The Wayfarer Cuthbert - Chelsea's midfield destroyer
Erin Cuthbert is the differential amongst a host of elegant and creative midfield options.
Perhaps the most substantial change of Chelsea’s second-half title charge will be the tactical flexibility Chelsea have to show game to game.
Since the winter break, Emma Hayes has opted to go back to the tried-and-tested system that led them to the title last season after 6 months of adopting the 3-4-3 formation. Whilst the latter is still one that is hugely favourable to Chelsea’s current squad, it is without a doubt still a work in progress that still requires a couple of additions – namely in the full-back areas. Even the 4-4-2 has its flaws in control, so there has to be a level of flexibility going forward based on the opposition.
One position that needed some reinforcement was a new central midfielder to provide some tenacity and bite to compliment the creative flair of Chelsea’s other midfielders. Though none arrived, Hayes must have felt an answer lay within the squad itself – chiefly in the shape of the relentless Erin Cuthbert.
The Scottish midfielder has been one of Chelsea’s ‘nomadic’ warriors, being one of Hayes’ frontline soldiers over the years, but is now finally starting to be noticed. Having played across several different positions including wing-back, winger, attacking midfielder, and now in central midfield, Cuthbert hasn’t let the positional changes swerve her performances, rather it’s been invigorating her to new heights.
Usually, it’s the versatile players that are most often at risk of being dropped for their specialist counterparts, but Cuthbert’s importance cannot be more understated, given how we’ve seen in her three games against Manchester United, Manchester City, and Arsenal, playing in her fourth position this season. It’s arguable that she can be considered Chelsea’s player of the season alongside Pernille Harder, if not more so.
So what is it about Cuthbert’s performance this season that has had an incremental yet crucial effect?
Cuthbert’s versatility is the foundation and root cause of her success so far; a consistent run of games this season has enabled her to bring out better performances across these positions. Naturally a wide player, Cuthbert’s a resolute right-sided winger who holds deceptive technical abilities coupled with a high work rate. She may not be the quickest, but Cuthbert’s aggressiveness enables her to power past players and play crosses or drives into the box.
She’s been a part of Hayes’ multiple formation changes over the years, playing in the 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-4-3, and 4-4-2 diamond. Hayes has tried and tested numerous systems over the years. Across these formations, her role has been that of a creator: attacking the areas outside the box, receiving the ball in the half-spaces and midfield before driving forward, being an aggressive presence to create space for others.
Perhaps now her role has evolved from being just an attacking winger in the years gone by into more of a box-to-box style player that translates across all positions. The evolution of positions on the pitch has become less pertinent because of how many roles have emerged.
What we should focus on is the role the player is being asked to carry out. In this case, what this means is Cuthbert can break up play and shield the backline but also receive, turn, and drive forward to distribute from a variety of positions. Whether she’s at right wing-back, central midfield or an attacking No 10, Cuthbert has an analogous role across these positions.
When you consider Cuthbert’s versatility in positional variation, you begin to think of the tactical possibilities that Chelsea could have against different types of opposition.
Cuthbert’s main role so far has been largely at right wing-back when Chelsea played a 3-4-3, playing a more supportive role with a license to attack the channels when the opportunity presented itself. However, a move to a back four has seen Cuthbert play as a right-winger and more recently as a defensive midfielder. It is here where Cuthbert has shown enough propensity in this position to make this her best position.
Playing as part of the midfield two has restored balance to Chelsea’s pendulum through the Sophie Ingle/Cuthbert double pivot, and Hayes’ 4-4-2/4-2-3-1 tactics have benefited Pernille Harder playing in a freer role as a roaming playmaking 10 or second striker. Cuthbert’s proactive ‘destroyer’ role combined with Jessie Fleming’s interior movements to create overloads in midfield means Harder is able to press and attack fluently without being defined by a position as was the case against Manchester City.
Fleming’s central movements crowd the midfield which creates superiority there but also enables Cuthbert to play a sort of ‘unrestricted’ role from deep to push forward when Fleming comes inside. This would mean there is always going to be 3-4 players in the forward areas with an extra player coming from midfield, be it Fleming or Cuthbert.
Cuthbert can attack the highlighted spaces and become a spare player just outside the box. If we take the example above against a 4-3-3, there will be man-marking by the opposition but an extra player can still drive through to receive in space, thus generating enough time for the opposition to have to adapt and adjust their defensive organisation.
When City tried to play out from the back, Chelsea lined up in a narrower 4-4-1-1 system with Fleming and Reiten tucking in. In this case, Fleming can press to apply pressure with Sam Kerr whilst Cuthbert, Carter, and Millie Bright were marking the two highlighted players between the lines.
When the ball is played out wide to Demi Stokes, Chelsea have enough players shifting across to cover the spaces and overload. Carter covers Stokes, Bright covers Caroline Weir, but Cuthbert tracks Hemp’s run here. Fleming dropping back creates the extra supporting body whilst Ingle tracks Khadija Shaw so that Aniek Nouwen becomes another spare player. These rotations and movements are constructed to force City to go direct or to linger on the ball longer than normal which allows Chelsea to then pinch it back and counter-attack with Harder and Kerr.]
Here, Cuthbert is tracking back and playing with a defensive mindset and while her positional sense from a defensive point of view wasn’t the best in previous seasons, she has nonetheless massively improved since her move to right wing-back.
Essentially, these defensive disciplines and positional senses have come from her role at right wing-back – more so in her other positions she’s played because of the consistency in starts she’s been afforded there, and that has helped Cuthbert evolve into bringing those traits and the aforementioned effects into different positions like central midfield. This is not only benefiting Cuthbert’s performances but also the players around her.
The first sign of this positional change came against Manchester United in the Conti Cup semi-final, where Cuthbert was paired with Ingle in what was initially a puzzling decision but then became clear once the pair started. Chelsea played their best half of football that day, and four days later opted to keep the same system. It worked for the first hour against Manchester City, but Vicky Losada’s introduction and their subsequent dominance meant Chelsea had their backs to the wall for the rest of the game. Despite this, the first 45 minutes in particular showed enough signs of encouragement for the games to come.
The heat map above is from Cuthbert’s games as a defensive central midfielder, and though there is more activity in the middle and final thirds, there is still adequate cover in the wide defensive spaces covering the full-backs. This is allowing Fleming to become freer in attack as well as giving an insurance policy for Carter at right-back.
After a period of play, the ball is switched to the right-hand side to an underload and there are three Chelsea players inundating City’s box. Cuthbert drops into a pocket of space to receive on the turn and crucially attracts up to four City players, leaving Fleming to find a good position on the right. Though the pass is slightly under-hit, the box-to-box nature of Cuthbert’s movement from a central position means she’s free to create space for Fleming and Harder.
It’s quite telling when so far, Cuthbert is ranked tenth in defensive duels per 90 minutes at an average of 9.58, with a 69.31% success rate. While this should be caveated to say it includes all her positions in the league, it still projects her worth as a defensive presence in this Chelsea side. This empowers her midfield partner to create or progress from deep, as well as giving the aforementioned players the freedom to bomb forward. Cuthbert can instead focus on being a dynamic box-to-box presence.
Each of Chelsea’s systems elicits a different mode of attack whilst also depending on the personnel chosen. When we look at Cuthbert in each of Chelsea’s aforementioned systems, her attacking qualities have shone in different ways. Playing Ji So-Yun, Melanie Leupolz, or Sophie Ingle, Hayes gets a mixture of flair and creativity to her side, but Cuthbert’s addition means there is a strong element of aggression and dynamism that no other midfield possesses. As an attacker, Cuthbert brings raw energy in the form of effective dribbling and substance over creative flair – though not at the expense of technicality.
She’s the one who’ll dig in deep and harass defenders by attracting them and ensuring space is created for others, but it must be stressed that she does have the propensity to produce her own moments of magic. The goal against Olympique Lyon in 2019 stands out as a technical masterclass. Even the goal against Paris Saint-Germain in the same year showed her ability to ghost into the box.
In the 3-4-3, Cuthbert’s attacking style from right wing-back was very much to drive inside and force the opposition full-back to fall back. When she entered the final third, she would turn into an auxiliary right-winger that she is accustomed to. The movement from the ball sided players helps to create a diversion for Cuthbert to use her dribbling as is referenced above.
Going forward, Cuthbert’s quality has always been a proven commodity. The Scottish midfielder has been a reliable, hard-working forward that may not have scored a high volume of goals, but has always promised a shift. Ball progression and dribbling is her core strengths, but she is deceptively intelligent in her passing range.
An alternate by-product of her ball progression from wing-back was creating a 3 v 2 scenario, allowing the right-sided No 10 or No 8 freedom to drive between in the created space. The space created by Cuthbert’s on-the-ball running becomes important in the way Chelsea attack with freedom.
Her deep dribbling is an added benefit for the midfield contingent at Chelsea. So far, we’ve seen Cuthbert and Ingle paired together, which in some situations is a very complementary pairing. Ingle is a deep-lying ball protector with excellent distribution, using positioning as the foundation of her playstyle. Cuthbert’s more rugged style helps to balance out her more nimble partner. This works well in a counter-attacking system just like the games against Manchester United and Manchester City.
The main issue in the match against Arsenal was their willingness to surrender possession, but it was also Jonas Eidevall’s use of Vivianne Miedema as a creative, roaming No 10 and Caitlin Foord’s role as an interior attacking winger who drifted inside. This caused Chelsea to have to cover for two extra players without being able to intercept the passing lanes or switches in play.
The change to a three-man midfield injected some control in Chelsea’s midfield again, but there is still a time and place for this. Cuthbert can still be the answer to Chelsea’s midfield balance across all systems.
The start of this move sees Juventus in a 4-3-3 shape but Cuthbert drives inside and attracts close to nearly four Juve players before passing it a dropping Harder. This disorientates the shape and now Fran Kirby on the outside finds herself in a blindsided position whilst Ji is free to move into the space between the defence and midfield, free to receive and turn.
Even her shot map depicts the areas she likes to take up in the final third. Most of her shots have come off the right, which is obvious, but the point is that she is willing to drive into the box. Though she ranks 23rd in the WSL for 1 v 1 dribbling per 90 minutes with 4.46, her success rate is a league-high of 74.47%. Considering the calibre of players in the league, this is a remarkable achievement.
Even this goal here against the same opposition originated from a direct run across the left-back and a run (albeit uninterrupted) into the box before scoring. The goal might have been relatively easy, but it summed up Cuthbert’s all-around performance as a right wing-back: strong, spirited, and full of dynamism.
Playing a box-to-box style role from the double-pivot position is an excellent option against possession-based sides because of the defensive security and attacking threat Cuthbert carries. An injury in the second half against Arsenal might have ended her momentous run, but so far there is enough evidence for Emma Hayes to once again turn to her versatile midfielder and ask her to become a mainstay as a central defensive midfielder.
While technical ability and intelligence are appreciated over physicality, Cuthbert genuinely brings both sides, even if it’s not always as clear-cut. At 23 years of age, we often forget how much football Cuthbert has already played, but it might be time for the nomadic warrior to settle in this position and call it home.
Photo by Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images