Niamh Charles: Her successful evolution from a winger to a full-back for Chelsea Women and England

There is no doubt that Chelsea have an abundance of talent currently in their squad, with some of the world’s best players plying their trade at Kingsmeadow, but someone who has really caught the eye in Emma Hayes’ team this season is not a player who generally gets a lot of attention from outside the club. Yet, Niamh Charles has undoubtedly been a player that her side would struggle to play without at the moment, with her really progressing as a player and seeing her hard work come to fruition during the course of this season.

Since moving to the defending champions in 2020 from hometown club Liverpool, she has had to work incredibly hard to adapt to different tactical ideas and greater expectations, with Liverpool being one of the league’s strugglers and Chelsea being at the opposite end of the scale. Despite all of that though, she has really come on leaps and bounds as a player under Hayes’ tutelage, and the fact that she is now getting minutes for England is a testament to her development as a player.

At Liverpool

When playing for Liverpool, Charles was often deployed as a left winger (although she could play on either side of the pitch), and was tasked with running at defenders and using her changes of direction and directness to cause them problems.