Chelsea Women head coach Sonia Bompastor was delighted to see her team share the goals around and entertain the home supporters in a 9-0 victory over Feyenoord.
Bompastor couldn't have asked for much more in her first Chelsea match at Kingsmeadow, as her side raced into an early lead and never looked back, triumphing 9-0 at the final whistle.
Her joy was clear in a light-hearted start to her post-match analysis, when it was pointed out to her the Blues got one more goal than in previous head coach Emma Hayes' last home game, an 8-0 win over Brentford.
‘That’s not a competition, but I am going to text her to make sure she knows about the result! I am sure she will be happy for me and for the team especially,’ laughed Bompastor.
It was the Blues' performance which put the biggest smile on her face, though, especially the fact that a total of seven players got their name on the score sheet, as Sandy Baltimore, Mayra Ramirez, Sjoeke Nusken, Wieke Kaptein, Millie Bright and Maika Hamano all found the net, in addition to a hat-trick from Aggie Beever-Jones.
‘It was the same in my previous experience. I really like when the team is performing together, it’s not about only one or two players. So I always makes sure the team performs, and when the team is performing it’s more helpful for the players individually to perform as well.
'We have a framework and I’m really demanding on the framework, as well as for individuals to perform. Everyone has to make sure they work for the team. That’s the best thing to do to make sure the players feel confident enough and perform themselves.'
Bompastor was happy to give the supporters something to smile about in her first home game as head coach...
'It felt really good to be in that environment. It’s a really nice stadium to have the fans close to the pitch, especially when you win and you score a lot of goals.
'That’s our first game at home with the fans in the stadium and we needed to make sure we played the way we want to play, but make sure they enjoyed it as well. That is what it is about, trying to perform as hard as we can and making sure the fans really enjoy it.
'I just want them to say at the end of the game they want to come back for the next one.'
She also discussed the possibility of Ramirez and Beever-Jones featuring together as a striker partnership in the future...
'Everything is possible and both have so much talent, so to audition them together is something possible.
'As a manager I like to have different organisations in my team and at the moment maybe we have been working only with one organisation. We just brought in new players and with a new coach, so they need to get used to what I’m demanding in one organisation, but for sure during the season maybe we’ll switch.
'We will have many options, playing with a back four, back five, back three. A 4-4-2 with two strikers is something I really like but I just feel like at the moment it’s too soon to start to teach them about all these organisations.'
Sonia finished by providing an update on the two players who went off injured today and those who have been absent since earlier in pre-season...
'I think Niamh [Charles] dislocated her shoulder, so she will need to pass some tests to see how it goes, at the moment it’s too soon to give more information. Sophie [Ingle] it was her knee, she got kicked in the beginning of the second half, so we will have to see after some tests as well, but I hope it’s not too bad.
'Erin [Cuthbert] is supposed to start adaptive training on Monday and if everything goes well the plan is for her to get some minutes in a training game next Saturday.
'Cat’s [Macario] kind of the same, she’s already started some adaptive training sessions with the team, she’s supposed to progress this week and the plan is also for her to get some minutes next Saturday.
'Oriane [Jean-Francois], before she joined the club she had two seasons without playing a lot because she had injuries. So we are at the moment trying to build something with her with consistency and the plan is for her maybe to get some minutes in the beginning of the season. But we still need to work one or two more weeks with her.'