Chelsea duo Erin Cuthbert and Zecira Musovic praised new manager Sonia Bompastor following their unbeaten start to the season and the smooth transition to her leadership.
The Blues have won all five of their first Women’s Super League (WSL) games as well as their opening two Champions League group stage games against Real Madrid and FC Twente.
It is the first time that Chelsea have had a five-game unbeaten streak to start the league season, and under the guidance of Bompastor, who took the helm of the club in the summer following Emma Hayes’ departure to the United States women’s national team, Cuthbert said there is more to come as the French manager continues to mould the side.
“It’s unfamiliar territory for us. We’ve not really been in that position,” Cuthbert told ESPN on Tuesday. “I think it’s our best-ever start to a WSL season, which is amazing. But again, it’s only a start, so I’m very much going to be the pessimist in this and say we’re five games in, and so much can happen yet from a 22-game season.”
Chelsea have won three points in all five of their WSL games thus far, but still have a game in hand against Manchester United to be played on Nov. 23.
Their goal difference is already vastly ahead of their title rivals, with Chelsea scoring 20 goals from 13 different players so far. Cuthbert praised the “unpredictability” in Bompastor’s style, which has allowed the forwards to flourish.
“When you have a manager for so long and then someone new comes in, you don’t know how long the teething process is going to be,” Cuthbert said. “But I think everyone’s embraced it.
“There has been a lot of change, staff and players at the club, so there’s been so much going on behind the scenes that maybe the fans don’t see. They can only see in the 90 minutes that we play. And I still think we’ve got another level to us.
“I still think the more time Sonia has under us, the more time she’s going to develop exactly how she wants to play. But I think we’ve probably got the best squad we’ve ever had, and Sonia’s certainly setting the stall out early.”
Cuthbert also lauded Bompastor’s high standards in training which have ensured that players are performing to the best of their ability on the pitch.
“She’s very demanding,” Cuthbert continued. “That’s something I really like from a manager. She knows what she wants. She doesn’t settle, she doesn’t like sloppiness in training. She doesn’t let you sort of sit back and chill for 10 minutes.
“There’s no let up from her and I really enjoy that. She knows exactly what she wants. She demands a lot of technical execution from everyone, and I think she will never settle on what she wants to achieve, which for sure, certainly demanding training at a high intensity.”
The Scotland international joined Chelsea in 2017 from Wolfsburg and spent eight seasons under former manager Hayes.
Having now spent four months under Bompastor, Cuthbert has recognised the similarities and differences between the two Chelsea coaches.
“I think that there’s a lot of similarities, like strong female powerful women and women in these positions always have a really good sense of man management,” she said.
“They always know how to handle the players and how to handle a big squad that everyone has an expectation to play so I think that is difficult for a manager. They all have such a special ability to be able to handle that. I think her and Emma do.
“I think the differences are maybe slightly more focused on training and how she manages players, how she manages them on the pitch, what she demands. I think Emma demanded things, but she demanded different things. I think Sonia demands a lot of technical execution. There’s a greater focus on building up from the back.”
Teammate Musovic echoed Cuthbert’s praise of her manager, insisting that Bompastor’s philosophy is living up to the “Chelsea way.”
“It’s new management; things have been running really smoothly and in a really good way,” the goalkeeper, who joined Chelsea in 2021, told ESPN.
“I really like to work with Sonia and the new management. I think she’s really ambitious. She’s intense in a good way. She knows what she wants from us, from herself and that’s a type of coach that I really like, someone who’s demanding.
“[She is a] really good coach, a good person, something that we value in Chelsea as well, you have to be a good person because that’s when we can find each other and work together.”
Musovic echoed Cuthbert’s sentiments around Bompastor’s levels of intensity and winning drive.
“I think both are big winners, which I really admire and love about both of them. Emma, we know that Emma is one of the biggest winners of them all,” she continued.
“And then you have Sonia who’s also a big winner and she demands a lot from us in training. Everything starts there in the daily habits. What are we doing on a daily basis that we can then bring with us into the game? So yeah, similarities for sure, but also differences that make them unique in their way.”
