Inside Sonia Bompastor's Tactical Idea: Squad Analysis

We take a deeper look at the players and audit the team based on what we know about Sonia Bompastor

Chelsea may be waiting for Sonia Bompastor to get to Cobham to begin in earnest but that does not mean the groundwork for a new season hasn’t begun already. Many of the Chelsea squad will be looking to impress the new head coach as they look to cement their place in Bompastor’s final squad for the season. After a few seasons of managing Olympique Lyonnais, we can start to identify and predict the likely profiles that will be a mainstay of the future team and which players may not fit her style.

This assessment of Chelsea’s squad will examine who should be included and which positions need strengthening.

Goalkeeper & Defence

Bompastor’s preference to play with a 4-3-3 formation indicates the likely roles and responsibilities needed in this system. One of the most important aspects of the team will be the defence. The competitiveness and overall attacking quality of the Women’s Super League (WSL) means the defence needs to be watertight. 

Having a cohesive and solid understanding at the back becomes imperative and while Chelsea have brilliant individuals, it still requires the right pairings to make them defensively solid. Last season saw some levels of blame in the backline — especially when Millie Bright was out injured — so Bompastor will need to ensure her ideas translate well.

The current crop of defenders includes Millie Bright, Kadiesha Buchanan, Jess Carter, Ève Périsset, Ashley Lawrence, Niamh Charles, Aniek Nouwen, and Natalie Björn. There are a couple of positions that seemed nailed on, namely left-back and one of the centre-backs, but it’s the other positions that are up for debate.

For the centre-back position, Bright should be a guaranteed starter, not just because of her status as club captain, but because she is arguably Chelsea’s best defender and the side is much more assured with her in the backline. Comparisons between Wendie Renard can be made given their strong presences and excellent dueling abilities which means Bright’s main responsibility will be to ensure defensive solidity and marshall the defensive line.

Niamh Charles at left-back is a perfect fit with her being a very similar profile to Selma Bacha. The French left-back is an aggressive full-back who likes hugging the touchline and delivering an onslaught of crosses. Bompastor’s Lyon looked to mainly utilise the wide spaces to create crossing opportunities with their build-up centred around the full-backs being given possession in higher areas of the pitch. Charles can replicate this and given her exploits last season with the high level of consistency in the position, she should be a good fit for Bompastor.

Where the biggest question is raised is at the right-back position. As stated in the previous piece, Bompastor has played with two marauding full-backs but Chelsea’s two senior right-backs, Lawrence and Périsset, represent a different type of full-back. Both are good full-backs, but are much more defensively solid and play a more supportive role to complement the winger. While those are admirable and desirable qualities, Bompastor may want to revisit the position in the transfer window. However, there is a good chance she chooses to use the current right-backs given their quality and adjusts how she uses her right-winger instead. With Chelsea’s links to Sandy Baltimore from Paris Saint-Germain there seems to be a clear direction to use more direct wingers. Current starter Johanna Rytting Kanneryd could be freed to hold the flank and use Lawrence/Périsset as an inverted full-back (or indeed a new right-back) whether as a midfielder or centre-back.

As for the second centre-back, the position is currently open, with Björn, Carter, and Buchanan all competing for the spot. Carter had an outstanding season, particularly excelling in Bright’s absence. Buchanan, by contrast, found her best form towards the end of last season while Björn made a significant impact upon her arrival in January, arguably becoming the best centre-back of the season.

Bompastor is familiar with Buchanan from their time together on the UEFA Women’s Champions League-winning team in 2022. Although Buchanan has struggled at Chelsea so far, this connection could offer her a way back into the team, given her understanding of Bompastor’s tactics and style of play. However, Björn’s impact and comfort on the ball make her my preferred choice to start the season. A pairing of Bright and Björn would prove effective next season, with Björn serving as a strong, ball-playing centre-back and the main passer from the back, while Bright controls the space and plays the role of the aggressor.

As far as the goalkeepers go, Bompastor very much sticks to a single keeper and only rotates if necessary. Chelsea currently have four first-team goalkeepers on the books, but two will likely be let go on loan or even sold permanently. You’d assume that Zećira Mušović and Hannah Hampton remain as Chelsea’s first-choice keepers with Emily Orman and Nicky Evrard being allowed to leave. Evrard hasn’t had a chance to make an impact with her loan disrupted by injury.

Bompastor’s choices will be determined by both her style of play and the players at her disposal. It’s very unlikely that we see additions in positions where Chelsea are well stocked and the goalkeeper is one of them. Bompastor had Christiane Endler at Lyon who was an excellent shot-stopper and commanded the area well. Given those traits, we could see Musovic being given the No. 1 jersey due to her shot-stopping and size, but Hampton’s development and added ability with her distribution should see her start as Chelsea’s first choice.

Midfielders

Bompastor was spoilt for choice with the quality of midfielders at her disposal. The profile of the midfielders at Lyon ranged from anchoring defensive midfielders to creative No. 10s who Bompastor used throughout her time there. Three key players were significant to the way she played in midfield including Lindsey Horan, Damaris Egurrola, and Sara Däbritz. All three players were a mixture of creativity, stamina, defensive understanding, and most importantly, all played box-to-box. They offered enough passing and defensive stability to enable the front line to engage in the attack without having to stray away from the final third. They were also important in build-up and protecting against the transition. Considering these points, you might see that Chelsea may struggle to find these types of profiles internally.

The No. 6 is required to have excellent passing and ball progression, as well as being press-resistant. Damaris was the perfect defensive midfielder at Lyon with a mixture of these traits and it’s little wonder that not many players were able to deputise in her absence. At Chelsea, there is a notable hole for this sort of profile. 

While Erin Cuthbert has filled the deeper-lying role for Chelsea effectively, she isn’t the anchoring defensive midfielder that Bompastor would want there, she might instead utilise her in an advanced position. Sjoeke Nüsken is a natural No. 6 but if last season is anything to go by, then Nüsken’s talents could be used better further upfield. The German midfielder has shown a propensity to drive with the ball and playing her in a central midfield position might be more beneficial. Sophie Ingle is also a natural fit for the role but has struggled to keep up physically and won’t have the ability to play 90 minutes week in and week out. This might be a position that Chelsea and Bompastor would have to look for elsewhere in the market, as the recent links to Oriane Jean-Francois further demonstrates this.

Melanie Leupolz, Jelena Čanković, Nüsken, and Cuthbert will all be vying for a place in central midfield. If Chelsea are to recruit a new No. 6, then playing two of these midfielders in other midfield spots becomes important. Bompastor’s 4-3-3 is a hybrid that accommodates a No. 10 playing from the No. 8 position — this means we could see Čanković, Nüsken, or Catarina Macario. Given her ability to drive into the box both with and without the ball, Macario should be primed to start in this position. Most importantly, she’s already familiar with the coach’s style of play. 

Macario will be hugely important to the way Bompastor wants to play, especially with a No. 10 who looks to attack the box, is good with the ball at her feet, and is someone who can interchange with the striker and understand that role and position well. It’s notable that Bompastor changed her style at Lyon and used a more creative No. 10 since she didn’t have a tailor-made replacement for Macario after she had departed for Chelsea.

In my opinion, Čanković could be a key player and is potentially a very good fit for the Lindsey Horan role. The Serbian’s on-the-ball ability to carry and find key passes in pockets of space starting from deeper positions makes her an excellent candidate to dictate play from one of the midfield positions. With a keen eye for goal too, Čanković can identify spaces and be the chief architect in Bompastor’s midfielder.

It’s safe to say that Bompastor’s array of midfielders should see her through the first season with only the No. 6 position needing any serious addressing this summer. The rest should easily fare in the other roles and positions.

Attack

Further forward, Bompastor has an array of talent with Lauren James, Aggie Beever-Jones, Mayra Ramirez, and Maika Hamano. The central and attacking midfield positions are key in unlocking the attack with the selection of attackers available to Bompastor, there may well be an element of adaptation and change to her style of play.

Historically, we know Bompastor likes a target-man-like striker and two direct wingers who can interchange between the wide and central areas. The links to French winger Baltimore send a signal that Bompastor wants at least two options per wing with Johanna Rytting Kanneryd already established as the first-choice right-winger without an obvious rotation option. The right wing should be sorted with the French winger’s arrival.

The left wing is where it starts to become a bit murky — it begs the question of how the French coach will handle Lauren James. 

James is a mercurial forward and is versatile in playing across the front line. Her profile, naturally, suits a midfield role more but given the raw talent and big-game player she is, she will be better adapted to the team likely on the left wing. This will make Charles’ role as left-back much more vital in overlapping and creating crossing angles. There is a hint of Kadiadoutou Diani’s role in this proposition when she was paired with Delphine Cascarino. The latter used her speed to take on players and run in behind whilst Diani was allowed to exclusively play in an inverted role and attack the full-back and centre-back in 1 v 1 duels. James could replicate this and with Ramirez’s sublime link-up play, there is potential for great combination play.

Lastly, the striker role. This position is probably the easiest one to fill with Ramirez the one to start in Sam Kerr’s absence. Ramirez fits the mould of the Ada Hegerberg-type forward who has excellent hold-up play and scores different types of goals. The performance against Manchester United at the end of last season showcased her skills at its finest. The hold-up role is important to play in the wide players and allows the late runs from the two central midfielders to crash the box and overload. In a sense, it’s the most important role of the team.

Beever-Jones should get good game time now with Fran Kirby having left the club and her profile close to the inside forward role that Bompastor likes to use. The youngster made her breakthrough at Chelsea last season, scoring 11 goals and 2 assists in 17 appearances in the WSL. Her biggest asset is her off-the-ball movement in the box: finding those small spaces and timing her runs makes her a dangerous proposition and she frequently gets to the end of passing sequences.

Bompastor’s squad features a blend of high-profile players, including both ceiling-raisers and floor-raisers. These players not only elevate the team's overall standards but also improve themselves by playing alongside such talent. While her tactics are straightforward, they need specific pieces to complete the squad and address the gaps left by recent departures. As the Bompastor era begins, next season promises to be a fascinating one.

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