The Netherlands, Sam Kerr and Natasha Flint - your women's football roundup
This week is always one of the most enjoyable ones in the season, if one of the most hectic, with the mix of international and domestic league and cup action in the space of just a few days always creating a range of interesting narratives for fans and the media to get stuck into.
As ever, this newsletter will bring you some of those stories, keeping you up to date on what you might have missed during the last seven days, as well as providing you with other articles to cast your eyes over and a podcast episode worth spending time catching up on.
3 key talking points….
The Netherlands’ wing-back system
Ever since Andries Jonker took over from Mark Parsons as Netherlands head coach, he has been looking to find a way of getting all of his star players into the side and playing with a front foot mentality in order to put opponents under pressure.
In his first matches in charge, against Austria, he used a 4-2-3-1 formation as he looked to provide players like Lieke Martens with the freedom to move into different areas of the field, and it did have limited success. However, because there was only one striker at the top of the field, Austria nullified it by simply sitting back and not giving the Netherlands any opportunity to shoot at goal.
Therefore, in the period between those matches and the most recent international break, Jonker developed a wing-back formation that saw his side play with the same attacking flexibility but also maintain the width, and that had the desired effect as it prevented both Germany and Poland from being compact and instead forced them to spread out more.
“A firm believer in cohesion and straight talking, his approach seems to have gone down well with his team, while his tactics are all about pressing the opposition and getting forward at the earliest opportunity. In that respect, the influence of his mentor Van Gaal is clear to see.”
FIFA report on the Netherlands, ahead of the World Cup.
He also started with Martens and Lineth Beerensteyn in a front two for those games, which was another positive aspect of their performances, because, with them not being natural strikers and instead tending to drift towards the wings, it allowed the two eights in the side, Daniëlle van de Donk and Jill Roord, to push forwards and create numerical overloads in the final third.
Overall, there were some nice combinations around the field and the players clearly enjoyed the system and the benefits that it brought, and, if they decide to persevere with it, then they could be a team to watch this summer.
Sam Kerr continues to pop up at the right time
Anyone who has followed Chelsea or the WSL in general this season will know that Emma Hayes’ side have not had their best campaign, with them at times appearing leggy and unable to adjust to different shapes and systems, and that has led to some nervy performances and tighter games than they would have wanted.
A clear sign of this lack of quality at times is the low goal return from star striker Sam Kerr, who has scored at least 20 goals in each of her two full seasons at the club, but who has only managed to find the net on eight occasions during 2022/2023 so far. Yes, she is missing the support of influential players like Fran Kirby and Pernille Harder at the moment, but that normally doesn’t prove to be a problem when it comes to her individual goalscoring threat.
However, despite such a disappointing return, her goals have all come at important moments in the season, with them helping to beat teams around Chelsea in the league and ensure that they remain in contention for three trophies.
https://twitter.com/CFCWdaily/status/1646791222311174144
Often, they have been scored from close range too, with Kerr staying high up the field and waiting for the chances to present themselves, and that ability to turn on the style at the blink of an eye is why she is such a dangerous player to underestimate.
This has been shown on plenty of occasions, but none more so than her two most recent games, when she first pounced on a loose back pass from Leah Williamson during Australia’s win against England and then got the only goal of the game for Chelsea against Aston Villa in the FA Cup.
https://twitter.com/Chelseawomen_/status/1645872282135396352
Quite simply, she can never be allowed an inch of space to move into, because that is all the invitation that she needs and she will take full advantage of, and, if Chelsea do manage to lift one, two or maybe all three trophies that they are still able to, then she will have played her part in keeping the team on course with her sniping runs and constant ability to pop up just when her teammates need her to.
Natasha Flint’s arrival on loan has boosted Celtic’s SWPL 1 and Champions League hopes
With only two teams able to qualify for the Champions League from the SWPL 1, the fight between Glasgow City, Celtic and Rangers for those places has continued to intensify week on week.
Throughout the majority of the season, it has looked very much like Glasgow City will reclaim their title and secure one of them, whilst Celtic are perhaps the side most likely to join them. However, despite that, Celtic’s hopes of securing qualification as league winners have not completely evaporated, and last weekend saw them remind Glasgow that the season is far from over, with Fran Alonso’s side securing a 4-2 win at Petershill Park.
Tactically, it was a really interesting battle between the two, but what won the game for Celtic was the way that they used on-loan Leicester City striker Natasha Flint, with them asking her to attract the attentions of Glasgow’s defensive line and allow the creative players to make runs into the areas behind, effectively using the league leaders’ tactics against them.
“Not only did we win, but we won in a very dominating and commanding way.”
Fran Alonso, talking after the win against Glasgow City.
Flint has made a huge impact since moving north of the border, and it was perhaps a signing that Alonso would not have made had he not seen summer signing Lucy Ashworth-Clifford suffer a long-term injury. However, he must be glad now that he did move for her, because she has provided a focal point that his side had been missing at times during the first half of the season.
If Celtic do make it into the Champions League, either as league champions or as runners-up, then they will owe a lot to the Leicester loanee and the difference that she has made to their overall play, and, given that she has not been featuring much for the WSL strugglers and has looked rejuvenated since moving to Celtic, it would not be a surprise to see the Scottish team make a permanent bid for her when the summer transfer window opens.
Read all about it….
The WSL title race - with each round of the WSL now carrying such importance with regards to the way that the top four teams could finish, with one of them missing out on Europe next season and none of them preparing to budge, it is shaping up to be one of the most exciting run-ins in English women’s football history. This article on BBC Sport takes you through what could happen and each team’s chances of achieving their aims. (Disclaimer: this article was published before Manchester United’s win against Arsenal on Wednesday night).
Melissa Phillips’ Brighton vision - Brighton recently appointed former London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips as their new manager, with her taking over and promising to do her best to keep the club in the WSL. In this exclusive and interesting interview with The Athletic’s Andy Naylor, she outlines her vision for the side and how she wants to develop them going forwards.
Wrexham’s success in the Welsh women’s game - with so much coverage of the success that Wrexham’s men’s team have had this season in the National League, it could have been easy to neglect the women’s team. Yet, they have been just as successful, as this article by Richard Sutcliffe for The Athletic explains.
Lend me your ears….
Ertz, FA Cup and NWSL chaos - for a really good roundup of all the recent talking points and shenanigans in England and the USA, as well as results in other countries around the world, the latest episode of The WOSO Show is well worth tuning in to.
That’s all for now - back next week!!