WSL 2023/24: Chelsea and Manchester City’s top-of-the-table tango – tactical preview

Friday night will see a crucial top-of-the-table WSL clash between league leaders Chelsea and second-place Manchester City. The winning side will likely go top of the table and get a crucial win in the second half of the season.

Chelsea are the reigning champions of England and have been the standard under Emma Hayes for the past decade; however, with her leaving at the end of the season, can they give her the perfect send-off before she heads off to manage the USA women’s national team?

In contrast, Manchester City baven’t won a league title since 2016, and Gareth Taylor’s side will be looking to change that this season. Having started the season in fine form, can they put pressure on the league leaders with a crucial win here?

In this tactical analysis, we will outline some key tactics and match-ups to look out for ahead of Friday night’s clash.

Team News

Let’s begin with the home side, Chelsea. Hayes has favoured a 4-2-3-1 shape throughout the season.

Now in goal, they have been rotating minutes between Hannah Hampton and Swedish keeper Zećira Mušović. However, in recent weeks, Hayes has appeared to favour Hampton over Mušović. Chelsea has rotated their backline significantly this season, particularly in recent weeks. At right back, Hayes has shared minutes between Canadian Ashley Lawrence and the French Ève Périsset. Périsset was the preferred option early on in the season; however, since the 4-1 loss to Arsenal, Hayes has played Lawrence on a more regular basis. Then, at left-back, Hayes has generally Niamh Charles, who has been one of the most reliable performers in the team this season.

Then comes the centre of defence, with Chelsea typically operating a back four. Again, Hayes has several options to go with, including Nathalie Bjorn, Jess Carter, Kadeisha Buchanan, and Maren Mjelde. Millie Bright is likely ruled out until after the February international break.  Typically, Hayes has trusted Bjorn as a left centre-back following her January transfer from Everton. Then comes the right centre-back, where Hayes has typically partnered Bjorn with Carter; however, Buchanan has played significant minutes this season but, as a left-footed player, is more naturally suited to playing as a left centre-back.

Having sorted out the backline, let’s look at the Chelsea midfield. This is an area where Hayes has kept things much more consistent, typically playing two deeper midfielders, Melanie Leupolz and Erin Cuthbert, as the engine room behind the more creative Lauren James, who generally has been playing just behind the centre forward as a number ten.

Having sorted out the midfield, now let’s look at the front three. Let’s start easy with one of the standout performers this season, Guro Reiten, who has played down the left for most of the season. Then comes the right-wing conundrum with two reliable options: Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Fran Kirby. Hayes has appeared to favour starting Kaneryd this season. However, Kirby has been getting more minutes recently. It’s difficult to say which player Hayes will start on Friday night, but you would imagine both will have an opportunity to have some impact on the outcome.

Then comes the centre forward position, where you would typically expect to see Sam Kerr play; however, with her ACL injury ruling her out, this is a game that Mayra Ramirez was signed to have an impact. Alternatively, they could go with Mia Fishel, who has been with the club for longer.

Then comes the away side in Manchester City. Manchester City have generally operated a 4-3-3 shape this season under Gareth Taylor.

Let’s start in goal with Khiara Keating, one of the season’s breakthrough players so far, who is coming off four consecutive clean sheets. Unlike Hayes Taylor has kept the side much more consistent and the backline of Left back Leila Ouhabi, centre-backs Alex Greenwood and Laia Aleixandri and right-back Kerstin Casperij have started seven out of the last eight games together, with the only match being a midweek Conti cup quarter-final against Spurs.

In midfield, the noticeable loss is summer signing Jill Roord, who will be out for an extended period of time with an ACL injury. However, despite the loss of Roord, Taylor has the reliable Laura Coombs and Filippa Angeldahl, who will operate as the two more advanced creative midfielders who support the attacks out wide. Additionally, they could deploy a new signing in January, Laura Blinkilde. However, she has had limited game time since making her move from Aston Villa. The deep midfielder will likely be Yui Hasegawa, who just signed a two-year contract extension in January and will start as the deep pivot in the side, integral to how the City side builds up in attack.

Then comes the front line, where City have one of the most dynamic front threes in the league, with Lauren Hemp on the left, Chloe Kelly on the right and Bunny Shaw down the middle.

Battle for Possession

The battle for possession will likely be one of the most engaging battles of the game. Both Manchester City and Chelsea are leading the WSL this season in terms of possession, with City on top, averaging 62.3%, while Chelsea closely followed in second, having averaged 60.5% throughout the season. As such, the quest for control of possession will likely be a theme early on in the game.

However, let’s look into that in some more depth. Chelsea have controlled possession in all but one game this season, a 4-1 loss to Arsenal in December. City has lost the possession battle in three games this season: a 3-1 win against Manchester United in November, the 1-0 win against Arsenal in the FA Cup last weekend and the 1-1 draw against Chelsea early on in the season. However, they went down to nine players for the last 20 minutes of the game. It will likely come down to how both sides look to slow down the opposition in defence.

In terms of nullifying the City side in possession, Brighton and Arsenal showed a blueprint for beating them defensively. City wants to be dynamic in wide areas with lots of movement between midfielders and forwards. How Brighton and Arsenal dealt with this was to go with a man-marking system within the midfield, always being picked up by an opponent. Additionally, the wingers were tasked with tracking any runs by City full-backs.

The ball is played wide to City’s Kelly in this example above. However, the thing to highlight is how Brighton’s central midfielder, Vicky Losada, tracks Angeldahl from the inside, forcing her to go wide and eventually play the ball backwards.

Here is an example from the game against Arsenal. You can clearly see how all the City players are being accounted for and tracked by Arsenal.

Then comes the Chelsea side and how to defend against them. Arsenal again showed a different approach to defending against Chelsea, which City could potentially copy. Arsenal operated a disciplined 4-2 defensive shape with the two deep midfielders Lia Wälti and Victoria Pelova playing deep and aggressive centrally, enabling them to control the middle of the field during the game.

Here, you can see Arsenal’s 4-2 base setup, which helps control the middle of the field.

However, City haven’t necessarily got the aggressive deep midfield pairing of somebody like Chelsea, with Erin Cuthbert and Melanie Leupolz completing 12.47 and 10.11 successful defensive actions per 90. City generally leaves Lui Hasegawa as the primary ball recovery player alone with 11.68 successful defensive actions per 90. Instead, they try to engage opponents higher and be more aggressive with their midfielders, putting pressure on opponents. With Hasegawa acting as a sweeper in front of the backline, this can leave them susceptible to broken field play.

In this example, you can see the aggressive city shape with Coombs and Park putting pressure on the two Arsenal pivot players while Kelly on the left, in this case, looks to block the passing lane to the outside.

Then, interestingly, what you see is left-back Ouhabi doesn’t go to put pressure on the ball, instead opting to drop back and track the run of Beth Mead. However, you can see the spaces that open up mainly in the midfield area as Hasegawa is isolated in these situations.

Missing Sam Kerr

The next exciting area to look at is how Chelsea can potentially target the City defence, who have been. The strongest in the league, this only concedes an xG of 6.74 in open play this season, 2.18 better than Chelsea’s 8.92 xG in open play.

However, as Arsenal demonstrated early on in the season, playing with a high defensive line as City does and putting pressure high up the field can leave them exposed if their press is broken.

The type of space above can open in transition, with this one coming in a game against Leicester City.

Now, typically, that would be Sam Kerr for Chelsea, however, with her ruled out with an ACL injury. It will likely fall to January signing Mayra Ramirez, who has shown positive early signs in her time at Chelsea.

This example above comes from Ramirez’s time at Levante, with number ten Alba Redondo winning the ball back high up the field. Valencia is left thin for numbers as a result. Ramirez identifies this and makes a well-timed arched run into the gap to get in behind the defence; once there, she uses her strength and power to hold off the defender and get into a dangerous goalscoring position.

In addition to taking on the backline behind through quick transitions. What is potentially one of Ramirez’s best qualities is her attacking prowess within the box and her ability to be in goal-scoring positions regularly.

In this example above, Chelsea is struggling to break down a Crystal Palace side who have sat back behind the ball for a large proportion of the game. However, late on in the game, Ramirez gets a half-chance. She creates this opportunity by being in space away from the defender. Lawrence plays the ball behind Ramirez, where she is forced to flick the ball into the net with a back heel.

This is an excellent example of Ramirez’s understanding of in-the-box positioning combined with her technical quality to finish off awkward chances. Given that the game against City is likely to come down to small margins, this level of quality could prove to make a significant impact on the outcome of the game.

Slowing City’s front line

Chelsea has likely not played an in-form front line like Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw and Chloe Kelly this season. Hemp and Kelly have contributed this season to 0.33 and 0.43 xA per 90, respectively. While these two have been high-end creators, Bunny Shaw has been averaging an xG of 0.91 per 90, which leads the league. As a front three, they have combined for an impressive 20.33 xG this season, resulting in a combined 24 goals this season.

As such, Chelsea’s ability to limit these three will be vital to achieving a positive result in this game. Here, we outline some key things these three do which need to be accounted for.

The first thing to look at is the ability to stretch the width of the field that both Hemp and Kelly have, with the ability to both play on either flank and be dangerous creators from these wide areas.

Here, with the ball played out wide to Kelly, she can pick out Hemp, who is unmarked on the back post. Hemp doesn’t have to break stride and heads the ball home as required.

In addition to this, Hemp has been adding more recently to her game: the ability to get into more central areas of the field and create from there. Acting as a link between the midfield and the front line, more like a number ten and being a creator around the box.

In this example, you can see Hemp receive the ball centrally between the lines and then from here; she can turn and play a ball to Kelly down the right flank, putting her into space and thus acting as the link from defence to attack.

In this example here, again against Spurs, Hemp carries the ball forward in transition before drawing in the opposition defender and then playing teammate Shaw through on goal for a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, which she duly finishes off.

Along with having to deal with Hemp and Kelly outside Chelsea, we also have to account for Shaw through the middle. Shaw is a tough player to deal with because of her strength and power, which enable her to play with her back to goal while she also has excellent timing and a variety of runs combined with the speed to get in behind opponents or find space in the box to unleash shots.

Here is Shaw’s goal against Leicester City. Shaw makes an arched run behind the Leicester defender into the wide channel before executing an outstanding left-footed first-time volley over the goalkeeper’s head.

This is an example of what Shaw can do in the box. The ball was played out wide to left-back Ouhabi, who then played a left-footed cross into the box. From here, Shaw shows off her strength and power to attack this ball aerially and power the header home.

Conclusion

As you can see from our analysis here, Friday night’s top-of-the-table clash proves to be a fascinating encounter by the two standout sides in this season’s WSL. In this article, we have outlined some key aspects to look out for during the game. The possession battle is likely vital as both teams search for control of the game. Can Chelsea’s Lauren James and Mayra Ramirez expose the spaces available in transition? Finally, can Chelsea contain the dynamic front three that City possess in Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw and Chloe Kelly?