“We Need That Killing Instinct” – Bompastor on Villa Draw | OneFootball

Sonia Bompastor admitted Chelsea must rediscover their “killing instinct” after a dominant performance against Aston Villa produced only a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea appeared firmly in control of their Women’s Super League opener after Lauren James fired them ahead in the first half, but their failure to convert a host of further opportunities ultimately proved costly.

Despite registering more than 30 attempts and repeatedly threatening the Villa goal, Chelsea could not find a second. The visitors remained within touching distance and were eventually rewarded when Veerle Buurman’s unfortunate own goal levelled the contest late on.

For Bompastor, it was an all-too-familiar story.

“If you analyse a few of the games we had last season, we were in the same scenarios,” the Chelsea boss said. “If you analyse the performance today and the statistics of the game, you can say that’s crazy. We could have won the game. We created a lot of opportunities. The reality of football is maybe this game, at half-time, we need to be two or three-nil up and the game is over.”

Instead, Chelsea went into the second half protecting the narrowest of advantages, leaving Villa with something to fight for.

Bompastor stressed before the game that a single-goal lead could never be considered comfortable, particularly when Chelsea had created enough opportunities to put the result beyond doubt.

“When you have two or three goals difference, you can bring players in, rotate the squad,” she explained. “Being only 1-0 up, you know you can always be exposed. You need to keep the momentum. You need to speed up the game as quickly as possible and really sustain that. You need to make sure you accelerate just to kill the game. When you are only 1-0 up, you are always exposed and you don’t kill the opposition. That’s what happened today. At the end of the game, we are all frustrated because it’s not a good result.”

Chelsea searching for their ruthless edge

More concerning for Bompastor is that Chelsea have been here before.

There were matches last season in which the Blues controlled proceedings and generated more than enough opportunities to win comfortably, only to allow opponents to remain in contention.

Asked whether the recurring issue was becoming a concern, Bompastor pointed towards both confidence and mentality.

“The mentality, the mindset, being ruthless, being clinical in the box,” she said. “The best teams, they don’t need to have many opportunities. They just have one or two sometimes, and it’s enough for them to win the game. That’s something we need to work on, but also something we need to find solutions for.”

Bompastor believes there are certain elements that can be addressed on the training ground, with Chelsea attempting to replicate the pressure and decision-making players encounter during matches.

The club’s psychological staff are also involved in that process.

“There are things which are easy to coach sometimes, but some other aspects are more difficult,” Bompastor explained. “The mindset, the mentality, it’s something you can improve, you can keep working on, but also you need to have that desire, that killing instinct inside to be able to do that. We’re not going to give up. It’s early in the season. It’s not the result we wanted, but we need to keep working.”

Confidence, she believes, will be crucial.

“When you see some players when they are playing with confidence and without confidence, I think it makes a difference. We just need to analyse all these things and make sure we help the players to be as confident as possible going into the next game.”

Bompastor dismisses substitution concerns

Chelsea’s inability to find a second goal also prompted questions over whether Bompastor could have turned to her bench earlier.

The Chelsea manager acknowledged there were alternative approaches available to her, including moving James centrally and introducing another attacking player.

However, she rejected the suggestion that her substitutions were the fundamental reason Chelsea failed to win.

“My eyes are more about: were we creating enough to win the game? Yes, we were,” Bompastor said. “In those moments, you just think, do you need to bring players on to change something? Are you missing something there? Yes, we were missing scoring goals, having someone ruthless and clinical.”

For Bompastor, there was an important distinction between a team struggling to manufacture opportunities and one creating chances but failing to convert them.

Chelsea firmly fell into the latter category.

“I think what we were doing was good. Not good enough because we didn’t win the game, but we created a lot of opportunities, and I trust my players, the ones who are on the pitch, to be able to turn things on. Could I have done something different? Yes, maybe. Maybe it would have worked, maybe not. That’s football. But I think I have enough experience to know the game today was not about the substitutions. The game today was more about being clinical and ruthless with all the opportunities we created.”

Attacking absences leave Chelsea short of options

Chelsea’s current attacking injuries have nevertheless reduced Bompastor’s ability to change the profile of her frontline.

Melvine Malard is nearing a return after getting involved in training, while Mayra Ramírez remains unavailable.

Bompastor conceded having both players available would have provided valuable alternatives against Villa.

“If you ask me, would I like to have Melvine and Mayra available in the squad? Yes, of course,” she said. “Maybe in this game, we could have put one of them, two of them, and maybe have them in front in the game. As a manager, when you have all your squad available, it’s easier to sometimes make substitutions, bring different profiles into the game depending on what you need. These two players for sure are big players for us.”

Bompastor was unwilling to put an exact timeframe on their respective returns, although she expressed hope that Malard could be available soon.

She also dismissed the idea that Chelsea’s midweek European commitments had contributed to Saturday’s result.

The Blues had been in Champions League action against Real Sociedad on Wednesday, but Bompastor insisted competing every three days is simply part of the expectation at Chelsea.

“A club like Chelsea, we need to be able to play every three days. That’s our reality,” she said. “The fitness today was probably not what cost us the game or the three points.”

James continues to shine

One significant positive was another influential performance from James.

Chelsea’s number 10 provided the breakthrough with a superb finish and remained the hosts’ most threatening attacking outlet, coming close to scoring again late on only to be denied by an excellent Akane Okuma save.

After several seasons in which injuries have interrupted James’ rhythm, Bompastor believes Chelsea are now seeing sustained performances from a player capable of deciding matches.

“I think LJ, since I joined the club, is doing great,” she said. “I think she’s probably been performing at her best level. She’s been sustaining performances for the last few months and seasons. I think she’s an impactful player for us. She was the one who again scored the goal today. I think she’s playing at a really good level, but there is a lot of work behind the scenes with her to make sure she stays fit and available as much as possible.”

Yet even James’ contribution could not disguise Chelsea’s overriding frustration.

On another afternoon, the sheer volume of chances created would likely have produced a comfortable victory. Instead, Villa’s resilience, Okuma’s goalkeeping and Chelsea’s wastefulness combined to leave Bompastor’s side with only one point.

For the Chelsea boss, the lesson from their opening WSL fixture was therefore straightforward.

Creating chances is not the problem. Finishing them is.

And if Chelsea are to achieve their ambitions this season, Bompastor knows they will have to develop the ruthlessness to ensure games they dominate do not remain within their opponents’ reach.