OPINION: New signings still to pass 'trust test'
Talk of Eve Perisset not featuring in a 'big game' for Chelsea shows 'trust test' still to be passed.
We all know Emma Hayes likes to take her time in bedding in new signings, there are of course exceptions, ready made superstars like Sam Kerr, Pernille Harder and Kadeisha Buchanan have all instantly become a vital part of the team, but for those less well known, it takes time for Hayes’ ‘trust test’ to be passed.
It was noted across social media after the release of Chelsea’s team sheet vs Arsenal that Eve Perisset had yet to be selected for the Blues in a ‘big game’. Instead, at right back on Sunday, was Niamh Charles, a player that has long secured trust from Hayes that she can do a job.
And a job is exactly what she had to do against Arsenal. As you can see from the pass map above, the Gunners made a choice to attack Chelsea’s right hand side, avoiding the battle vs Magda Eriksson on the left.
Charles won 52% of her 22 duels (11/21), while her captain won 5 of her 9 duels, a significant difference in numbers.
Chelsea, despite dominating much of the possession, struggled to create any meaningful chances, and it wasn’t until the introduction of Perisset and Jelena Cankovic, that Chelsea created any goal scoring chances (1 from each).
So the question appeared to be, why didn’t either player start this big game? And the answer, in my opinion, comes back to trust.
Cankovic’s Chelsea career has been blighted by injury so far, she’s played just 162 minutes in the WSL this season, scoring two goals and providing one assist, so her role from the bench is a little more understandable.
In her only start this season, vs. Reading, Cankovic scored twice and along with key Champions League performances, appeared to be showing her quality on the ball.
But we also know that Hayes loves to make her forward line press opposition defences, and we know that Jessie Fleming is excellent at it. This tactic didn’t appear to work on Sunday and you might’ve thought a change would have happened sooner considering Chelsea’s overall poor attacking play.
In defence, the switch to four at the back has seen Eriksson become our left back, defensively solid, but little to add going forward. This is why Perisset has become a good option at right back, because she can and does get forward.
However, in a game where the opposition, with all the quality Arsenal have, were going to attack that right hand side, did Hayes have the ‘trust’ in Perisset to start?
The answer was no, Charles was again selected, because, in my opinion, Hayes trusts her more, despite the stats showing that Perisset is more than capable of doing the job.
Featuring for 688 minutes so far in the WSL, Perisset has a better duel rate, 66.7% vs 60.%, then Charles, who has played over 100 minutes less this season. Charles has the edge aerially, winning 64.3% of her 14 aerial duels compared to Perisset’s 28.6% of 7.
Charles has also completed 31 interceptions to Perisset’s 21, which could have been another reason for her selection in a game in which Arsenal would try and break quickly vs Chelsea.
However, Perisset has a better cross success rate (26.9% of 26) than Charles (20% of 15) and is much more competent dribbling with the ball (83.3% of 18) than her team mate (67.9% of 28), which shows the Frenchwoman’s better attacking output, as was shown on Sunday.
There’s nothing really in those numbers, apart from maybe aerially, to suggest Perisset could not do the job of Charles against Arsenal or even Maren Mjelde who started the other big game vs Manchester City.
It really does feel that the two new signings need to reach the trust levels of Charles, Mjelde, Fleming etc.
The game vs Arsenal also saw Zecira Musovic start, and possibly, pass her own ‘trust test’, the Swedish goalkeeper was a surprise inclusion, but justified her selection with a string of fine saves to keep Chelsea in the game.
With her contract up in the summer, perhaps this start was to help convince her to stay, but either way, Musovic needed to prove she could also be the shot stopper that Ann Katrin Berger has been for Chelsea.
Aside from a start last season against Wolfsburg in the Champions League, which of course ended disastrously, Musovic has rarely featured with much on the line. At the end of last season, she featured for 5 straight league games between 16th March and 28th April, but it was Berger who played in the FA Cup Quarter and Semi Finals, and came back into the starting line up for the final two games of the season vs Birmingham and Manchester United, where Chelsea would secure a third league title and then in the FA Cup final vs Manchester City a week later.
Musovic has a chance to become Sweden’s new number one, but she won’t do that unless she’s a number one at club level. Her performance vs Arsenal suggested she can be trusted to be just that for Chelsea.
We all know Musovic is great with the ball at her feet, but question marks remained over her shot stopping ability. It was a big call to start her on Sunday, but she passed with flying colours.
This is what I mean by the ‘trust test’, players will be thrown in situations to see if they survive, Hayes loves this fight or flight method of weeding out the players without the right mentality for her squad.
I’ve no doubt that both Perisset and Cankovic will become key starters for Chelsea in the coming years, but both need to pass that trust test first.
Fleming and Ingle were terrible, as was Charles. It was necessary to make changes already at half-time, but the coach did not change anything. Arsenal were much better and that's without two of their best players.
Why isn't Svitkova playing? I do not understand this. Why doesn't Abdulina play at all? What is a trust test? It is difficult to pass this test while sitting on a bench. Hayes was lucky that she was saved by this goal Sam in the last minutes