There was undoubtedly a result in the Barclay’s Women’s Super League that stole the headlines with the reigning champions’ untouched 34-game winning streak coming to an end. Surprisingly, it was Everton who put an end to this dominant run, having only collected five points ahead of the tie. Yet, their performance against Chelsea was one underpinned by defensive resolve and a slice of luck to seal them three important points.
Everton’s 4-4-2 Mid-Block: Sacrificing control for defensive solidity
One of the main tactical intentions from Brian Sørensen was to defensively contain Chelsea and sacrifice possession dominance. As we know, controlling games can be achieved through out-of-possession strategies rather than just with the ball.
Thus, Everton organized in a 4-4-2 block against Sonia Bompastor’s 4-1-5 shape, with both fullbacks who are capable of threatening offensively provided the license to venture forward. The off-ball shape, along with some of the individual responsibilities within it, enabled Everton to neutralize some of Chelsea’s threats.
Before we get into that, it is worth touching on the trade-off once again – the visitors deliberately gave up possession and did so by defending passively in certain situations. Firstly, they defended passively by not choosing to press the Chelsea backline, which had at least a player surplus with Kiera Walsh dropping deep, as seen in the image below. Further, they also utilized Livia Peng to circulate possession.
Everton’s mid-block shape gave up possession control to ensure defensive solidity in central and wide areas.
By having the wingers relatively deep, Sørensen protected his team against Bompastor’s use of double width, which refers to the decision of having the fullback over- and underlap to provide the winger support. To prevent a wide overload, Everton’s wingers regularly tracked the movements of Ellie Carpenter and Sandy Baltimore. Moreover, Everton could also afford to mark Chelsea’s half-space players, Maika Hamano and Catarina Macario, player-for-player while still having a surplus against the striker, Aggie Beever-Jones.
The defensive passivity turned to aggression in certain situations for Everton. When Chelsea moved the ball to wide areas to try playing through the defensive block, the visitors would press aggressively. In a way, it was controlled and calculated aggression.
Chelsea’s In-Possession Solutions: Rotations and long balls
Everton’s plan still carried a few risks while Chelsea also tried producing solutions. Firstly, when sacrificing possession and defending deep, the visitors were bound to concede shots like the one below. However, Courtney Brosnan performed excellently to save all shots.
Another consequence was that Everton conceded many corners. At the end of the match, the total was 18, with the home side coming really close to scoring on a few occasions, with the post or goal-line clearances handing the rescue.
Macario’s early shot illustrates the dangers of defending deep.
The in-possession answers that Chelsea tried providing were the rotations. We often saw Macario and Hamano end up in the same half-space zones. Lauren James was willing to position centrally and also drop deep to receive the ball before driving up the field. These situations were interesting as James would drag a marker deep but, with space to attack, and due to her quality with the ball, would easily dribble past into space. However, they were not hugely taken advantage of.
James would drop at time to receive passes deep before driving up the field.
Everton 1-0: Lack of concentration and sharpness from Chelsea fullbacks during a well-worked Everton attack
With Everton defending their defensive third well, Chelsea tried drawing the opposition out before playing direct long passes. Due to the visitors’ passivity, it was still difficult for Chelsea to find valuable space behind the backline.
Crucially for Everton, such moments opened up opportunities to counterattack. In one such instance in the first quarter of the match, Everton were able to catch Chelsea off-guard since the left-back, Baltimore, was caught ball-watching for a second, allowing Toni Payne to arrive quicker to Yuka Momiki’s pass.
Baltimore was caught ball-watching when Momiki was shaping up to play a through ball to Payne.
Payne hit the byline before attempting a cutback to the far post where Honoka Hayashi was arriving. Yet again, there was subpar defending from the Chelsea fullback, who does not anticipate and react to the cross fast enough whilst Hayashi does so to tap in and give Everton the vital lead.
Everton’s Build-Up and Chelsea’s High Press: Using the goalkeeper as the surplus to bait the Chelsea press
Another aspect where Everton gave the Blues troubles was during goal kicks and deep build-up scenarios. Here, they set up in a 4-2-4 whilst Chelsea pressed with a deficit in the frontline. Specifically, they left the right-back, Rion Ishikawa, free so that they could defend with a player surplus against the Everton strikers.
Brosnan did excellently during these phases to stay composed with the ball and bait Chelsea’s high press. When they bit and charged forward, Everton would use various combinations and patterns to play through with short passes.
Chelsea’s pressing system against Everton’s goal kicks and deep build-up.
Apart from the combinations, structurally, the wide positioning of the center-backs and staggered heights of the defensive midfielders increased pressing distances. Thus, with Chelsea not putting the opposition under enough pressure to force them into uncomfortable decisions, Everton usually progressed on their terms.
Everton’s wide center-backs and staggered pivots causing Chelsea’s press troubles.
Bompastor did correct the error later in the match, which was especially evident in the second half with Baltimore pushing up onto Ishikawa. The player-for-player marking was more effective in forcing turnovers and benefitted Chelsea’s high press.
Conclusion
The undefeated run was bound to end eventually, but this one will particularly hurt for Bompastor considering the extended six-point gap to leaders Manchester City. This season may prove to be the case that even just a slight deviation from close to perfect standards may cost the title.
A statement Everton victory was the perfect result for Sørensen. Having endured a sticky start to the season so far, last weekend could prove to be a turning point for the Toffees as they look to steer further away from the relegation zone.
