Chelsea Women Thread

[Jase 43,479]

Emma Hayes is the GOAT.

 

[OhForAGreavsie 6,077]

On 08/11/2020 at 9:19 PM, Jason said:

Emma Hayes is the GOAT.

 

Emma did a postgame zoom conference. One of the reporters, a Blues fan and member of the Galaxy Crew, had passed on a bar of Galaxy chocolate to club staff and hoped it would be given to Emma when he asked a question about the chocolate during the conference but it wasn't delivered until afterward. Can't remember if he said it was a vegan bar or not but Emma has become a vegan.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,077]

Emma Hayes: Chelsea 4-0 Everton

 

[OhForAGreavsie 6,077]

CFCW Skipper Magda Eriksson has signed a new contract extending her stay at the club until 2023.

 

[Vesper 30,219]

A culture that demands success – what’s it like to play for Chelsea Women?

https://theathletic.com/2197573/2020/11/14/chelsea-women-what-like-play-for

Bill Shankly’s legendary claim that the best two teams in Merseyside during his time were Liverpool and Liverpool reserves carries a growing resonance in one corner of Surrey.

Chelsea Women may not have quite reached the same level of unrivalled dominance just yet — the top of the Women’s Super League (WSL) is too strong for that to be the case — but these days some of the most intense tests for a player in manager Emma Hayes’ star-studded squad occur between match days, at their Cobham training ground.

“We have a lot of games against each other (in training), and sometimes they’re harder than some of the actual games we play,” Drew Spence, Chelsea’s longest-serving player, tells The Athletic. “I know that sounds a bit disrespectful, but it’s just because of the quality we have in the squad. We can field two very strong XIs.

“It’s tough, it’s competitive and everyone’s fighting for positions, so it can get a bit ratty. But that’s what you want in the team, that competitive nature.”

The training matches take different forms. Hayes constantly mixes things up with rondos and small-sided games, while an adapted transition exercise involving three teams has become a Chelsea tradition the day before a game, with the aim of scoring as many goals as possible and defending with frantic desperation.

“Whatever it is, it’s about winning,” says goalkeeper Carly Telford. “Players will go into a dressing room after a session a bit angry if they’ve been on the losing team, and some new players haven’t experienced that before. It’s the realisation of how competitive it is, that we’re here to win every day.”

Hayes’ philosophy throughout her eight years in charge has been to build and build and build some more, constantly challenging the players she already has with new signings who raise the bar of quality and experience. The result, in addition to an impressive list of trophies won, is a squad including four national-team captains — Maren Mjelde (Norway), Sophie Ingle (Wales), Sam Kerr (Australia) and Pernille Harder (Denmark) — and 14 players with at least 30 international caps.

“It’s crazy — I saw a picture on the internet with all the captains from the national teams and we have so many of them,” says Melanie Leupolz, a Germany international who was Bayern Munich skipper before joining last summer. “Of course, Magda (Eriksson, the Sweden defender) wears the armband but we have so many leaders, and that’s really important for being successful in the league and in the Champions League. When the pressure is getting higher and higher, you just need leaders who can help younger players and each other, and make the right decisions.”

Spence is regarded as one of the leaders in the squad, despite occupying more of a squad role these days. She has been at Chelsea for the entirety of her 12-year professional career, and Hayes said that she “underpins all of the values of the club” when handing her a two-year contract extension in March. No one knows more about what it takes to play for the dominant team in English women’s football, and how the standard required has grown more formidable over the years.

“You have to take it in your stride, because (the new signings) are going to make you better,” she insists. “This is the most (international stars) we’ve ever had at the club, so there are now a lot of big players not starting every week. Some don’t make it onto the pitch, some don’t even make it into the (match-day) squad.

“This is the toughest team we’ve ever been in, but they’re here to make us win. We have to take things from them every day, seeing what other cultures bring (to the team)… it just makes you a better player.”

---

Simply getting into Hayes’ starting XI is a significant achievement but, for those who do, what is it like to play for Chelsea Women?

For starters, there are few surprises on a match day. Hayes and her coaching staff — the biggest and best-resourced in women’s football — prepare exhaustively for every opponent, tweaking the team’s attacking, defensive and set-piece instructions accordingly during intense training sessions that usually last 90 minutes. Around those, players are expected to do the prehab and rehab work laid out in their tailored fitness and nutrition plans which, as of this year, also factor in their menstrual cycles.

“It’s an expectation when you come here that you’re going to be doing all of that (extra work) and if you’re not, there’s going to be someone texting you or ringing you and asking you why,” Telford says. “You’ve got no excuses not to be doing the right things. We’re also one of the only teams that has only one day off per week in a normal week. Most teams have two, so players need to adjust to that. It’s a big adjustment, but it’s usually worth it at the end of the season when there are a couple of trophies to celebrate.”

The unrivalled resources directed at ensuring Chelsea Women players are physically, mentally and tactically prepared for every match ensure there can be no excuses for poor performance. Hayes has specific demands of her team with regards to style of play, particularly in matches they are expected to dominate, but she also encourages her players to feel empowered to take ownership of the game plan on the pitch.

“You should read the game and see what tactics we should play, because the manager can’t have a big impact during the game,” Leupolz says of Hayes’ approach. “It’s harder for the coach to change something, so you need players who can see something on the pitch and deal with it. She always says she wants to have thinking players, and she gives us exercises where we have to choose our own tactics.

“We have to see what the opponents do and find a solution. In midfield, that’s really important for the game. We have to decide if we should play fast or if we need a balance, if we need to play long or short balls. I think it’s a lot about managing the game.”

Chelsea’s frequent superiority, coupled with Hayes’ demand that all of her players be capable of thinking independently during games, presents specific challenges for the goalkeeper. “I might have one shot or no shots to save in a game, but 50 or 60 passes because I’m recycling the ball and starting attacks,” Telford says. “It’s the Chelsea philosophy and the modern game for the goalkeeper to become the 11th outfielder.

“It’s about seeing pictures and being more challenging, not just hitting long balls or balls to the centre-backs. Can you hit the No 4s, the No 8s, the No 10s with through balls, round balls, balls over the top? We work on that every week, because we’ve got to find ways of breaking down mid and low blocks, which I’d say is 60 to 70 per cent of our opponents. The goalkeeper has a massive part to play in that, so I’ve spent a lot of my three seasons here working on different ways of breaking opposition defences down.”

---

The effectiveness of Hayes’ approach has been borne out by the results since 2012: four league titles in the WSL era, two Women’s FA Cup triumphs and a Continental (League) Cup victory last season. Draws are rare, defeats even rarer, and how Chelsea Women deal with occasional disappointment is a key factor in maintaining the culture of winning that powers their consistent success.

“Everton was a tough one to take,” Spence says, referring to their 2-1 defeat at Goodison Park in the Women’s FA Cup quarter-final rolled over from the disrupted 2019-20 season to this September. “It was a semi-final opportunity in the FA Cup — a trophy we haven’t won for a couple of seasons. But we can’t win all the time. When we lose, I think it makes us take a step back and realise there is stuff we need to work on more.

“We thought the draw at the beginning of this season against Manchester United (in the WSL) was one of the worst things ever, but when you look at it in hindsight after a few more games it was a good point taken. Sometimes it is good to lose. When you win all the time, having that one loss does make you realise something isn’t right and you need to fix it. Ever since that Everton loss, we’ve been outstanding.”

Leupolz adds, “It’s never nice to lose, especially when you play for a club like this one, but it just reminds you that you have to work even harder. You have to learn from these situations. Of course, it was disappointing (against Everton), but we have another FA Cup that we can win and that should be the goal. We need to focus on the games we have ahead and not the one we lost.”

At the other end of the spectrum, even the most impressive individual victories — most notably last month’s 3-1 home win over title rivals Manchester City at Kingsmeadow — are kept firmly in perspective. “It’s more a case of, ‘OK, that was good, but we still have things to improve’,” Leupolz says. “It’s more about having this process and being better every day.”

The ultimate goals are reinforced daily; as Hayes’ players enter and exit the Chelsea Women building at the back of the Cobham complex, their eyes are often drawn to a wall outside that lists the trophies won in previous years. For new signings, it serves as a swift reminder of what is expected of them.

“The culture of our club is just to win,” Spence says. “If they’ve come from a culture where they’ve won before then it’s good, because they can just add to that. If they haven’t, then it’s a case of learning this is where we’re at, this is what we do and this is how we do it. For players like Niamh (Charles), who came in this year or Sophie (Ingle), who came back, Emma’s embedded it into them that we win and this is how we go about doing it.”

Dedication and discipline during the season make the trophy celebrations all the more cathartic, and Chelsea Women are generally good at taking a step back to enjoy the moment — though the surreal nature of last season, when they were awarded the title on points-per-game after COVID-19 cut short the campaign, proved something of an exception to the rule.

“We had a big Zoom call (when it was announced), but then we got back to pre-season and it was almost like it hadn’t happened,” Telford says. “It wasn’t fake, but it didn’t feel real.

“When we did the double (in 2018) it was mad — we definitely didn’t forget to celebrate that one. It was sad that we couldn’t do that last season, but it motivated us to make sure we do so well this season. With six trophies up for grabs, it’s a unique opportunity for us to stamp our authority. By the time it’s over, hopefully we might be in some sort of normality where we can celebrate. That’s the aim for us now.”

---

Given the unrelenting pressure at Chelsea Women — to win, and even to play regularly — it is testament to the work of Hayes and her backroom team that the atmosphere remains startlingly positive.

Every player gets a weekly meeting with a member of staff in which concerns can be aired, taken on board and quickly dealt with. The chances of a malcontent in the dressing room are also greatly reduced by the fact Hayes and assistant Paul Green recruit players with personality in mind.

“The most important thing (to play for this club) is just being a good person,” Spence says. “Emma’s always recruited good people and that’s helped us, because we’ve always had a family environment. Players who come from abroad feel like it’s their home from home, and that’s always been key for us. Take Ji So-yun; she’s been away from her family (in South Korea) for years, and she wouldn’t have been here so long if she didn’t feel like this was her family.

“Making sure we have good people is key in the club, and the more good people you have around you, the more you want to play for them.”

The atmosphere cultivated by Hayes and long-standing squad members such as Spence helped Leupolz settle quickly when she joined earlier this year, even in the midst of the pandemic. “Magda (Eriksson) was texting me as soon as I signed and her messages were really kind. They also added me to the Chelsea group which all of the players are part of on WhatsApp a long time before I went there (Chelsea announced Leupolz’s signing in March). That was a good sign from the team that I would be part of things.

“Ann-Katrin (Berger, the first-choice goalkeeper) is also German and I knew her from the national team. She helped me with the moving company when I moved into my new flat, and we went for dinner early on. The whole team was really nice at the beginning. Even at the training ground, they came and asked me lots of questions.

“I wasn’t afraid, but you also have in mind that there are so many world-class players and you don’t know what they’re like as people. But when I came here everyone was so nice, it was overwhelming. I really enjoy it and I’m trying to use every training session to get better. I also hope I can improve as a person because of all these nice people. I can learn a lot from the girls.”

Leupolz is merely the latest international star to be won over by a culture that builds close personal bonds and drives the highest professional standards, all in service of one thing.

“This is a club that’s known for winning trophies, so you know when you come here that you’re not just here to become a better player and a better person,” Telford says. “You’re here to win things. We know that pressure comes but it’s welcomed, always.”

[Vesper 30,219]

Sam Kerr fires slick hat-trick past West Ham as Chelsea keep up WSL pressure on Man United

The Australian international struck a treble as the defending champions found themselves in a tough encounter with their London rivals

https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/fixtures-results/chelsea-west-ham-women-kerr-19409880

[Vesper 30,219]

 

[Vesper 30,219]

 

[Vesper 30,219]

HARDER TOPS LIST OF WORLD’S BEST FEMALE FOOTBALLERS AND TALKS ABOUT CHELSEA START

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/12/11/harder-tops-list-of-world-s-best-female-footballers-and-talks-ab?cardIndex=0-0

Pernille Harder has been named first in a prestigious list of the 100 best female footballers in the world 2020 and has used the opportunity to talk about her settling in at Chelsea.

The ranking is compiled each year by the Guardian newspaper in conjunction with the Offside Rule Podcast and it is the second time in its three years existence that Harder has been at the top.

This year’s list derived from the votes of 88 judges from 42 countries, including famous coaches and players plus journalists and broadcasters.

Harder is fresh to Chelsea this season and scored her first Champions League goal for the club in the 5-0 win away to Benfica earlier in the week. The 28-year-old striker, in her interview with the Guardian to mark topping the list, confirms the club’s ambition to win this trophy was important in her choosing to move to London from Germany. She was previously at Wolfsburg where she won a string of domestic titles but not the European one. She has been runner-up twice.

snip

[Jase 43,479]

Errr...

 

[Vesper 30,219]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Errr...

 

damn, grrrr

[Vesper 30,219]

CHELSEA FC WOMEN

Chelsea fill fridges for women’s players on lockdown

It’s a bad year but only kindness makes it better 

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/chelsea-fc-women/2020/12/25/22199216/chelsea-fill-fridges-for-womens-players-on-lockdown

Chelsea FCW’s last match of 2020 was supposed to be a London derby versus Tottenham Hotspur on the 13th of December, but that was postponed after positive COVID-19 results at the club. Given the positive tests, plus London entering Tier 4 lockdown due to the rise of cases throughout the capital, the holidays will be very different for most, including the players.

As such, many Chelsea players are having to spend the holiday alone as they quarantine due to possible exposure to the virus. In a thoughtful move, Chelsea provided players with a full stock of food so that they may at least have pleasant holiday meals.

Well done, Chelsea! These sorts of courtesies and kindnesses, especially from the distances in which we have to remain separated, are needed even more this year, and mean so much.

BONUS: Also, as a holiday gift for you, here’s captain Magdalena Eriksson and her partner, Chelsea forward Pernille Harder, in matching Christmas pajamas.

 

[Vesper 30,219]

Sublime Pernille Harder has now become the best player in the WSL

https://theathletic.com/2380686/2021/02/11/sublime-pernille-harder-has-now-become-the-best-player-in-the-wsl/

Just ten days ago, it felt like Pernille Harder’s Chelsea career had not yet truly exploded into life.

Granted, of the 17 matches Harder had played since signing in the summer, she had won 15 of them. The other two were draws against Manchester United, when she only played 10 minutes on her debut, and against Arsenal, when she forced the late own goal that earned Chelsea a point. Not too shabby. We were, however, still waiting to see Harder justify her world-record fee.

And then came three significant matches in the development of Chelsea this season. The first was the 6-0 thrashing of West Ham last week in the Continental Cup, where Harder scored a hat-trick comprised of two outstanding goals and one utterly dreadful one — a tap-in after goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold had almost tripped over her own feet trying to play out from the back.

The other two demonstrated precisely what Harder is all about; a player capable of operating as a deep forward and a ruthless goal scorer simultaneously. The first saw her gesturing for a Ji So-Yun pass while picking up speed through midfield, collecting the ball just in front of the defence, taking a perfect first touch that would have been considered heavy if it was not for the fact she knew she boasted the speed to get on the end of it, and then perfectly dinking the ball home from an angle.

The hat-trick goal was a brilliant piece of footwork featuring three touches apiece with the inside and outside of her right foot, which allowed her to collect a pass between her legs while on the run, before launching a dipping effort from the edge of the D into the net. It was her first Chelsea hat-trick, and while six months is hardly a long period without scoring three times in a game, it is worth remembering that Harder scored four hat-tricks in five games for club and country in 2019-20.

The next significant display came at the weekend, when Harder did not start. Chelsea, unthinkably, lost their two-year unbeaten record, the longest in WSL history, to a Brighton side who had not won since mid-November, who had lost 7-1 to Manchester City and 3-0 to bottom-placed Bristol City. The statistics told the story: Chelsea had 76 per cent possession and recorded 2.5 xG compared to Brighton’s 0.3, who scored both goals from corners. It was an unfortunate defeat, yet Emma Hayes’ decision to rest Harder, as well as Ji and Fran Kirby, could not be ignored.

They were rested with last night’s game against Arsenal in mind. All three returned, but Harder did not merely regain her place, she was handed the central No 10 role, where she had shone for Wolfsburg en route to being voted the Champions League’s best player last season. This was significant. Last month, in the crucial top-of-the-table clash against Manchester United, Harder had been moved to the right, with the in-form Kirby preferred through the middle. It was a logical decision to benefit Kirby, but Harder was peripheral.

Here, she was central to everything. Hayes switched to a diamond midfield, with Kirby and Sam Kerr again the front two, but with Sophie Ingle introduced to bring some solidity to the midfield and Harder between the lines.

And this was Harder’s chance — it is all very well scoring three goals in a 6-0 win over a poor West Ham side in a somewhat unloved cup, but this was a genuinely big game. Harder needed to respond, to prove she can justify the WSL’s reigning champions breaking up their existing structure and basing their side around her. She responded: within 10 seconds she had won a header from a long ball to win a corner. That was whipped into the box and narrowly evaded her head. And then, from the next attack, Harder got her head to a right-wing cross for the game’s first attempt at goal.

Almost everything revolved around her. She battled back to win possession in midfield, snapping at the heels of Lia Walti, Arsenal’s metronomic deep-lying playmaker, before drifting into pockets of space either side when Chelsea won possession. Lydia Williams, Arsenal vociferous Australian goalkeeper, spent the evening bellowing instructions to Walti and Arsenal’s defenders about Harder’s positioning, evidently worried by her goalscoring threat.

And it is no wonder, because after Arsenal had dominated shortly before half-time and made a positive start to the second half, Harder took the game away from them. When Walti got drawn towards Kirby, Harder found space 25 yards out, looked up and drove it into the bottom corner. It was not a thunderbolt, it was not dipping or swerving, it was just a pure, efficient, no-nonsense strike.

Her second was perhaps better, rounding off a fine passing move down the left by absolutely belting the ball into the top of the net. Arsenal had not done much wrong, and had arguably created the better chances, but now found themselves 2-0 down largely thanks to the individual brilliance of one player.

 

Harder continued to link play excellently, coming deep to receive possession before arrowing a pass in behind for Kirby, playing the No 10 role expertly. It was notable that Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema dropped increasingly deep, frustrated with her lack of service and attempting to play the Harder role as an extra midfielder, leaving Lisa Evans and Beth Mead as wide forwards. But for Arsenal this felt spontaneous and a sign of growing desperation, whereas Chelsea’s use of Harder as the No 10 was very much the plan from the outset. Harder’s defensive diligence, incidentally, extended to tracking back and dispossessing Miedema herself at one stage, which seemed almost mocking when combined with the Dane’s remarkably distinctive running style — bolt upright, almost bouncing up and down rather than visibly driving forward, and yet capable of taking her past opponents at will.

A passage of play three minutes from time summarised Harder’s performance — she won possession in the right-back zone, launched a counter-attack down that flank while making a run through the centre — and, as she pushed forward in search of a hat-trick, had the presence of mind to gesture substitute Guro Reiten into a wider position on the left, in preparation for a switch of play that eventually never came. That would have been an appropriate place to leave things, but then Kirby played a fine one-two with Beth England, before streaking away to score a breakaway third for Chelsea.

As the players walked off the pitch, the inevitable song played out around Kingmeadow: Daft Punk’s Harder, Stronger, Better, Faster. It is a fitting anthem for a player who won headers, won tackles, outpaced opponents, linked play expertly, scored two outstanding goals. It took a few months for us to witness Harder’s best form, but in this mood she is the WSL’s best footballer, and fully deserving of being the most expensive player in women’s football history.

[NikkiCFC 8,334]

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,332]

Chelsea top of the League again 💅

[Vesper 30,219]

Sam Kerr at the double as Chelsea return to the top of the Women’s Super League

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/womens_football/sam-kerr-Chelsea-women-s-super-league-b1823650.html

[Jase 43,479]

And the Chelsea Women team just reached the Champions League semi finals, beating Wolfsburg 5-1 on aggregate. 

[Fulham Broadway 17,332]

Probably get Barca in the semi 💅

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

No, they will get the winner of the Bayern München/Rosengard tie. Either way it will arguably not as hard a test as Wolfsburg.

I am not much into women's footy but this Chelsea ladies side is the quickest, most cohesive and clinical women's team I have seen so far. Every time I see them they just look so much sharper than the opposition.

[Strike 7,492]

5-1 aggregate win over Wolfsburg is huge