Three things to look for in pre-season
Pre-season is mainly about player fitness, but they can also provide us with some insight into what to expect this season.
Chelsea FC W returned to pre-season last week, with those not involved in international football this summer, arriving at Cobham to begin the defence of their WSL title.
Pre-season is an interesting time, results in games rarely matter, Chelsea took a battering out in France in 2019, but went on to win the WSL, but the games can provide good insight into what to expect once the league kicks off in just over a month’s time.
Here’s three things I’ll be looking out for when watching the Blues this summer.
1. Formation
It was last pre-season that Emma Hayes first hinted at the 3-4-3 system against Rangers, it would stay for the opening game against Arsenal, which we of course lost 3-2.
A few tweaks along the way and Chelsea had found a pretty solid formation which was able to maximise the talents of several players including Guro Reiten, Erin Cuthbert and Pernille Harder to name just three.
With Magdalena Eriksson injured, Chelsea did revert back to their 4-4-2 formation, but it seems now Chelsea have the reinforcements to cope with an injury to one of their defensive stalwarts.
There’s also nothing about our transfer activity that suggests that we’ll be moving away from our 3-4-3 system, but if Emma is thinking about switching, we’ll see it in our opening pre-season fixtures.
2. New signings
After a relatively quiet transfer window last summer, Emma Hayes and Chelsea have not been shy this year and have already secured the transfers of France international Eve Perisset, UWCL winner Kadeisha Buchanan, Czech international Katarina Svitkova, England U19 international Lucy Watson and it looks likely that more names will be added to that list, including Sweden’s Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, rumoured to have agreed to join the Blues.
How Emma Hayes sets up her team next season with adding these names into the talent already at her disposal is going to be extremely exciting, and I’m especially excited to watch how Buchanan is used defensively and which role Svitkova takes up, given she can play in multiple different positions.
3. Jessie Fleming
Baby GOAT is growing up fast and last season we really saw why she’s nicknamed baby GOAT, but it feels like now is the time for her to become a regular in the Chelsea starting XI and shift the baby tag.
The only issue, is that the level of the squad is so high that who makes way for Fleming and in which role does she play?
Last season she featured heavily during the absence of Pernille Harder through injury and did a phenomenal job.
Can she kick on from there? Will she get the minutes she’ll need and deserve?
The Olympic gold medal winner is certainly one to watch this season, and although she played some games for Canada this summer, she’ll be returning to pre-season ahead of both Fran Kirby and Pernille Harder, and this could give her the edge, especially if she performs well in our tour of the USA.
What are you looking forward to seeing this pre-season? Let me know in the comments below.
Three things to look for in pre-season
The easiest Fleming solution is to have her rotate through various positions in the midfield and forwards to give players a rest - she has the versatility and tactical awareness to make this possible. Not to mention that this reduces the number of bruised egos! I think Emma Hayes missed a trick last year in not playing her more in UWCL matches - her only start was against Servette, which was Chelsea's only real convincing performance in Europe last year.
BTW, the "baby" tag has always confused me - she's 24 and has more international experience than most of the squad (2 WCs and 2 Olympics plus more than 100 caps).