r/chelsealadiesfc

Very excited about the signing of Manaka Matsukubo! For any Chelsea fans wanting to learn more about her, here's a video from a few months ago analysing why Chelsea should sign her.

Welcome to our weekly discussion thread! Here's your place to muse about tactics, discuss rival performances, chat about squad news, and talk about anything else related to Chelsea Women. All subreddit rules still apply -- and as always, KTBFFH!

Helpful links

• Fixtures and results
• Latest news
• Current WSL standings

This thread is set to auto-post every Monday and will remain pinned throughout the week.

We've lost Kerr, Macario, Kaneryd, Reiten and it's possible we are going to lose more attackers...here's a generational talent that's a left footed James...

Can cut inside, unreal technique, pin point crossing, isn't a pace merchant so she'll be effective even after the speed is gone, good in tight spaces, can maintain width, fits clownlake obsession with teenagers and prospects and we are letting our top rivals sign her unabated..

Hello again! Just dropped my last eat article discussing the dramatic transfer that ended in McCabe putting on that royal blue shirt. I look at the how and the why a move such as this happened in a seemingly quick space of time. Enjoy!

Losing Millie Bright to retirement and Sam Kerr in the same summer genuinely feels like the end of an era. They've been two of the biggest figures in the most successful period in the club's history. Replacing that leadership, experience and quality in one window is a huge task. How confident are you in the rebuild under Sonia Bompastor?

A sequel to the question that brought me here in the first place: how are midfield minutes distributed in squad? My first post was from the end of January, and here we are at the end of the season... I also took a look at matches by month and competition:

• As a reminder, this is all done manually, so there are likely errors.
• When using percentages to describe minutes played, matches that went to extra time have been adjusted for if the player appeared in that match.
• Eligibility, as a concept below, indicates if the player was named to match day squad.
• A miss, as a concept below, indicates eligible but not appearing.

Minutes by eligibility and appearances

Player	Squads	Appearances	% of eligible minutes	% of appearance minutes
Erin	35	33	80.03%	84.79%
Keira	33	31	83.73%	89.02%
Sjoeke	36	29	56.45%	69.78%
Wieke	35	35	59.13%	59.13%
Lexi	28	14	23.53%	47.06%

Misses by competition:

Player	Squads	Appearances	Misses by competition
Erin	35	33	1 CL, 1 LC
Keira	33	31	1 CL, 1 WSL
Sjoeke	36	29	1 CL, 6 WSL
Wieke	35	35
Lexi	28	14	5 CL, 3 FA, 1 LC, 5 WSL

Misses by month (split into 2025 and 2026):

Player	September	October	Novmber	December
Erin			1	1
Keira		1
Sjoeke	2	1	3	1
Wieke
Lexi	1	2	1	1

Player	January	February	March	April	May
Erin
Keira					1
Sjoeke
Wieke
Lexi	2	2	1	2	2

Minutes by month (split into 2025 and 2026):

Player	September	October	November	December
Erin	284	293	360	180
Keira	360	270	419	300
Sjoeke	4	157	86	215
Wieke	272	205	347	255
Lexi	0	17	31	135

Player	January	February	March	April	May
Erin	283	350	324	240	255
Keira	34	312	387	245	210
Sjoeke	200	292	438	252	219
Wieke	262	127	258	24	148
Lexi	58	61	182	19	90

##So what did we learn?

The battle for the third MF ended in a draw (whether that's the 8, 10 or ??? I still don't really know how the positional numbers work, especially when the formations change)

• If Wieke is fit enough, she'll play. She's the only MF to appear in every match she was eligible.
• Despite the 600ish minute head start Wieke had (462 vs. 1079 minutes total at the end of December), she and Sjoeke ended pretty square. Based on eligibility, by the end of the season, Sjoeke played 56.45% of available minutes, Wieke 59.13%.
• This becomes a smidge amusing when you layer on that Sjoeke was eligible but did not appear in 1 CL match and 6 WSL matches. Her minutes played, based on appearances and not eligible matches, jumps to 69.78% of minutes available.

Keira's a workhorse, but Sjoeke is too, if you let her

Sjoeke played 97.3% of minutes available to her in March, over the course of five matches. The only player to play more available minutes, percentage-wise, within a month was Keira, who played every minute of four matches in September. Sjoeke also checks in at third place, with 93.3% of her minutes in April, over three matches, with Keira coming in 4th with 93.1% of minutes across five matches in November. To round out the top five, Keira clocks in again with 90.74% of minutes played in April, across 3 matches

(This includes Right Back Sjoeke Nüsken (RBSN) time, but I'm treating all minutes equally because the what-if game of "would she have played" is difficult to model.)

Erin C.: the C stands for Captain (give her the armband already)

Despite the fact Erin appeared to be held together with KT tape for much of the back half of the season, she remains a bastion of the club, with remarkably consistent deployment. Her low month was 66.67% of eligible minutes, her high month was 89.74%, a difference of 23.1 percentage points. Arbitrarily removing Keira's January, Sjoeke's September, and Wieke's April to adjust for injury, their ranges span 30, 78.2(!!) and 34.8 percentage points respectively. Comparing percentage points may not be a terribly mathematically sound method, but Erin remains the straw that stirs Chelsea's drink. Keira might be the metronome, but Erin composes the whole damn thing. The dynamics, the articulation... yes, my inner band kid is showing.

One special guest star ended up being enough — for now

Lexi Potter's appearances and non-appearances were pretty evenly distributed. 14 appearances from 28 squads, with no month having more than 2 sit-outs. From those 14 appearances, she played 47.06% of minutes available, appearing across all competitions. The majority of her minutes came from league play (380) with ~90 mins in both Champions League and Sandwich Cup, across 3 and 2 appearances respectively.

I didn't include OJF in part 1 so I didn't here either, but in total, OJF's season for Chelsea: 17 eligible games, 7 appearances, 237 minutes. Playtime percentages shake out to be 15.5% of minutes by eligibility, 37.6% by appearances.

##And after all that?

Even after all the in-season chaos, weirdness, and general side-eye, it ended up shaking out pretty much to script:

• Keira-Erin locked in
• Sjoeke and Wieke duking it out for third
• Understudy Lexi Potter soaking it all in

How it unfolded though, that's more interesting. After Erin went down in December, both Sjoeke and Lexi pick up minutes. Flip the calendar, Keira only makes one appearance in January, but her minutes don't get shared - Lexi plays 58 minutes, vs Erin, Sjoeke and Wieke's 200+. February comes around and Sjoeke seems to have won back her spot, more than doubling Wieke's minutes, albeit with one more eligible match. It's only when RBSN appears in March does Lexi draw back in. Then, when Wieke goes down for a spell in April, Erin, Keira and Sjoeke end up clocking 240+ mins each.

Even though Sjoeke was also injured for a spell sometime early in the season, I'm not applying the same type of interpretation to her reduced time as I have above because she was only ineligible once in the span of three months, and that was Matchweek 2. If October wasn't a compressed month (4 matches in 10 days), I wonder if the November trend is seen there as well.

Strength of competition, matchups, small knocks, etc. definitely play a role, but I read this as a preference to go with the known quantities. Pros and cons to that approach, of course, but based on the available data, and knowing more travel is on the horizon (lack of Sandwich Cup does not offset League Phase in Champions League), rotation really needs to be on point next season.

Phil Radley flops again… starting to think it’s going to be a long summer for us

Welcome to our weekly discussion thread! Here's your place to muse about tactics, discuss rival performances, chat about squad news, and talk about anything else related to Chelsea Women. All subreddit rules still apply -- and as always, KTBFFH!

Helpful links

• Fixtures and results
• Latest news
• Current WSL standings

This thread is set to auto-post every Monday and will remain pinned throughout the week.