Scouting a Centre-Back for Chelsea FC Women
8 years after she joined the club, Emma Hayes has finally taken Chelsea FC to the finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Chelsea beat FC Bayern Frauen 4–1 in the second leg of the semi-final. While the scoreline looks comfortable, the game surely wasn’t. Late goals from record signing Pernille Harder and club icon Fran Kirby helped the scoreline, but it was captain Magdalena Eriksson’s goal line clearance in the dying minutes that kept Chelsea in the tie.
Before the match, Chelsea fans had two things to worry about — the scoreline from the first leg, and Magda’s fitness. Magda missed the first leg due to an injury which led to midfielder Sophie Ingle being asked to play in defence alongside Millie Bright. Ingle has slotted into defence a few times this season and while she’s done a decent job, Chelsea lose out on the balance she provides in the midfield. While Magda managed to play the second leg and Chelsea did make the finals, Chelsea still fall short on an out and out CB to replace either Magda or Millie.
In this article, I look at potential centre-backs that Chelsea can sign from within the FA WSL that will help them strengthen the squad.
What qualities are we looking for in our Centre-Back?
Centre-backs in Chelsea play a major role in the build up to their attack. While Magda is known for her composure on the ball, Millie’s ability to switch play and aerial dominance reminds one of David Luiz from the title-winning season of 2016/17 under Antonio Conte. Both Millie and Magda play a large number of long balls during games and are pretty comfortable sitting back, as well as maintaining a high line.
First, let us look at a Radar Chart comparing the two Chelsea defenders.
Of the two, Bright plays a more aggressive role, stepping out at times to close down opponents. While she does get caught out a few times and has a higher dribbled past rate compared to Magda, she makes up for it with her strength in the air. At 78.8% aerial duels won, Bright leads this metric in the league.
Magda, a left footed player is the more composed one, and carries the ball well. You can also notice how both players play a large number of long balls.
PS: A big thanks to @mckayjohns for the tutorial on radar-charts. Have attached the link below. Do have a look!
So now that we’ve understood the role of a Chelsea defender, let’s look at the players in the league.
After applying the required filters, I shortlisted 18 centre-backs. Have also included the two Chelsea defenders to see how they’ve performed compared to the rest.
Let us first take a look at how these players fare defensively.
Reading’s Kristine Leine and Gemma Evans of Bristol City indulge in a large number of defensive actions. Manchester City’s Alex Greenwood who can also play left back does quite well. Both Chelsea defenders rank the lowest in terms of shots blocked, which doesn’t come as a surprise considering they’ve conceded the least number of shots in the league.
Now let us take a look at how these players fare in terms of passing.
As mentioned earlier, Chelsea defenders play a major role in building the attack from the back. 19 year old Maya Le Tissier of Brighton does quite well along with the Reading duo of Kristine Leine and Deanna Cooper. The 5 defenders from the big 3 teams — Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal lead the charts as expected.
I have also looked at how these players do w.r.t ball carrying.
Similar to the plot on passing actions, Kristine Leine and Maya Le Tissier do well along with the big 5 defenders.
Now that we’ve looked at three major traits that we’re looking for in our defender, let us shortlist the ones that have done well in all three segments. Since it’s highly improbable that Manchester City and Arsenal would sell to a direct rival, I will not be considering Lotte Wubben-Moy, Leah Williamson and Alex Greenwood.
Kristine Leine, aged 24 and Maya Le Tissier, aged 19 have done quite well, and both suit our profile. Let us now compare the two using a radar chart.
As you can see, Leine dominates the defensive numbers while Le Tissier has slightly better numbers when it comes to progressive distance covered via passes, number of long passes played and clearances. She also holds a good aerial win rate of 63.5%
An advantage with Le Tissier is her age and the game-time she’s seen so early in her career. At 19, she’s played every minute of this season and her numbers are very impressive.
Personally, I’d prefer going with Le Tissier over Leine seeing the way Emma Hayes has handled young players like Cuthbert and Niamh Charles. She has shown great composure and potential at such a young age.
Ranked 7 on the #NXGN list of best wonder-kids in women’s football, Le Tissier has already made major headlines. Here is @ameeruszkai’s piece on Maya Le Tissier for Goal.
Emma Hayes’ scouting in the last few years has been spot on. Looking forward to the new players that will arrive in the next transfer window.
Hope you enjoyed reading this one! Thank you.