Why did Gareth Taylor stop inverting his fullbacks?
Plus Chelsea's merry go round midfield
Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Everton ensured they stayed level on points with Chelsea at the top of the Women’s Super League, as well as extending their winning run to nine games. In recent weeks it has been noticeable that manager Gareth Taylor has abandoned his previous defensive strategy of inverting at least one and sometimes both of his fullbacks. This has coincided with Alanna Kennedy being dropped from City’s first choice defence to be replaced by Laia Aleixandri.
Aleixandri has been one of City’s stand out performances over the past 18 months and has looked comfortable whether in the inverted full back role or at centre back. With her currently preferred alongside Alex Greenwood, Leila Ouahabi is being used at left back and Kerstin Casparij at right back.
With neither of these players really inverting, both full backs are offering more support to Hemp and Chloe Kelly. Casparij in particular has been noticeable in terms of what she offers City in both progression of the ball and as an additional option in attack. WIth 3.68 progressive carries per 90, she has the third most in the team after Hemp and Kelly. She is also receiving the most progressive passes per 90 of any non-attacking player, showing how advanced up the pitch she is.
The goal City scored against United in their Continental Cup group stage demonstrated exactly the benefit that can be found playing Casparij alongside Kelly. With Kelly driving towards the penalty area on the ball, Casparij underlapped and although her fierce shot was saved by Phallon Tullis-Joyce, Hemp was available to tuck the ball home.
Speaking after Casparij talked about how that was something they had specifically worked on.
“I know the space is there when we counter attack, I know that’s the space to go and run so once Ippa [Angeldahl] was driving forward and Chloe was wide, we’ve spoken about it so much, to do the underlap.
Whilst there has been a lot of focus on how Taylor has altered his side’s set up in the absence of Jill Roord following her ACL injury, this tweak has also been notable in supporting City on their strong run of form.
Chelsea’s merry go round midfield
Since the start of 2024, Chelsea have used a pretty fixed midfield shape with Erin Cuthbert and Melanie Leupolz as a double pivot with an attacking player ahead of them as a number 10 - either Fran Kirby or Lauren James. Against Leicester City, however, with James suspended and Kirby not fit enough to start, Emma Hayes used Sjoeke Nüsken and Jelena Cankovic with Cuthbert.
It was a far more fluid midfield than we were normally used to seeing with Chelsea as all three of the players rotated round. Given all of Nüsken, Cankovic and Cuthbert can play in any of the midfield positions, in some ways this offered a useful unpredictability to Chelsea’s build up play. But at other moments, there was a hole left in the middle of the pitch with Jess Carter nervously pushing forward with the ball to fill it.
Another trend that was exacerbated by this was the way Guro Reiten tucked in. Reiten has been playing far more narrow for Chelsea this season with Niamh Charles given responsibility for holding all of the width on Chelsea’s left hand side. Against Leicester though it was less that Reiten was an inside forward and more that she was given the freedom to find the ball wherever she fancied. That element of freedom has been a key component of Emma Hayes’ sides over the past couple of years with Lauren James the one who usually has that honour.
Reiten has struggled to find good form after an exception last season for Chelsea, her best at the club. The shift in what she is being asked to do is no doubt related. It remains to be seen whether this formation was a one-off based of availability, or a development from a Chelsea team who have struggled to impress in big games.