Rosengård, Izzy Atkinson and how teams can deal with Barcelona - your women's football roundup
It has been another jam-packed week in the women’s game, with league and cup action in every corner of the globe and plenty for fans to enjoy.
As ever, this newsletter will bring you the best of the on and off-field news, picking out analysis points from the games before providing you with the usual selection of reading and listening material, ensuring that you are covered however you prefer to keep up to date.
3 key talking points….
Rosengård have a lot of attacking talent – but defensive issues keep costing them
When watching Rosengård play, it’s hard not to get a little frustrated, because they are one of those teams that most resemble Jekyll and Hyde on the field.
To explain, going forward and when they have the ball, they look fairly efficient and always ask questions of their opponents, with Ria Öling creating from behind the forward line, Olivia Holdt showing her versatility and offering a mobile target, Mai Kadowaki possessing plenty of pace and Olivia Schough offering support from wider positions.
However, any hope of those positives leading to wins ends as soon as they lose the ball, because that is where they constantly leave a lot to be desired. Only last week during the Champions League match against Benfica, they constantly looked to pass the ball around at the back and to try and build from their own third, but a lack of quality and composure meant that all that achieved was enabling their Portuguese opponents to press from the front and to win the ball in dangerous spaces.
https://twitter.com/AlexGangueRuzic/status/1750597275041304816
Any team that wants to succeed has to eradicate those errors from their game, especially when playing a team containing attacking players like Jéssica Silva and Marie-Yasmine Alidou who love to access pockets of space and create chances, with both players looking really sharp in Malmö last week.
The fact that they finished the 2023 Damallsvenskan season in seventh place and will not be in next season’s Champions League shows how this is not a new problem either, with them experiencing plenty of defensive lapses in their league outings too.
For a closer look at Rosengård’s issues last season, have a look at my article for Total Football Analysis here:
Rosengård did take a point against Benfica, which was their first in two years and so should be celebrated, but it was a slightly fortunate one given the number of times that they invited Benfica to apply pressure inside their own third. There is no doubt that they rode their luck in that game, and not making improvements could continue to prevent them from really living up to their full potential.
Izzy Atkinson could be an underrated addition to Crystal Palace’s ranks
With today marking the final day of the winter transfer window deadline, there has been a flurry of activity in the last week as clubs up and down England search for the players that they feel they are in need of to either secure promotion, avoid a drop to the tier below or to simply meet their pre-season targets.
One team who have opted for minimal activity is Crystal Palace, with them only dipping into the market three times as they seek to retain the strong form that has seen them become one of the main challengers for promotion to the WSL. The first player to arrive was midfielder Ria Percival on loan from Tottenham Hotspur whilst the second new player was Izzy Atkinson, who has moved on a permanent deal from West Ham United. The third was confirmed on deadline day as forward Abbie Larkin joined from Glasgow City, also on a permanent deal.
Atkinson’s addition is the one that really stands out, with her being a versatile player who fits into a number of different shapes and systems (with her predominantly featuring at wing-back for the Republic of Ireland) and so she looks like the type of player that Crystal Palace will benefit from having available to them.
“Nobody covered more ground in the race for a place in the 23 than Izzy Atkinson, the 21-year old from Rush in north county Dublin who hadn’t even been named in the enlarged panel that got tournament preparations underway.
Atkinson got a belated call when it became apparent that Megan Campbell wasn’t going to make it because of injury and the unlucky Liverpool defender even went so far as to vacate her hotel room for her younger colleague ahead of the friendly against Zambia.
The West Ham United woman grabbed the opportunity with both hands, impressing in both directions from a berth at wing-back against the African side in Tallaght.”
Brendan O’Brien, writing for the Irish Examiner in July 2023.
Her ability to successfully win 1-v-1 duels around the field and to set up chances for others could lead to her forming a strong partnership with star striker Elise Hughes and with the aforementioned Larkin, and that could be what helps them to stay within touching distance of current leaders Charlton Athletic and with a chance of reaching the top flight.
She is still a young player at just 22 years old, so there shouldn’t be too much expectation and pressure out on her. However, there is no doubt that she could be a really good long-term prospect for the club and will enable them to keep developing under head coach Laura Kaminski.
Why sitting back is not the way to deal with Barcelona’s attacking threat
It doesn’t happen so much in Europe, with teams in the Champions League sticking to their own principles and trying to play the same as they always do, but Liga F matches that involve Barcelona against a team outside the other title contenders always tend to look the same, with Barcelona enjoying the lion’s share of possession whilst their opponents set up with a low block in their attempts to keep as much distance between them and the goal.
In theory, this is a good attitude to have because it means that Barcelona have a lot of obstacles to negotiate before they can attempt a shot on goal. However, when considering how the Spanish giants like to play, with the traditional Spanish tiki-taka philosophy firmly ingrained in their tactics, it actually plays directly into their hands.
At the weekend, Real Betis were the latest team to let them have the ball and all it did was to let Barcelona pick their passes and link up with each other as they moved between the lines with almost effortless precision.
What was perhaps surprising as the game went on was that Betis never seemed to try anything else once it became apparent that their initial plan wasn’t working, with them retaining a firm belief in sitting back and the result being that Barcelona didn’t have to work too hard to break them down. At times, key connectors like Patri Guijarro were walking forward with the ball and then being allowed to find teammates at their leisure, and as soon as the ball arrived at the feet of players like Aitana Bonmatí and Caroline Graham Hansen, a shot or a goal always looked fairly inevitable.
https://twitter.com/HerFootballHub/status/1752712561697419714
Perhaps the best way of dealing with Barcelona therefore is to not sit back but to press from the front, with the intention of isolating key players further back and so preventing those rapid transitions that they thrive on from being executed.
It would carry an inherent amount of risk, given that it would leave spaces open between and behind their lines, and that might be what is putting teams off adopting it. However, given that the alternative is rarely having the desired effect, maybe the time has come to try something different and to throw caution to the wind.
Read all about it….
An audience with Nikki Doucet - one of the main stories in the women’s game over the last week has been the discussion that new WSL and Championship governing body “NewCo” (a working name) boss Nikki Doucet has had with the media regarding her plans for the way that the top two tiers will run once they take full control of them. Charlotte Harpur’s article for The Athletic details many of the key questions posed and answers that she provided.
What makes Paris FC tick - Charlotte has also been talking to Paris FC head coach Sabrine Soubeyrand in the last week, with this article (also on The Athletic) detailing how Paris prepare for games, what Soubeyrand’s views on tactics and match preparation are and how Paris work hard to develop their squad each season.
Jack Beesley details his career - in this wide-ranging interview with Chris Marshall’s Substack page, Leading the Line, new Spartans head coach Jack Beesley discusses how he got into football, his career and his aims for Spartans both this season and in the future.
Lend me your ears….
Miedema stars and City insight with Esme Morgan - BBC 5 Live have started a new weekly podcast focusing on the women’s game, hosted by Ben Haines and Ellen White and a guest. Named Women’s Football Weekly, this week’s episode featured Manchester City and England defender Esme Morgan and included talk about the latest WSL results, what it’s like to play for Manchester City, their plans for a new training centre and a chat with Katie Robinson.
That’s all for now - back next week!!