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Bompastor: ‘Small particulars’ separate Chelsea from UWCL glory
Chelsea supervisor Sonia Bompastor discusses Chelsea’s probabilities of success in a contest she received as a participant and supervisor, the UEFA Ladies’s Champions League.
LONDON — After the exit of legendary supervisor Emma Hayes to the USWNT this summer season, Chelsea could not have dreamed of a greater opening to the 2024-25 season beneath her alternative Sonia Bompastor. With a flawless file throughout all competitions — three Champions League wins and 6 commanding Ladies’s Tremendous League (WSL) victories — Bompastor has led the Blues to their best-ever begin to a WSL season.
When Bompastor left Lyon — the place she spent 17 years in whole as a participant, academy supervisor, and first-team coach — to maneuver to London, some puzzled how she and the Chelsea gamers would deal with the transition after Hayes’ glittering 12-year spell. However Bompastor has silenced any doubts, seamlessly placing the membership on monitor for what could be their sixth-consecutive WSL title, and ending any solutions that she would wish time to adapt.
A supply advised ESPN that there was preliminary uncertainty about how easily the workforce would adapt to new administration. Nevertheless, the squad have rapidly embraced Bompastor’s management, adjusting to her fashion with outstanding ease.
The brand new supervisor’s affect was fast and decisive. Bompastor led Chelsea to an important 2-1 win over Arsenal — the membership’s first victory on the Emirates Stadium — and set a league file with 4 consecutive away wins. Her Champions League expertise, together with titles as each participant (2011, 2012) and coach (2022), has been instrumental, with Chelsea choosing up a pivotal group-stage win over Actual Madrid, and their early-season kind has resulted in them being put in as one of many favourites.
“It is an enormous goal on our backs,” Chelsea goalkeeper Zecira Musovic advised ESPN. “Everybody needs to beat us, and that is, after all, one thing that we all know as a result of we have received the league so many instances now.
“After all, another person needs to win it however I feel that is one thing that’s only a pleasant reminder that we’ve to maintain the onerous work up, that we’ve to actually be disciplined, and that we won’t loosen up in any second. As a result of the second we loosen up, another person would undoubtedly seize that from us.”
Regardless of the right begin, Bompastor and her gamers know the job is much from completed. Chelsea face two important exams within the weeks forward as they put together to host Manchester Metropolis in Saturday’s high-stakes WSL conflict (stream reside on ESPN+ at 12.30 p.m. ET), earlier than the rescheduled showdown with in-form Manchester United.
However how has Bompastor managed to hit the bottom working, and can this momentum carry the Blues by way of their upcoming battles?
Excessive calls for in coaching
Bompastor’s drive for excellence is as fierce as it’s relentless, setting excessive requirements and demanding depth from each participant — a mirrored image of her deep-seated starvation to win.
“As a supervisor, I’m actually aggressive, and possibly I do not like shedding,” the French coach advised ESPN when she joined in the summertime. “That is one thing I must work on. I’m so aggressive, and I’m a very unhealthy loser. I’m a supervisor who actually likes to care for folks as properly. It is a troublesome job, truly.”
Fortunately for her, shedding hasn’t been an issue thus far. Chelsea’s blistering league kind has yielded six consecutive wins and 23 objectives, with 13 totally different gamers discovering the online. This depth has put Chelsea eight objectives forward of first-placed Manchester Metropolis on purpose distinction — the sting that clinched final season’s title when factors had been tied.
“She’s very demanding,” midfielder Erin Cuthbert advised ESPN. “That is one thing I actually like from a supervisor. She is aware of what she needs, she would not settle, she would not like sloppiness in coaching, she would not allow you to sit again and chill for 10 minutes. There isn’t any let up from her, and I actually take pleasure in that she is aware of precisely what she needs.”
Cuthbert additionally revealed that Bompastor’s ethos relies round rigorous preparation on the coaching pitch.
“She calls for quite a lot of technical execution from everybody, and I feel she is going to by no means choose what she needs to realize, which, for positive, actually calls for coaching at a excessive depth; if you cannot do it in coaching, then you may’t play it within the sport,” she stated.
“I feel that is been a part of the rationale why we have had a very good begin to the season as a result of coaching at such a excessive degree, and we’re beginning video games actually quick. We’re scoring the primary quarter-hour of virtually each sport thus far so no less than what we’re doing in coaching has been working with.”
Bompastor has already begun shaping Chelsea into her personal imaginative and prescient, bringing in contemporary expertise like Sandy Baltimore and Lucy Bronze, and retooling the fashion of play that Hayes established over greater than a decade. The shift is obvious on the pitch, the place the facet have a renewed depth and dynamic strategy.
“I feel the variations [between Bompastor and Hayes] are possibly barely extra centered on coaching and the way she manages gamers; how she manages them on the pitch, what she calls for,” Cuthbert stated. “I feel Emma demanded issues, however she demanded various things. I feel Sonia calls for quite a lot of technical execution. There is a better deal with increase from the again.”
Musovic believes each managers had an affect on her growth however, whereas she credit Hayes for the foundational expertise that impressed her personal teaching ambitions, the goalkeeper is studying rather a lot beneath Bompastor already.
“I actually prefer to work with Sonia and the brand new administration,” she advised ESPN. “I feel she’s actually bold. She’s intense in a great way. She is aware of what she needs from us, from herself and that is a sort of coach that I actually like, somebody who’s demanding, and I am a curious particular person so I used to be actually excited to get to know all of them and to get to know a special sort of coach.
“For positive, [she’s] a very good coach, a very good particular person, one thing that we worth in Chelsea as properly, it’s important to be a very good particular person as a result of that is once we can discover one another and work collectively.”
“Each sport is vital”
Chelsea will be the solely workforce but to drop factors within the WSL, however they aren’t the one ones who’re nonetheless unbeaten. Final season’s runners-up, Manchester Metropolis, have solely dropped two factors of their 2-2 draw with Arsenal; whereas Marc Skinner’s Manchester United are additionally but to lose, although they’ve slipped to a few consecutive attracts to depart them in fifth place with 12 factors.
Chelsea tackle Metropolis this weekend and will probably be their greatest check of the season so far. However the gamers at all times guarantee they face the massive video games with the identical depth as some other.
“I feel one other power of ours is that we put together in the same approach no matter which opponent we’re going through,” Musovic stated. “We’ve our id; we’ve our sport mannequin that we need to fulfil in the absolute best approach. Sure, we’re enjoying towards Manchester Metropolis at Stamford Bridge, and hopefully a sold-out Bridge, in order that’s one thing that we’re tremendous enthusiastic about. However we’ve our fashion of play, how we need to come throughout to our followers and the requirements that we’re creating for one another.
“So I do not assume we’ll be making ready otherwise. After all, they’ve wonderful gamers that we are going to be careful for. We’ve a respect for that problem. However we undoubtedly have a robust perception in our group and what we’re able to. In order that’s one thing that we are going to deal with.”
Whereas it’d reap advantages come the tip of the season, there are not any additional rewards for beating a title rival and this mindset retains the squad grounded.
“From a private degree, I put together no totally different as a result of each sport within the league season is a most of three factors, and that is the way in which you see it,” Cuthbert stated. “No sport is extra vital to the opposite; I suppose the followers clearly see video games which are barely extra vital, and as a participant, you continue to need to be enjoying within the greatest video games, but when you are able to do it within the different video games and there isn’t any level you might be doing it within the large video games.
“Each sport is vital to me. After all, having the chance to play Manchester Metropolis at Stamford Bridge is an enormous second and it is actually an enormous sport within the ladies’s soccer calendar for the followers.”
All the time room for enchancment
One overriding theme that comes from everybody at Chelsea proper now could be that regardless of how properly issues have gone, there may be at all times extra to do, room to enhance, and no time to settle earlier than specializing in the subsequent sport.
That is the mentality has made the facet much more aggressive. They can journey the excessive, benefit from the second however not get too carried away. The main focus is at all times on an space to enhance forward of the subsequent sport.
“The usual is to win each sport, so we simply take a look at how we are able to enhance,” Musovic stated. “Sure, we received [six games], however we nonetheless have quite a lot of issues to enhance, and we’ve large objectives for this season, so we simply should hold pushing
“I feel that is one thing that is actually vital on this atmosphere. Sure, [when] we win a sport you will be completely satisfied about it, you may have fun a bit bit. However then the subsequent day is like: ‘OK, subsequent sport, we’ve to focus. What can we do? What can we enhance?’
It is discovering that stability between being glad and completely satisfied for that sport, however nonetheless be a bit bit pissed off about what we are able to be taught and what can we enhance to have a fair higher efficiency subsequent sport? We’re undoubtedly celebrating our wins, however not an excessive amount of as a result of we’re an bold bunch who need to do higher every sport.”
Even after the dominant 7-0 win over newly promoted Crystal Palace on the finish of September, Bompastor noticed room for enchancment and her suggestions was clear and direct.
“You’ll be able to at all times ask for extra. There’s at all times room for enchancment, particularly from the primary half,” she advised a information convention after that sport. “I feel we created some alternatives and good possibilities, however we solely scored one. I feel we must always most likely have scored two or three. When you’ll be able to be scientific, it kills the sport, and that is the mentality we need to have.”
Bompastor’s outlook balances optimism with realism. She’s not one to get carried away by large wins or previous outcomes to maintain momentum. For her, every victory is just one other constructing block towards the final word purpose: successful titles.
“Even when it has possibly been an ideal begin for us by way of outcomes, factors and in addition performances — we’ve not received something but,” she stated following the 3-0 win over Liverpool final weekend. “We have to hold a very good stability between confidence, which is absolutely vital for the gamers, but in addition we have to hold our head on our shoulders and be in step with actuality. That is my job to verify I keep that stability.”
Chelsea managed to interrupt their curse of dropping factors towards Liverpool away — the primary time they’ve received there since 2019 — however that solely provides to the sensation that one thing new is going on on the membership. For Cuthbert, a ninth WSL title — and sixth in a row — would imply the world to her. However with Metropolis to return, she is aware of the journey forward will likely be difficult.
“We’re precisely the place we need to be proper now,” she stated. “I feel to win it six instances in a row could be unprecedented, to be sincere with you, however I am beneath no illusions that it is also the toughest factor to win.”