Man City and Chelsea met for a WSL title clash which evolved into an entertaining and chaotic affair as well as featuring some interesting tactical aspects.

Chelsea’s asymmetric roles in buildup

Perhaps the most interesting of these aspects was in Chelsea’s buildup play, as they broke from their initial 4-4-2 shape to form some interesting structures in possession, including some asymmetry in the player roles, particularly at fullback.

Mjelde at right back would usually act less aggressively in the buildup than Andersson on the left, who pushed up further and earlier than Mjelde. This would sometimes lead to Chelsea falling into something resembling a chain of three in buildup made up of Mjelde, Bright and Eriksson.

Man City generally defended zonally in a mid-block 4-4-2. To avoid getting caught in the cover shadows of Stanway and White, Chelsea’s central midfield did well to stagger themselves rather than staying flat on the same line as each other.

Usually Ingle would be the one to drop deeper in the six space or sometimes between the two centre-backs. Ji meanwhile often started slightly higher but was quite mobile, bringing her strong technical skills into deeper zones in the buildup to help relieve pressure when necessary.

Chelsea’s left side in particular offered some interesting opportunities to outplay the City defensive scheme, even if these weren’t always executed on. With Andersson pushing on from left-back, Reiten the nominal left sided midfielder actually had quite a lot of freedom in her positioning.

She pushed into the left halfspace to offer in the gap between Scott and Walsh for vertical passes, but also roamed even further into the ten space at times. The left sided striker (whether that be England or Kerr who could switch positions) could then cross over with Reiten, offering depth in the channel between Beckie and Houghton.

Ingle generally showed for the ball well when Andersson had the ball, giving a connection in behind City’s first line of pressing. This, combined with Reiten’s presence between the lines and the two strikers occupying the center-backs of City gave some interesting possibilities for Chelsea to play through on this side, from which they put together a couple of nice moves.

In the second half, things changed slightly for Chelsea in the second line of buildup, as Stanway now seemed to be playing as a number ten in Chelsea’s pressing scheme rather than staying in the same line as White. Here she would look to pick up Ingle when she occupied Chelsea’s six zone. This meant that Ji would more often try to come deeper alongside Ingle to give a 2v1 against Stanway in this zone. However Ji could also be pursued by Walsh or Weir, so outplaying City’s pressure was slightly more difficult for Chelsea.

City dangerous with direct attacks

City’s own attacking structure was somewhat flatter in shape and more straightforward, but on balance probably also more dangerous as they gave Chelsea’s backline difficulties with their direct attacks.

Chelsea tried to play a higher pressing game in their 4-4-2 pressing structure, and on a couple of occasions early on were able to generate turnovers in City’s half. Much of the time though, City looked to reach the forwards relatively early in the buildup with longer passes. They occupied the Chelsea backline quite heavily, with both strikers and wingers threatening the last line.

A particular threat especially in the first half was through diagonal passes to Hemp on the left wing whose speed provided a good outlet for City to gain territory and stage attack from higher up the pitch. Although Mjelde was generally more reserved in her positioning which should allow her to cover here, she still struggled at times to defend these passes into Hemp.

Conclusion

Chelsea came with perhaps the more ambitious idea in possession but City’s approach arguably generated more danger. Chaos reigned in the second half as the game increasingly became an end to end match, which made for a great spectacle for the viewer, as well as being harder to do justice with a tactical analysis. As such, it seems appropriate to simply end the article on this note from Bethany England as she put Chelsea 3-2 up: