Sonia Bompastor has said that ‘most important, is for you to find a way to win’ after her side’s 1-0 victory against Leicester City on Sunday.
Bompastor was speaking to the media at Kingsmeadow and The Halfway Line was there to hear from the Chelsea head coach.
‘We won the game but it’s not enough for us’ demands Sonia Bompastor
It was another three points for Chelsea but Sonia Bompastor’s side were made to work hard for it by Leicester. The Foxes came within a crossbar’s width of taking a point home with them to Leicestershire.
“Yeah, I think we all agree on the fact the performance today was not great” Bompastor admitted. “I think that’s probably one of our qualities.
“We won the game but it’s not enough for us. We also analyse the performance, and we always want to make sure we perform at our best level to get even more chances to win in a more comfortable way.
“As you could see Leicester was mentally a really good team. They were well structured, really aggressive. And I think you can start to see every team when they play against Chelsea now, they are aggressive. They have the high press so it’s more difficult for us.
“So we were coming into this game, expecting a tough game. We knew also, Leicester is a resilient team. They are really comfortable out of position of the ball, and even if they don’t have the ball that much during 90 or more than 90 minutes, they are okay.
“So in that context, I think when you are able to have a strong start, as we did, it’s really good but you need to score the second goal just to be more comfortable in the game. It didn’t happen.
“So I think this is also why we were a little bit fragile because you just give hope to the opposition.”
Sonia Bompastor provides injury updates
Niamh Charles, Sjoeke Nüsken and Lexi Potter were all missing from the match day squad to face Leicester City on Sunday. Sonia Bompastor provided clarity on the fitness of all three players.
“So we had Niamh [Charles] last weekend on the Aston Villa game as you could see, she just twisted her ankle so from what we were expecting, the result is a lot better. So she was recovering well, but not fully fit to be featuring in this game.
“So we’ll see next weekend if she makes a good improvement. For Sjo (Nüsken) she just had a small thing in her hamstring, but we are still assessing her. It happened in training session this week.
“Lexi [Potter] got a twist on her ankle yesterday also in a training session, she was trying to take a shot from distance, and yeah her ankle just twist a little bit. It shouldn’t be too bad. But again, it happened yesterday, and it was too fresh for her to be available.”
Chelsea ‘needed more speed up front’ says Bompastor
At half time despite leading 1-0, Sonia Bompastor was clearly not happy with what she had seen from her side. Sandy Baltimore and Cat Macario were withdrawn and Alyssa Thompson and Maika Hamano were introduced.
“Yeah, I think we were in the same position as last week in the Aston Villa game. I just felt like we needed to bring more speed up front, especially because I felt Aggie [Beever-Jones] was too much isolated as a forward.
“I was expecting our two number 10s to be able to make more forward runs behind the back line. It didn’t happen. So I tried to change some profiles to bring that speed up front. And again, I think we were kind in the same place as last weekend.”
USA starlet Alyssa Thompson’s introduction marked a significant moment for her career in Chelsea blue, her home debut.
“Yeah, I think when we talk about bringing speed into the game, she [Alyssa Thompson] represents that well. She’s so fast! Again, I think she’s more comfortable playing in the right corridor as a right winger or right wing back but I think she has quality enough to be able to play on the left side as well.
“I think probably now she just needs to connect more with the players. It’s still early in the league, in the season, and I think we are still trying to find the best connections between the players.
“So I think her performance was good. Probably she still has room for improvement, and I expect her to be even better in the future. But again, considering I played her in the left side, in the position where she’s not really used to play that position that much, I think she had a good performance.”
‘Most important, is for you to find a way to win’ says Sonia Bompastor
Despite a perhaps underwhelming performance Chelsea are the only team with a 100% record in the WSL still intact. Sonia Bompastor bristled a touch at the suggestion that Chelsea underestimated Leicester today.
“I think if you analyse the game, we started strong” Bompastor said. “We had a quick goal.”
“I think maybe, I don’t know how much it affected the game, but the emotions around Matt Beard, the news we just had last night, I think that was maybe something really also to have in mind in terms of emotions going into the game.
“But again, I think we had a good, strong start in the game. We were able to score and after it’s more to have more consistency in the performance being able to score the second goal just to kill all the opposition hope in the game.
“So I think, for me, we didn’t underestimate Leicester. We will never do that to any team, because, again, we are all in the same page, coaches and players, we know this league is tough for one reason.
“It’s the most competitive league in the world because every weekend, you have to face different opponents with different strengths.
“And yeah, probably coming into this league, I’m now able to say the most important is for you to find a way to win because you can have your own style, and it’s really important, but also, if you just don’t adapt enough to the opposition, sometimes you can be in trouble.
“So for us, I think again, we found a way to win today, not the performance we all wanted to have, we know that, but I don’t think that’s because we underestimated the opposition.”
