Player of the season contenders
Jess Carter has come on leaps and bounds this season and is well deserving of her nomination
It’s that time of year again when we start to wonder who will be Chelsea’s player of the season winner once all is said and done.
While of course think all the players have had an outstanding year, there are a select few who stand out from the rest and here I will break down exactly why they are the final nominations.
Next up is Jess Carter.
You can read the piece on Sam Kerr here
If you asked me at the start of the season if I thought Jess Carter would be involved in the player of the season nominations, I would’ve probably said that she’s got lots of learning and developing to do first, before we get to player of the year award claims.
But Carter has had a fantastic season, developing both as a player and a personality in this team and is well deserving of a nomination.
The season did not get off to the best of starts, with a couple of disappointing moments in the 3-2 loss to Arsenal, but since then, Carter, moved to the middle of the new look back three, never looked back.
She has grown into a leader at the back, and when watching at Kingsmeadow, you notice how she is the most vocal player of the three defenders, organising those in front of her.
Carter has also shown a flexibility that has helped her maintain her status as a permanent fixture of this Chelsea team, and it’s also helped her in Sarina Wiegman’s England Lionesses’ team.
You can read more in-depth about Carter’s season here.
What’s really stood out in the second half of this season is Carter’s use of her physicality, something which has helped her in big games against top opposition like Lauren Hemp of Manchester City and Caitlin Foord of Arsenal.
Carter’s 1v1 defending has seen Emma Hayes use her at right back/wing back in games against pacey wingers, such as Reading’s Deanne Rose.
It was in that game against Manchester City at Kingsmeadow which supporters call her best in the Chelsea shirt.
Carter, up against arguably the best winger in the WSL, had a mammoth task to keep Hemp quiet, but more than stood up to the task in hand.
The 24-year-old was successful in over 50% of her 59 attempted actions in the game, she had a passing accuracy of 71%, with 2 of her 4 long passes also being successful.
Defensively, Carter won 16 of the 32 duels she entered, made 2 interceptions and 8 recoveries.
But most importantly on the day, Lauren Hemp’s goals and assists column both said 0, while Carter made the all important assist as Chelsea won the game 1-0.
Compared to her defensive team mates, only Millie Bright has featured more for Chelsea this season across all competitions.
But at 2732 minutes, Carter has seen her playing time more than double compared to last season’s total of 1103 and perhaps the most impressive takeaway from that figure.
Carter’s 86.9% passing accuracy is level best with Aniek Nouwen, although Carter has played just under 1,000 minutes more than her Dutch team mate. Which shows at the heart of Chelsea’s defence, Carter has been more than reliable at keeping possession and playing out from the back.
But the number that stands out the most, is the number of duels that Carter has competed in vs her team mates.
At 424, she clocks 45 more than Bright (379) despite playing 516 minutes less this season. This feeds back to where I mentioned Carter using her physicality more, Carter has been used by Emma Hayes as the 1v1 defender, allowing the outside centre backs to take on more freedom in playing the ball forward.
But the main reason behind Carter’s inclusion in the player of the year awards is probably something you can’t measure in stats or analyse in videos.
Carter has had more than her fair share of criticism from across the fan base, with just her name on the team sheet enough for some “supporters” to say we were going to lose earlier in the season.
Fast forward to now, those doubts no longer exist, in fact supporters are happy seeing Carter’s name there, like a calming presence anywhere in Chelsea’s defence.
And that takes some doing, it’s countless hours behind the scenes, working hard, putting in the extra training to improve parts of her game that needed improving and we are seeing first hand, the fruits of her labour.
It says something that despite having captain Magda Eriksson out for nearly three months, Chelsea’s defence looked solid and her absence was hardly felt.
Carter is now an integral part of both Emma Hayes’ and Sarina Wiegman’s plans going forward and that is a testament to the player and the person, who has put herself in this position thanks to her own hard work.
Jess Carter Player of the Season? You wouldn’t grumble about it.