Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor expects a “tough” but “very exciting” clash against Man United in the WSL this Friday October 3.
Chelsea faces their strongest away test of the season so far as the travel up North to Manchester, to face their close competitors in the Women’s Super League (WSL). Manchester United sit second, only two points behind leaders Chelsea, meaning a win for the home side would see them leapfrog their title rivals in the table.
The Blues come into this game after an impressive 4-0 victory at home to West Ham, in which they took the game away from their London rivals in a seven-minute period, scoring three goals. Bompastor was asked on her thoughts and feeling ahead of the clash on Friday.
“Man United look strong and great, they’ve had a good start to the season,” Bompastor said. “We know travelling to their ground it always a tough game. It will be a really exciting game on Friday evening, and we are ready. The games against Man United are always tough. If you read the table right now, they are towards the top of the table for one reason. They have a lot of quality in the squad”.
Bompastor commented on last season’s fixture, and how despite coming out victorious, it was clear to see the quality they possess and the dangers they pose.
“We know they are really tough to play against,” she said. “We knew from the experience last season, it’s never easy to travel to their ground and perform so we expect a tough game”, the head coach explained. “We need to find the right balance between focussing on them and knowing what quality they have but also focussing on ourselves and being confident on the quality we have. If we are at our best level, we can perform against any team”.
Despite current injuries to important players, the Blues have one of the strongest squads in the division. Bompastor was asked, in comparison to Chelsea’s rivals, how important is the impact that strong depth can be with heavy fixture congestion upcoming.
“It’s crucial for a club like Chelsea, when you want to compete in all four competitions you have to have depth in your squad. I don’t want to comment on other clubs, every club is different, and my main focus is my club. We know what we need to perform and when you want to compete, in the most competitive league in the world and at such a high level, that’s crucial”.
‘I am someone who really likes to take risks’ says Bompastor
Despite winning four out of four games this season and maintaining a perfect start, the Chelsea boss believes that her side can take more risks in games this season, even if this consequently leaves them open more open defensively. Despite Chelsea only conceding two goals this season, they are facing more shots, allowing more passes into the final third and conceding a higher expected goal. Bompastor was pressed on the reasons for this and was keen to stress that she prefers her team to be offensive rather than defensive.
“We also want to take more risks now in our game, as you can see, sometimes depending on the starting eleven, we have a lot of offensive players starting. We want to be a team to dominate the opposition. In terms of balance, we focus more on in possession and how we can create and how we can move forward on the pitch, rather than maybe trying to defend more and that’s okay for me.
“This is what we want to achieve as a team and I know going into each game, maybe the plan will change a little bit, so it’s always important to find the right balance between in and out of possession. I am someone who really likes to take the risks and we want to be offensive”.
Despite this impressive start to the season, Bompastor was quick to downplay any talk of the unbeaten record so far, in comparison with last season, exclaiming how those stories were for the journalists. “The story about the unbeaten run is more for you the journalists. We started this season from zero points. We want to go into each game with the desire to win, but it’s a different season to last year and we haven’t achieved anything yet”.
Regarding team news, no changes in availability for this week but Bompastor had some positive news on three key players, and their return to the team. “We have some players who have been progressing in their rehab plan and some of them are returning to the pitch. Lucy (Bronze) being one of them, LJ (Lauren James) one of them as well and Niamh Charles. So, positive and good news”.
Manchester United vs Chelsea kicks off this Friday at 19:30 BST and is being shown live on BBC Sport Online and BBC iPlayer.
