Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor says that her side need to show more desire and intent in the opposition box if they are to resdiscover their goalscoring form.
The Blues remain unbeaten this season but the goals have dried up somewhat in recent weeks. Excluding the 4-0 win at West Ham United, Chelsea have netted just one goal in each of their other three most recent matches.
Chelsea had to settle for a share of the spoils in midweek as they drew 1-1 with Dutch side FC Twente in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. When speaking to the media ahead of this afternoon’s fixture against Tottenham Hotspur, Bompastor reflected on the learnings from her side’s latest match.
“Reflecting after the game, when you look at the stats, we were dominant and controlled the game, especially in-possession,” Bompastor said. “I just think we need to show more desire to grow with intent in the box, the desire to have the first contact in the box, the desire to score goals. I think we created some really good opportunities but we only scored a penalty.
“When you reflect on the game, we created a lot of opportunities where we should have shown more desire to be first on the ball and put it in the net. In our game model, the mentality is the formation, the base and we need to go back to that.”
In the three matches where Chelsea scored one goal, The Blues registered close to 60 shots on goal. Bompastor reiterated the need to show more desire and be more clinical in the box.
She said “When you look at the statistics, they just reflect the fact that we are creating good opportunities. Right now, we are probably not being as clinical as we were last season for different reasons. When that’s the case, you have to make sure that the mentality is right every game because we have to show desire and intent in the box to score and be first on the ball. You also have to make the right decision at the right moment. Sometimes, you are under pressure but you still need to be clinical and efficient.
“It comes with confidence. Sometimes, when the players are fully-confident they are just clinical without really knowing why and sometimes, when it’s not coming, they start to overthink a bit more and we lose that killer instinct in the box.
“Those are some of the reasons why we are being less clinical than last year but we are working on it and making sure that it won’t happen again.”
This afternoon’s opponents Tottenham Hotspur have won four of their opening five Barclays Women’s Super League matches and Bompastor has not been surprised by the North Londoners’ start to the season.
She said “No, not really surprised because I think even last season, Tottenham always had a good team in-possession of the ball. Last season, they didn’t get the results that they wanted to get.
“Right now, they’re in good form, a good dynamic and getting good results, so it’ll be a good challenge for us. We know what to expect and we will have to be at our best level if we want to perform and get a good result. It will be an exciting game.”
Chelsea’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur takes place at Kingsmeadow at 12pm.
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