How can a team that has not won a league match since November still be fifth in the Women’s Super League?
That’s what the majority of teams in the WSL must be thinking as Brighton stretched their winless league run to six games but still find themselves in the ‘best of the rest’ position.
Dario Vidosic’s side lost 3-1 away to West Ham on Sunday, incidentally the last team they beat, to make it two draws and four losses since November 16. Only bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace have picked up fewer points in the past six WSL games. It has been a stunning loss of form from a team whose eye-catching start to the season had impressed.
The reality is Brighton give too many good chances to the opposition, and that has been true since the start of the season. Results like the 1-0 loss to Manchester City in September flattered to deceive as Brighton’s commitment to playing out from defence gifted opportunities to City.
They have the second-worst expected goals (xG) against in the league (25.54) and have made the most errors leading to shots (13). No team loses possession in their defensive third more than Brighton, averaging 10 turnovers of the ball per match — two more turnovers per game than West Ham, the team with the next most.
Sunday’s defeat felt like Brighton in a microcosm. Despite creating several decent chances in the first half, including one they scored from, turnovers in dangerous positions meant West Ham looked like they could retake the lead at any minute.
In the second half, they took advantage with Riko Ueki latching on to Vicky Losada’s bizarrely misplaced pass into her own penalty area to put the hosts 2-1 up before Viviane Asseyi dispatched the penalty she had won after Brighton’s defence had again put themselves under pressure.
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After the match, Vidosic told club media that he felt it was a “game of two halves”, saying that the team “started to lose structure” in the second half.
“There was a dramatic drop-off in the second half and I’m not sure why that was but if you’re not near your best in this league you’re going to make it very tough for yourself, and that’s what happened,” he said.
Vidosic has struggled to get Brighton to kick on after a positive start to the season (Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)
Brighton’s loss of form has flown under the radar because, well, no one has been able to catch them. There were humbling losses for sixth-placed Tottenham, who lost 5-0 to north London rivals Arsenal, and Liverpool, in seventh, lost 4-0 to Manchester City.
Neither side has managed to find any consistency. Liverpool have not won WSL games back-to-back all season, while Tottenham have only managed to do it once with wins over the bottom two, Leicester City and Crystal Palace, last month. Even then the performances were less than convincing. In the 1-0 win over Leicester they did not have a shot on target.
Finishing fifth — or even fourth, as Liverpool managed last season — has historically been a bit of a curse, with teams struggling to build on their successes.
Tottenham were fifth in the 2021-22 season before finishing ninth the following season. Aston Villa grabbed the opportunity to usurp Spurs but followed that up with a seventh-placed finish last year after losing their five first games. Liverpool have looked a shadow of themselves this season after stunning Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United last term. Manchester United’s fifth place last season was an anomaly given they have consistently finished in the top four since 2020.
The opposition is clearly playing a part. Liverpool head coach Matt Beard foresaw this issue before the season even began, saying his team had “overachieved” last year in a press conference before their first match.
No doubt Brighton are also trying to deal with this issue. Changing their playing style drastically under Vidosic initially took teams by surprise, but with more footage and experience the opposition are honing in more efficiently on their weaknesses.
That is a challenge that applies to every team, as leaders Chelsea found in their 2-1 win over Everton at the weekend. Lauren James scored Chelsea’s latest-ever winning goal in the WSL, striking from outside the area with her left foot, with the clock at 92:03. The goal was not without its controversy — James looked to have fouled Everton defender Maren Mjelde in the build-up — but manager Sonia Bompastor admitted that her team struggled with the adjustments that Everton had made since Chelsea had played them on February 9 in the FA Cup.
James celebrates scoring the winner against Everton (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
“It’s always difficult to play the same team one week later,” she said in her post-match press conference.
“I thought when their coach analysed (last week’s game), I knew they would come with a mindset of being even more structured defensively, out of possession. That’s always more difficult for us.
“Today, we needed to create space on the pitch. They were really compact, narrow. Probably also because it was the eighth game in this block, the legs were a little bit tired for some players, and we missed a little bit of freshness. The result is more important than anything.”
Chelsea’s experience shows that even the best teams can find it hard to evolve from game to game, or month to month, in a way that means they consistently pick up points.
Few can boast of having a player of James’ quality to rescue them if needed. Given the inconsistency of the teams outside the top four, we might ask whether it is meaningful who finishes fifth, particularly given there are only eight points separating Brighton from Aston Villa in 11th.
But the reason it matters is because there is a fear of the top four drifting off into their own mini-tournament year-on-year. Last season bucked that trend thanks to Liverpool, but there are currently 10 points between Brighton and Manchester City in fourth.
The bottom eight in the WSL are entertainingly even — but it is still crying out for a team to actually forge a path ahead.
(Top photo: Steve Bardens — The FA via Getty Images)
