis on a target-man type striker given Hegerberg’s injury. They’ve opted to use Dumornay as the central presence with cutbacks replacing pure crosses. This can be seen as one of Bompastor’s tactical tweaks — albeit forced — but one that yielded a league title. Dumornay scored crucial goals against Paris Saint-Germain in the UWCL and playoff games with her excellent movement and on-the-ball carrying to create space for the No. 8s and inside forwards.

The focus on the wide areas going forward becomes even more prominent when you see this Cascarino goal that perfectly encapsulates Lyon’s play against top sides. The use of the wide areas is key with the system built around creating space in the wide areas. Endler’s long pass to Van de Donk was typical of her against a high press and while Dumornay’s duel was lost, the second ball collected by Van de Donk, who is creative by nature, used her vision to pick out Cascarino, who took advantage of PSG’s position and created an artificial 1 v 2 position for the French winger. Cascarino’s pace ensured she was then able to hold the advantage and beat Katarzyna Kiedrzynek at her near post.

There’s been some scepticism about Bompastor’s appointment as her tactical acumen is currently being questioned by observers. However, given how we’ve only seen her under one setting, the jury’s still out to see how she can adapt to different conditions and a new squad with different profiles. 

Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images