Does Chelsea's nomad need a home?
A look at Niamh Charles' adaptation into the Chelsea team and whether a fixed home really matters
Niamh Charles’ rise at Chelsea has been a steady and consistent one. The 23-year-old has seen her playing time increase from 1559 minutes in 2020/21, to 1980 in 2021/22, as she became an integral part of Chelsea’s title winning team.
Charles’ break through came in the latter part of the 2020/21 season, starting with her coming into the team thanks to a mixture of injuries and suspensions and ending with her starting that Champions League final vs Barcelona.
Last season was a slow start, starting just 5 games before the end of the year, Charles again found herself a key part of the team from January to May, as again, injuries and illness saw Erin Cuthbert move into central midfield, meaning the right wing back position was available.
Charles’ performances in that position led to many calls for her inclusion in this summer’s Lionesses squad, but she was overlooked by Sarina Weigman for the final squad.
That was despite finishing the season with 80.3% pass accuracy, 31.3% cross success, 57.3% dribble success, 54% duel success, 63.6% aerial duel success, 101 interceptions and 242 recoveries, across the season for Chelsea in all comps.
It had appeared that Charles had found her ‘home’, a full back equally adept at going forward, and in defence.
Fast forward to today, and everything has changed. Chelsea have moved back to a back four, away from the 3-4-3 that saw them through last season.
Wing backs are a no go, and Charles has had to again reinvent her self. She started the season at left back in the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool and has come on as a sub as a left midfielder in a more traditional 4-4-2 set up against both West Ham and Everton.
It appears Charles has become a bit of a nomad. Moving from one position to the next, and not settling for any great deal of time on any of them.
In years gone by, this would have been seen negatively, players needed to have a “best position” but today, with how the game is beginning to evolve, versatility might just be your strongest asset.
How we look at formations and understand them has changed drastically over the past few years, as analytical data which was previously reserved just for the elite has begun to trickle down to those, like myself, who don’t even work within the industry on a professional level.
We also hear a lot more from modern coaches about their approaches to games and that insight has led us to new understandings.
Emma Hayes is one of these coaches, and her comment on a podcast before the 2021 FA Cup final vs Arsenal, is something that has stuck with me ever since.
Formations are merely a defensive structure, a way to position on the pitch in order to prevent your opponent from scoring, they are, according to Hayes herself, pretty much meaningless when it comes to putting the ball into the net at the other end.
We see now, more than ever, coaches changing their formation and set ups in game, Chelsea are no different, and can often be seen defending in one shape and switching that as soon as they come into possession.
So what better to have at your disposal as a coach, than a player who can produce to an extremely high level across lots of different roles.
That’s the key word here, ‘roles’, Charles can play a variety of positions because she can play a variety of roles. She can attack, she can defend, she can press, she can tackle, she can pass, she can do pretty much everything you could think of asking her to do.
In many ways she is the modern footballer, not restricted to the confines of what a traditional player, who plays in a certain position is.
Of course these players can adapt to what’s asked of them by a manager, but you can’t place them anywhere on the pitch like you could with Charles.
Chelsea’s 3-1 home win against West Ham a prime example of this. Charles was on the pitch for just 33 minutes, yet played two entirely different roles. One as a left sided forward, the other as a right full back.
Her heat map from the game shows just how adept she is at both roles.
Versatility and flexibility will be the new super powers in football, these traits will be looked at heavily over what you would traditionally look for in a player. It’s almost like having an extra sub, because you can change almost everything by just moving one piece of the puzzle.
Charles might be a nomad positionally, but in Chelsea she has a home, and we are blessed to have her.