Sprinkled with stardust - Selma Bacha is starting to live up to her promise

The young French defender has found a home on the left side of attack and making herself comfortable with some eye-catching performances this season.

What a difference a few months can make.

Lyon have made huge strides towards resuscitating the soul of their club by making a significant change at the top. Sonia Bompastor’s arrival has restored the DNA of the club that included the injection of youth into more prominent roles.

Selma Bacha has been one of the main benefactors of Bompastor’s arrival, leading the charge in a youth-focused push towards regaining the French title and Champions League. For years, Bacha was touted as a star in the making with limitless potential who’ll be the face of Lyon and France for years to come. But that hadn’t been the case, till now. 

Bacha had previously been inconsistent in her performances, never stringing together enough good runs to truly stake her claim as the number one left-back. First, it was Amel Majri and then came Alex Greenwood, only to be followed by Sakina Karchaoui. In each instance, Bacha played second fiddle and wasn’t able to displace any of the aforementioned full-backs.

However, this season Bacha has started to showcase glimpses of that potential thanks to a stroke of genius from Bompastor by completely changing her position. The positional change is the spark Bacha needed to truly show the best version of herself.

Selma Bacha is the best player of her generation. - Sonia Bompastor

These exemplary words aren’t to be taken lightly given Bompastor’s history with the club. She has known Bacha from her time as youth coach so it only makes sense that she’s the one to bring the best out of the young left-back. 

The 21-year-old defender has been pushed further forward this season into a more attacking role. Bacha has traditionally played as a left-back but has now been transformed into a left-winger under Bompastor. The change has seen the defender enjoy much more attacking freedom along with benefiting her defensive capabilities.

When you look at the starting lineup, you see there’s a change in how Lyon set up. You go back to the 2019–20 Champions League starting lineup and only Delphine Cascarino and Sakina Karchaoui were under the age of 25. Compare that to this season’s starting lineup as early as their league game against Paris Saint-Germain, and seven of the starting eleven were under 25. Bompastor has successfully brought the average age of the side down, albeit some of this was down to injuries – especially in Ada Hegerberg’s case. However, putting that aside, Lyon have looked much more fluid and fresh and Bacha’s rejuvenation is a telling result of this revolution.

The obvious change of being further forward is being in more advanced, attacking positions. Situated on the left of a 4-2-3-1 means Bacha has more license to attack the left side given that Perle Morroni will act as a supportive figure behind her, rather than maraud down the flank. Bacha is getting into more advanced positions to attack which is reflective of where she’s now getting on the ball. While this might be obvious, this has made a transformational change in her output, not just in terms of goal contributions but also her overall attacking play.

Her heat map here shows her most active areas this season and there’s a lot more movement in the final third. Bacha is taking up wider positions but is also taking up positions in the half-spaces to supply crosses. Bompastor’s side is all about high tempo with quicker, incisive passes. There are a lot more overloads in the attacking third using midfield runners that have come from implementing a different setup. This has benefited Bacha in her ability to be Lyon’s width on the left while Ellie Carpenter does the same from right-back.

The French international averages the second-highest crosses per 90 minutes in the league so far with 6.37, just behind her teammate Cascarino at 6.72. From the left flank, she ranks the highest crosses per 90 which demonstrates how far Bacha has come from an attacking perspective, which she shows here. 

In Lyon’s thrashing of Paris Saint-Germain recently, Bacha played a starring role on the left side and provided an assist for Lyon’s second goal. This came from a fizzing cross from the left half-space with Morroni overlapping. In truth, Élisa de Almeida failed to press Bacha but nevertheless her awareness to find Van de Donk’s central run was inch-perfect. The timing and vision to find the pass was exquisite and something we haven’t seen enough of in the past. These types of attacking contributions have already yielded three assists in 10 matches in the league. 

Bacha’s improved performances have been a result of maturity in mind and game. This has had the desired effect by emitting a better awareness of the game in front of her. Her vision and control have taken her skills to the next level. The void left by Hegerberg’s absence meant the team needed to step up in the interim and even with the Norwegian’s return, her addition to the first team would be gradual considering the length of time she was out.

This has meant the rest of the team needed to step up and improve as a collective unit. Bacha’s contributions have been telling and just by looking at her decision-making, we can see how her individual application has benefited the team. Here, Bacha receives the ball on a Lyon counter-attack and while the Bacha of old might have attempted a drive forward, she instead looks up and assesses the situation and then plays a wonderfully weighted pass to Janice Cayman.

There has been an extended effect on her on-the-ball skills where her dribbling has become much more refined. Bacha always had good ball progression skills, but now there is much more of an assuredness and menace behind her carries. Last season, you’d see Bacha push forward from the back but then possibly hold on to the ball too long, leading to her being dispossessed. She ranked 5.29 dribbles per 90 with a 66% success rate but you take that with a pinch of salt because most of the domestic games are against teams that would sit back and soak up pressure, leaving space to push forward. However, in the higher quality games, you saw a more realistic version of the player and side.

Here, against PSG, Bacha picks up the ball from the back three and that initial shimmy and acceleration is a trademark Bacha move, but then it’s the moments that followed where the move looked uncontrolled to an extent.

With this season, however, that change in approach has given Bacha more freedom to unlock her strengths. In Bompastor’s 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3, there is much more involvement on and off the ball from the central midfielders. The shift in position for Catarina Macario into a central midfield role has been a masterstroke, but her ability on the ball and intelligence in positioning means she’s able to play one-twos and create a more dynamic exchange. This is not to say that the previous players in this position weren’t able to do this, but the system didn’t cater for that style of play.

This goal Bacha scores against Montpellier is a culmination of her positive changes of the season. She combines her defensive work rate with excellent dribbling to find a way through. As the ball is being taken up by Montpellier, Bacha comes across to win back possession and turns to drive back towards the opposition goal. She drives past multiple defenders but every movement felt controlled and her final shot was authoritative. This was a moment where you felt Bacha had truly become a mainstay of the side and enough to be an important first-team player.

She’s still a young player at her age but she has been part of the first team setup since 2017. Having made 50 plus appearances since then, Bacha now truly feels like a big player that is appreciated far beyond her age. Her new lease on life under Sonia Bompastor feels like a breakthrough and it only took a coach who truly knows and understands the player to get the best out of her. It’s only December but so far, there is a case to make Bacha as Lyon’s player of the season, and possibly even the most underappreciated player in Europe so far.

Photo by Johnny Fidelin/Icon Sport via Getty Images