Chelsea have finally confirmed what we have known for some time — Sonia Bompastor will be their new manager.
The 43-year-old former France international is leaving Lyon, where she has been in charge since 2021. In those three years, Bompastor has quickly become one of the most high-profile managers in the women’s game and her rigid tactical setup will mark a change from the more flexible approach taken by Emma Hayes, who is leaving to take charge of the U.S. women’s national team.
Chelsea’s interest in Bompastor is understandable. There is a relatively small pool of managers who have worked at the very top, so few coaches are used to dealing with the demands of managing a club like Chelsea. Bompastor has experience working with young players — she was academy director at Lyon for eight years before becoming the club’s first-team manager — and won three league titles and one Champions League. She is also a highly decorated and respected former player.
“Everyone who knows Sonia knows she was meant to be a manager,” Aston Villa’s France midfielder Kenza Dali said before the Champions League final, which Bompastor’s Lyon lost 2-0 to Barcelona. Dali played with and was coached by Bompastor as a teenager at Lyon. “It’s the same with Cami (Camille Abily, Bompastor’s assistant, who will be joining her at Chelsea). It was their destiny. They can’t do anything else except that.”
As Lyon manager, Bompastor has predominantly opted for a 4-3-3 formation, using a creative passer as a No 6 at the base of midfield and two energetic No 8s ahead of them. Bompastor initially used Amandine Henry as the deepest-lying midfielder, but 24-year-old Netherlands international Damaris Egurrola has displaced the France international.
Bompastor likes her full-backs to get forward and cover a lot of ground. Lyon left-back Selma Bacha is often used on the left wing for France, with Australia’s attacking full-back Ellie Carpenter a regular on the right-hand side. Wendie Renard, the 33-year-old centre-back, tends to sit quite a bit deeper than whoever she is partnered with, although that might be more down to necessity than tactical choice.
Up front, Bompastor favours two wingers who look to carry the ball and take on players, with a preference for a target striker in the middle. This season, France internationals Delphine Cascarino and Kadidiatou Diani have been predominantly used out wide, with 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg the starting striker when fit.
Bompastor has tended to employ a high and aggressive press, with Lyon’s out-of-possession structure playing a crucial role in the most impressive match of her tenure, the 3-1 win over Barcelona in the 2022 Champions League final.
Despite their dominance in France, Bompastor’s team are not averse to sitting off the ball and playing without possession for large periods. They had almost 100 fewer sequences with 10 or more passes than Chelsea did this season, with only 39 ‘build-up attacks’ (sequences with 10 or more passes that end in a shot or at least one touch in the box). Chelsea had 66 in the WSL, with Lyon’s numbers more comparable to Manchester United (38) and Tottenham Hotspur (37).
Under Bompastor, Lyon have been particularly good at set pieces, scoring 21 goals from them this season in the league from an expected goals (xG) total of 17.88. The next best team on set pieces in the Division 1 Feminine were Montpellier, who generated an xG of 6.35 and scored nine goals.
How does this all translate to Bompastor and the squad she will inherit at Chelsea? One advantage she will find is that the players became used to being very flexible under Hayes. The squad was built to include tactically versatile players who could keep up with the demands of Hayes’ changing systems. The most significant difference between Hayes’ and Bompastor’s tactical choices in recent seasons has been the way Hayes has relied on a double pivot with a No 10 ahead of them, as opposed to a single deep-lying midfielder.
Chelsea do not have an obvious player for that role. Although Scotland midfielder Erin Cuthbert has played there for Chelsea, her ability to progress the ball by carrying it means she is at her best when she has more freedom to get up and down the pitch. Wales international Sophie Ingle is the most natural stylistic fit but at 32, she is struggling to deal with some of the game’s physical demands.
Erin Cuthbert was a hugely influential figure for Chelsea this season under Emma Hayes (Harriet Lander – Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Bompastor will already be familiar with some players in the Chelsea squad. She coached Canada centre-back Kadeisha Buchanan and USWNT forward Catarina Macario at senior level at Lyon, and she played with and coached France full-back Eve Perisset. Bompastor will also be very aware of Canada full-back Ashley Lawrence’s abilities, having seen her up close during Lawrence’s time at Paris Saint-Germain.
Sweden winger Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and England’s 20-year-old forward Aggie Beever-Jones feel like natural fits for Bompastor’s attacking style, while Colombia striker Mayra Ramirez is tailor-made to be the hold-up player.
Bompastor is still a relatively new coach and her move to Chelsea will be the first time she has managed away from Lyon. She is not the finished article as a manager, with her team sometimes looking ponderous when progressing the ball. Lyon have long dominated the French league and the tactical demands placed on her Chelsea side will be far higher in the Women’s Super League. For Bompastor to succeed at the club, there is no doubt she will have to develop further as a coach.
That pressure will be intensified given the incredible success Hayes enjoyed in charge of the team. There will be an expectation that Bompastor can hit the ground running given the squad at her disposal but the jump is set to be far bigger than some people might expect.
(Top photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
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