Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor is one of the most successful women in French football history. Being a top player is certainly no prerequisite to being an excellent coach, but in Bompastor’s case her development into an elite coach was preceded by an elite playing career. As the first person to win the Women's Champions League as both player and manager, she has an impeccable pedigree.
Born in Blois in northwest-central France in 1980, Bompastor captained her national team, playing 158 games for Les Bleues. After retiring as a player in 2013, she coached at Lyon’s academy for eight years, before taking over the first team in 2021. Lyon duly secured a league and Champions League double in her first season, followed by a domestic double in 2023, another league title in 2024, and another Champions League final appearance.
When Emma Hayes left serial English champions Chelsea in 2024, it was the impressive Bompastor who the London club chose to take over. The Blues have barely skipped a beat under her guidance, going unbeaten in their first 31 games, including a 2025 League Cup final win.
Below, our UEFA-licensed coaches have analysed the tactics Bompastor has used in her time as a head coach so far.
Playing style
Bompastor’s teams have played progressive and attacking football, which makes her sides dangerous in possession and on attacking transitions. Without the ball, her teams are usually very aggressive. They put the opposition under intense pressure in a bid to regain possession as quickly as possible. Bompastor has tended to prefer a back four, usually in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, but has shown the tactical flexibility to switch to a back three when required – typically to match an opposition’s back-three structure.
Build-up
When building from deep, Bompastor’s teams have often set up in a 4-3-3 – particularly at Lyon – or a 4-2-3-1. Whether she has opted for a single pivot or double pivot has often depended on the tactical challenges posed by the opposition.
When Chelsea faced Real Madrid in the 2024/25 Champions League, Bompastor went with a 4-3-3 (below), with high number eights to push back Madrid’s central midfielders. When play circulated to Chelsea’s right, Erin Cuthbert drifted into the widest lane as the ball-side midfielder, which created more space centrally around Madrid’s isolated front two. Chelsea were then able to exploit the overload, with goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, centre-backs Nathalie Björn and Millie Bright, and pivot Sjoeke Nüsken. The height of Bompastor’s full-backs can also change. They drop deeper to support and combine when playing out of pressure against aggressive pressing teams. Alternatively, they will stay higher to receive behind the first line of pressure, against more isolated and passive pressing.
When required, Bompastor’s teams have also built from deeper areas with a double pivot. This can help her back four and pivots to more easily combine against and away from pressure, thanks to the closer proximity and connections between them. When building against Brighton (below) in a WSL fixture in March 2025, this enabled Chelsea to overload and escape centrally when any of Brighton’s central unit released to press Hampton, Bright or debutant centre-back Naomi Girma.
When Brighton forward Nikita Parris pressed out to in, Keira Walsh (or fellow pivot Nüsken on the opposite side) could support closer as the ball-side pivot (below). Walsh was able to combine behind the press to find Lucy Bronze at right-back, escaping from pressure. Chelsea could then accelerate the attack because their last line had pinned Brighton’s back line, who hadn’t continued the press by jumping aggressively.
It must also be highlighted that Bompastor’s teams aren’t afraid to play directly into the top line against more aggressive presses. They will initially draw pressure in deeper areas, before exploiting the space afforded higher up the pitch.
Creating and scoring
A key strength of Bompastor’s teams – reflected by performances in the early stages of her Chelsea tenure – is their potency in attacking areas. In her final season as Lyon head coach, her team finished the Première Ligue campaign with the most goals (90) and xG (79.37). As such, her teams have been capable of creating chances from a variety of situations.
That said, they have often utilised the capabilities of a focal striker in central areas. This striker will receive and pin opposition defenders, before linking with supporting midfielders who time their runs to arrive into the spaces created by a slightly deeper, pinned defensive line. There, they combine and create via third-player combinations and movements. For example, below, Chelsea’s Maika Hamano played an intelligently disguised pass into Mayra Ramírez, who found the supporting run of Aggie Beever-Jones to convert following an untracked run in behind the defensive line.
Bompastor’s teams have also been notable for the number of crosses they deliver. After 17 games of the 2024/25 WSL season, her Chelsea side averaged the most crosses in the division per 90 minutes (20.2). Upon securing possession, they have often found their wide players quickly and created dangerous attacks from these areas, forcing the opposition to defend their box and looking to seize on any opportunities.
When finding players who can attack 1v1 against the full-back in advanced wider positions, Bompastor’s teams get good numbers inside the box. The central striker tends to attack between and on the blind side of the ball-side central defender, towards the near post. This creates space for the second wave of attacking movements, with the opposite winger attacking the back-post space, and one or two central midfielders arriving to attack the cut-back space (below). These themes are executed similarly in attacking transitions, with wide players exploiting the even more vacant spaces between opposition centre-backs and full-backs.
Out of possession
Without the ball, Bompastor’s teams have developed an identity consistent with aggressive pressing. Lyon ranked as the most aggressive pressing team in the 2023/24 Première Ligue, with the lowest PPDA in the division. This has been repeated at Chelsea, who had the lowest PPDA after 17 rounds of the 2024/25 WSL season.
From goal-kicks, her Chelsea side have been known to go player-oriented with their pressing (below). Here, the back line starts as high as possible on the halfway line to compact distances between units. They will directly pressure the opponent from the goalkeeper’s initial pass, jumping on the line of passes from outfield players, looking to lock the opposition in wide areas to regain, or force them to kick longer.
Bompastor’s teams have been flexible in their out-of-possession approach. They can press with an underload (typically minus one) in their first pressing line to maintain an overload in their defensive line for more security. This has especially been the case from open-play pressing structures, or when releasing from a mid-block to press, with her teams able to deploy as a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1.
These structures are similar, but possess subtle differences in the way they minimise opposition strengths and expose weaknesses. For example, there are options to release more aggressively within a 4-4-2 structure to press the opposition’s first line with more immediate pressure. Whereas a 4-2-3-1 – as used by Lyon against Barcelona in the 2024 Champions League final (below) – allows a team to stay compact centrally. They can then wait for the trigger of wider passes into full-backs to lock possession wide, in an attempt to limit available passing options and use the touchline as an extra defender.
Although Bompastor’s side lost that closely fought 2024 final against Barcelona, her positive impact at Lyon was undeniable. Now her first season at Chelsea has yielded silverware, cementing her reputation as one of the leading coaches in women’s football.
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