Sonia Bompastor's Chelsea: Formation, tactics and style of play
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Chelsea have started the season in scintillating form, continuing their dominance in the Women’s Super League after impressively winning five consecutive titles. Following a summer of change that saw Sonia Bompastor replace Emma Hayes as head coach, the team have adapted well to a new tactical vision.
Bompastor’s arrival has brought impactful changes to Chelsea’s style of play, adding fresh dimensions to an already formidable squad. Despite these adjustments, Chelsea remain unbeaten, setting the pace at the top of the standings. This analysis will explore the tactical innovations introduced this season and the challenges the team might face as they aim to extend their reign at the top of English women’s football.
Attacking Structure
Base formation
Chelsea’s main formation is a 4-2-3-1, continuing the trend from recent seasons under Hayes. In this system, the striker alternates between making runs behind the defence and dropping deep. This capitalises on Mayra Ramirez’s speed and strength, as well as her ability to play with her back to goal and deliver outlet passes.
The attacking midfielder functions as the team’s Swiss army knife, positioning herself between the opponent’s lines to facilitate quick combinations, screening the opposition’s playmaker when out of possession, and exploiting available spaces in attack. The starting wingers, Guro Reiten on the left and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd on the right, both play on the flank of their stronger foot. This allows them to maintain width effectively, but they can also cut inside to occupy the half-spaces and free up the wide channel.
This season, Reiten has often been asked to prioritise diagonal runs inside, while Kaneryd is encouraged to stay wider. This complements Chelsea’s full-backs as Reiten’s movement inside frees the left flank for Sandy Baltimore, a natural winger converted into an attacking full-back, while on the right, Lucy Bronze often stays slightly central in attack to leverage her technical qualities and save energy.
The midfield duo combines a holding player shielding the defence and a box-to-box role. Currently, Erin Cuthbert takes the deeper position, with Sjoeke Nüsken pushing forward. However, since both are naturally dynamic players, they can interchange these responsibilities during matches. Finally, in the centre-back pairing, Millie Bright steps out to intercept or challenge the striker, while Kadeisha Buchanan was the played used to cover deeper spaces. However, the Canadian’s recent ACL injury has forced some adjustments with Nathalie Björn coming in to take up that role.
Now that we understand how Bompastor’s Chelsea operate, let’s briefly examine the key differences from previous seasons.
First, the philosophy. Bompastor has repeatedly stated her intent to imprint an offensive, possession-based style of play, emphasising short combinations between players. This marks a shift from a more direct approach, where the team excelled at playing vertically, as evidenced by statistics on progressive runs and passes.
It’s important to note that Chelsea’s possession statistics are currently influenced by having already played Arsenal and Manchester City. By the end of the first half of the season, the possession numbers should see an upward trend.
A key difference this season is the left-sided chain, particularly Reiten’s role, as shown by heat maps from the past two seasons. Previously, she thrived as a touchline winger, excelling in isolation and delivering arched crosses, a style that complemented Niamh Charles, the right-footed left-back who often drifted inside. Under Bompastor, Reiten now takes up more central positions, particularly early this season.
Build up
In Chelsea's build-up play, the two central defenders stretch wide at the edge of the penalty area, while one of the two holding midfielders, typically Cuthbert but not exclusively, drops in-line with the goalkeeper, forming a diamond shape. The full-backs position themselves even wider and higher, staying just ahead of the midfielder at the tip of the diamond.
This setup allows the playmaking midfielder to receive the ball comfortably between the opponent’s first pressing line (typically the forwards) and the second line (the midfielders), either opening up a passing lane to the fullbacks or offering the chance to turn and advance the ball centrally. In this phase, the midfield resembles a three-man setup, with the other defensive midfielder pushing forward and an attacking player dropping deeper to take up the central midfield roles.
The idea to advance the ball is to quickly switch between the inside and outside, using both long and short combinations. Player positioning and the distances between them are key to this strategy: players stay tighter in the ball area, with at least two between the opposition’s lines (as seen in this image with Nüsken, Reiten, and Hamano).
Once the ball reaches the wide areas, the player occupying a central position (the attacking-midfielder in this instance), moves toward the ball, drawing an opponent and creating significant space in the middle for a near-isolated advance by the defensive midfielder, completing a quick inside-outside-inside triangle.
This philosophy remains intact even in more advanced positions. When the full-back has possession on the wing, the winger moves toward the ball area and then quickly away with a drifting run, drawing the attention of two defenders and freeing up space in the centre for two teammates to receive in isolation, creating a 4v3 situation.
Against teams that adopt a more defensive approach, sitting deeper and allowing Chelsea’s central defenders to push up into midfield, the starting positions shift forward and become more exaggerated for a more offensive setup, occasionally resembling a 2-1-5-2 during prolonged possession.
In this setup, which “breaks” when the ball is shifted through the movements described earlier, it’s key to note that the attacking midfielder, Hamano (off-frame here), aligns with the striker as a second forward. Meanwhile, the holding midfielders form a vertical line, with the box-to-box advancing in the attacking midfield position. The wide players have asymmetrical roles, on the left the full-back stays wide while the winger tucks inside and on the right, the full-back moves inward while the winger remains wide.
This is a deliberate strategy to bring players into central areas that Bompastor trusts to combine and finish in tight spaces. Those more suited to ball progression stay wide.
Lastly, although building from the back is preferred, Chelsea also use long balls when intensely pressed, either into space for a forward or directly to Ramirez, who uses her strength to hold up the ball and lay it off.
Defensive Structure
General characteristics
Out of possession, Chelsea typically operate in a mid-block, structured as either a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1, with the wingers dropping back in line with the central midfielders. The attacking midfielder adapts based on the opposition and match context, either stepping up alongside the striker to press or staying deeper to mark the opposition’s primary playmaker.
A prime example of this was Hamano’s performance in Chelsea’s recent 2-0 win over Manchester City. Rather than imposing their possession-based game, Bompastor and her team embraced a more cautious, defensive approach, willingly ceding control in non-threatening areas of the pitch.
The system’s core aim is to block central progression, forcing opponents wide, where Chelsea’s wingers are ready to immediately press full-backs receiving the ball in their own half. Meanwhile, the defensive midfielders mark the opposition’s central midfielders. This setup, however, is not without flaws. Quick central combinations can pull players out of position, creating gaps around the edge of the box—a longstanding vulnerability, particularly in the absence of a natural holding midfielder. Over time, both Cuthbert and Nüsken have adapted to play together in a double pivot, improving in both direct challenges and positional play. A comparison of ball recovery maps from this season and late last season highlights their progress, showing better distribution of interceptions and greater control of key areas
The main weakness lies in handling unpredictable movements between the defensive and midfield lines. When an opponent receives the ball in these spaces, it demands significant effort from the defensive midfielders to recover. Bompastor trusts her players to succeed in that and so far both results and stats have validated her approach.
Against weaker opponents, Chelsea may push their defensive line higher, with one winger stepping up to aid the press, forming a shape more reminiscent of a 4-3-3.
Pressing
As we’ve already mentioned, in the match against Manchester City, Chelsea adopted a more cautious pressing approach. Their focus was on shielding the opposition's primary playmaker with the attacking midfielder, while using the striker's press to force the ball towards the opponents' less reliable distributor. Only when the ball reached their own half would the wingers step up to close down the fullbacks.
Generally, Bompastor’s team are much more proactive in pressing, ranking among the teams with the lowest PPDA (passes per defensive action) this season. PPDA measures the intensity of a team’s press, quantifying how many passes the opposition is allowed before a defensive action (tackle, interception, or foul) occurs in advanced areas. The pressing triggers remain consistent: wingers press fullbacks or outside centre-backs in back-three setups, the striker targets a centre-back or goalkeeper, and the attacking midfielder marks the opposing holding midfielder.
The press becomes particularly aggressive against back-three systems, especially teams in a 3-5-2 formation like Liverpool. Without wingers in such setups, Chelsea’s fullbacks are tasked with stepping out to press the opposition wingbacks, while a defensive midfielder—Cuthbert, in this istance—presses the opposing central midfielder. If the Scot regains possession, she often has four viable passing options, including in this example two one-on-one opportunities centrally, which can quickly lead to good goalscoring opportunities.
The strategy, while effective, carries risks. If the press fails, Chelsea can be exposed to defensive one-on-ones, especially on the right flank, where Bronze struggles more with tracking back.
Transitional play
When Chelsea lose possession their centre-backs can often find themselves in one-on-one situations, especially when the turnover occurs in their defensive third—an area where Bompastor's team still needs refinement. Chelsea lose possession too frequently during build-up or in the opponent's third after extended attacks that push both fullbacks and at least one midfielder forward.
In general, Chelsea’s counter-press is swift and focused, especially on the ball carrier, to buy time for teammates to recover defensively. The squad demonstrates impressive humility and work rate in this phase, defending with the same collective intensity they use in attack.
In offensive transitions, Chelsea favours two approaches: an instant pass to the central striker, who distributes to runners in behind, or direct ball-carrying drives into open space. Ramirez, the first-choice forward, excels in both aspects—she can act as a reliable target player to hold up and redistribute the ball but also possesses the pace and power to directly challenge defenders herself. Her versatility adds unpredictability to Chelsea's transition game.
Many of Bompastor’s overarching principles remain evident in these moments: quick triangulations, aggressive full-back involvement, and a focus on either cutbacks from the byline or cross-field passes to the far-side winger attacking the back post.
Conclusions
Chelsea’s season carries huge expectation, as the team aims to maintain their domestic dominance and secure an elusive first Uefa Women’s Champions League trophy. Under Bompastor, the Blues have shown they can adapt and still compete at the highest level, blending a more possession-based, controlled style with their traditional direct approach. However, consistency and efficiency in high-pressure scenarios—like managing negative transitions and wide one-on-ones—will be key, especially against Europe’s elite. Whether Chelsea can find the balance needed to excel in both domestic and European competitions will likely define their season—and their legacy.