#no more kerrby ball

[pernillecfcw]

No more Kerrby ball 😭🕊️

[alexbkrieger13]

We definitely need Pernille. Her pace, vision, timing, and ability to score on her own in the midfield is something we’ve desperately needed since she went down. We were able to hold off for a while, but with the competition getting stronger and more ways to take advantage of Chelsea’s weaknesses by pressing and forcing our midfield back and challenging the discombobulated defense it’s clear how much she’s needed.

Fran as a key second option as a striker would’ve also kept Man City and other midfields/defenses honest. They wouldn’t be able to press as much. Kerrby ball is predictable but with an offense running through a player like Pernille, it would’ve been another threat to aid our midfield.

Yea P would have been so helpful. She really can't be back soon enough 😭

[cadopan]

Here is my two cents on why WSL teams don’t do well against other teams like Wolfsburg and Barcelona. To me, it’s the fact that the German style and Barca’s style is very gridded. There are always 3 people in a triangle on the field to do quick passes and move the ball up the field. Everyone knows where each other is and they stress spatial awareness. WSL relies are partnerships (eg Kerrby) and, unfortunately, pretty predictable attacking patterns. So if one of those players in the partnership is shit down the team crumbles. If you watch Barca and Wolfsburg, they are always in a gridded pattern so if they start attacking down one avenue like the wing but get shut down they can easily switch to a central position. Whereas, Arsenal and Chelsea only ever had 1-2 people up field who were often isolated or easily crowded out. And each time they tried to start an attack, they were shit down and then had no one to pass to because there wasn’t anyone near them, so they either had to pass it back which disrupts the flow and allows the opposing team to reset, or they lost it because they couldn’t do anything with it since they were crowded out. It often feels like the entirety of Wolfsburg and Barca are dangerous whereas WSL teams rely on individual brilliance to win games, and that obviously doesn’t work against other playing styles.

Don’t mind me putting these two asks together since they coincidentally seemed to answer each other 😳 Interestingly, they seem like differing opinions on the same topic but I actually agree with the respective points made in both. 

From the 1st ask: about less of a developed team style in WSL teams and instead encouraging/relying on individual star players and for their own partnerships to figure things out. Definitely. 

You raised Barca and Wob so taking them as examples, as you said their philosophy is based on keeping distances between players close and creating multiple passing lanes for their teammates as a constant priority. It’s apparent that this is an emphasis throughout the whole team, so even if one or two cogs are replaced from the system, it can keep churning like a well-oiled machine. 

I think Arsenal actually tried to play like this for the first 2 months of the season, but somewhere along the way this philosophy got lost along with our form. Idk if it’s lack of mobility, ideas in movement, but our players looked miles apart from each other at times. 

Also, having watched them in comparison to other top European teams over the past week of UWCL, I got the sense that our players are a lot more unwilling to make sacrificial runs or dynamic movement. It may seem redundant, but teams need those players to create space or drag defenders out of shape to have any opening in attack, and our players don’t do that enough. Like waaay not enough. This is one of the reasons why Frida and the whole forward line looked pretty static and struggled to get in the game at all imo.

From the 2nd ask: I really agree with the last sentence about the coaching difference. German coaches seemed able to adapt to their opponents over the two legs, and at the very least you can clearly see the imprint of the manager on his team. Be in the strategy, game plan, or player selection, the manager’s influence is actually reflected in the match. Whereas for us? Barely anything. Could’ve been Katie instead of Jonas who set up and coached the team in that away leg and we wouldn’t have been able to tell the diff. 

[pernillecfcw]

I can’t take much more ❤️‍🩹

[alexbkrieger13]

Chelsea truly needs to find a defensive identity. And fast. Individually they have so many world-class defenders but it's clear that the defense isn't gelling. Take away Magda's calming presence and tactical guidance and it becomes even more of a mess--like a chicken with its head cut off. Millie is clearly tired and while she's good at muscling people off the ball, she isn't the same type of leader as Magda. Buchanan is extremely athletic but makes rash decisions that can lead to penalties and poor ball placement.

Offensively: we also really need a more fluid midfield attack. Chelsea has been struggling in transitions and setting up a solid offensive attack (both in the press and at the box) consistently since Pernille went down with injury. We're doing alright with Reiten feeding in the long-left, but she's now being depended on as a work-horse which is probably why she's not been rotated as much to keep the offense going. Because of this, Guro is clearly tired and there isn't always someone there to get the ball (our positioning is whack like 50% of the time). LJ is best when she dribbles and goes without slowing down, but falls easily into old habits in holding onto the ball for too long and stagnating the offense. Kerrby ball won't work against high-level teams and Sam needs to get into a consistent rhythm to score. And since our defense is shaky, our midfielders are focused on holding the back line instead of pushing forward to aid in the attack.

As an aside: Those who say we don't need Magda and Pernille on Twitter are clearly not seeing the value and other intangibles they bring. And there's a lot of things that need fixing. To place this all on two players is ridiculous.

Yea it's a team sport at the end of the day there's 11 players on the pitch who's job it is to work together and win

[alexbkrieger13]

Not saying kirby shouldn’t play when she gets back, but this is more fun than the long balls on kerrby tactics✨💫

Yea this is the most fun i;ve had watching Chelsea in a long time

[alexbkrieger13]

The problem with kerrby is that it is often combined with ”longballs on kerrby” which is too predictable for a top team to have as a tactic. It will work a lot of the time because of the individual quality of the players, but when it doesn’t work it looks really bad because then we are just shooting long balls against nothing and we look like a mid table team in damallsvenskan or something like that (aka not a contender for Champions leauge)

The best attack is when it is varied and comes from the midfield, sometimes wings and sometimes more central. Then the end product could of course be kerrby goal but to have the 2020 tactics that everything should be getting the ball asap to them won’t work anymore

yea those longballs on kerrby against low blocks just don't work like it once did

granted i did like seeing Magdas longballs on the wings but when they got to the wings they were wasted.

[cadopan]

I wouldn’t call Sam Kerr a fox in the box player it’s what Hayes uses her in their style of play. Yes she’s probably the best in the box but when you watched some nwsl games she didn’t score that many tap ins but more so 1v1 on transitions. I also think that she would be able to adjust to pernilles style of play and you also saw that in some games. It’s Kirby imo who is just so good with crosses and through balls to Kerr in the box and you often see her being frustrated with Pernille when she takes shots outside the box. Kirby and Kerr are just both very good in link up play but you are right that sometimes it is predictable and playing p at her position would make their attack better

True, those characteristics are what stand out the most particularly because of the way Emma Hayes uses her. I haven't seen much of her time in the NWSL (except at the Chicago Red Stars), but I do get the feeling that she doesn't usually get the spotlight on her other qualities beyond her pure athleticism or goalscoring prowess. Sam Kerr also has outstanding off the ball movement and chooses great moments to attack the defender's shoulder, so it make it easier for Kirby to pick her out as well I feel.

Overall yea, integrating Harder into that Kerrby duo is the eventual goal/aim that would take Chelsea's threat up a notch, like many anons and Chelsea fans have pointed out here so far :)

[cadopan]

I’m not the same anon but I agree with what they said about Pernille. The problem is that P’s position in midfield is somewhat unused by Chelsea because of the style of play and because Ji is usually taking up that spot. As a forward, the problem is that the objective seems to be to always get the ball to Kerr and Kerrby seem to preferentially pass to each other versus other players. So I think P has adapted enough in the playing style because more adaption would just put her out of position (she already plays a somewhat adapted forward/midfield position that acts to service Kerrby). Chelsea’s playing style I think needs to change. Right now we’re too predictable (always go for Kerrby) and we have a weak defense. If we can tweak it so the front three are truly interchangeable and unpredictable, and we can get our midfielders to service the forwards while also bolstering the defense I think we’ll do really well and Pernille’s stock as a player (which I think people are being a little harsh on her considering the circumstances) will increase again.

If we can tweak it so the front three are truly interchangeable and unpredictable

I think this describes it best! The prominence of Kerrby's partnership indirectly undermines Harder's scoring prowess so yeah like you said, the midfield might need to be more creative and efficient with their service so that Harder can turn finisher along with Kerrby instead of being provider most of the time.

About Chelsea's weak defence... I think it's just an inherent problem everywhere because there's just a significant lack of very good defenders in the women's football scene lol. (why the pool of quality attackers to defenders has become lopsided is another story altogether but yea)

[cadopan]

Pernille has made some beautiful passes that her teammates definitely should have scored on some of them just fell near the ball 😅😅😅 I don’t get what wrong is she too good for this team or she is it the connection just not happening 🙃🙃🙃 pernille and melly connect in a few game even Jessie but she has yet to a connection like she had with caro. Caro n her were beautiful I would say better than kerrby 🙈

some of them just fell near the ball

Omg what?? hahahah I know you're not being literal but why did this make me chuckle more that I should've lol.

Hm, I see. I actually wasn't following Wolfsburg as closely when CGH and Harder were in the team, so I'm not very familiar with the connection they had but I'm sure it was something amazing as you said :))

Although, "partnerships" like Kerrby's are indeed great, but I feel they are probably hyped up and celebrated in the media etc way more than they need to be (because it sorta develops into a label/brand synonymous with Chelsea itself now). And this gradually builds an impression that this is the gold standard, and that players who don't have a well-known linkup or combination are not doing as well. Which isn't the case; there are countless world class players across woso and men's football who are purely known for what they can bring to the game as an individual, and they elevate others around them in ways that are just as valuable too. Harder is definitely one of them for me.