The “complete player” Sonia Bompastor says is “fantastic” for Chelsea | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor says that as soon as she joined the club, she saw the potential of Aggie Beever-Jones.

The Frenchwoman took over the Blues hotseat in 2024 after the departure of Emma Hayes, and identified the Lioness’s ability right from the start.

“From the beginning when I joined the club, I could recognise Aggie was a complete player with a lot of talent,” she said in a press conference on Wednesday.

“Out of position she is great because she works hard for the team.

“She is the first one in the front line to apply the press and I think it’s been fantastic for the team.”

Beever-Jones has scored five goals in five matches at the start of the Women’s Super League season – and her goalscoring threat will likely prove crucial on Friday evening.

That’s when league leaders Chelsea travel to Leigh to face second-placed Manchester United.

Bompastor acknowledged that it would be a difficult game.

“The games against Man United are always tough. If you read the table right now, they are at the top of the table for one reason, they have a lot of quality in the squad, they are a really tough team to play against. We are travelling to their ground. We knew from experience, from last season, it’s never easy to travel to their ground and perform.”

Sonia Bompastor: You have to have squad depth

Questions have been asked recently about Manchester United’s squad depth, especially now that they have progressed to the knock-out stages of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Bompastor would not be drawn to comment on another coach’s squad, but reflected instead on her own, saying: “Depth is crucial for a club like Chelsea. When you want to compete in all four competitions, you have to have that depth in your squad.”

Bompastor: We didn’t achieve anything yet

And she also said that she was “zero per cent” under pressure when it came to Chelsea’s incredible unbeaten streak, which extended across the entirety of last season.

“This story about the unbeaten run is more for you, the journalists,” she said with a smile. “We started the season from zero, and we won four games out of four. We want to go into every game with the desire to win. It didn’t change from last season, but it’s a different complete season from last year.

“We are earlier in the season. We didn’t achieve anything yet.”