OPEN SEASON – why is the WSL so open and so much fun right now?

Is this the most competitive, unpredictable and open season yet in the WSL? And if so, why?

We spoke to two key players – London City’s Jana Fernandez and Brighton’s Lia Wälti – and seven head coaches in the WSL to hear their theories.

We are only a couple of games into the season, and there have already been some head-turning results. And this is not going unnoticed further afield. At Bayern Munich, their German striker Klara Bühl has been paying attention, observing that the WSL has been really competitive from matchday one, declaring: “you cannot see who will win the league. I think there are three or four top teams who can go for the title.”

To discover some of the possible reasons for the WSL’s exciting unpredictability and openness this season, we talked frankly to those involved, the players and their head coaches.

Both players we spoke with have experienced football abroad, so they are well placed to measure the difference. Spanish international Jana Fernandez grew up at Barcelona and is now in her second season at London City Lionesses as a roving wing-back. Switzerland captain Lia Wälti was a mainstay at the heart of Arsenal’s midfield, then moved to Italy to play at Juventus for one season, before returning to the WSL with Brighton this year.

So first up, Fernandez and Wälti.

JANA FERNANDEZ, LONDON CITY LIONESSES

Jana, why do you think the WSL is so open and exciting this season?

Jana Fernandez: I think everybody stepped up.

All the teams have invested a lot this summer window.

Everybody’s levelled up their game.

I think it’s going to be a tight season.

It’s going to be little details.

It’s going to be whoever does best or does less mistakes.

So yeah, every team is stepping up, every team will be able to get points every weekend.

That’s the best thing for us, because it’s a competitive league and we can face these kind of teams every weekend.

But it’s also going to be tough for us – and for everybody – to get into those spots, to obviously win the league is going to be really tough for everybody.

And that’s the beauty of this.

And for everybody who gets to see it from outside it’s really nice.

But from inside, obviously, it’s tough.

And it’s a lot of work that we have to put in to be able to reach those spots ourselves.

To achieve this, what aspects of football from the English game have you added to your very Spanish style as a player?

Fernandez: Well, as a Barcelona player, as you may know, we used to have a lot more possession, a lot more of the ball, at least in the league games.

Something that here is a bit more tight. But obviously that’s our aim and that’s our goal to have that kind of superiority in those games, have the ball, do a possession game, but obviously it’s tough because the openings you have, they’re really good defensively.

So I think one of the aspects that I’m trying to work on mainly is on my defensive aspects.

Like maybe before I would face one or two defensive actions at Barcelona.

Now I have like 15, 20 per game, which makes me have to be ready for it, you know?

So yeah. Happy that I’m learning some new things.

Also learning a lot from the teammates I have next to me, because some of them have a lot of experience and they can help me improve a lot as a player.

LIA WÄLTI, BRIGHTON

Is the WSL more open, less predictable, this season? And why might that be?

Lia Wälti: Yeah, I would say it’s not necessarily a shift, but I think there is for sure a change in terms of every team is investing so much into their own strategies, philosophies – and it ends up being a rise of the level in each team.

So I think it’s getting closer and closer as well on the top and as you could see there were some surprising results already. So I think it’s going to be really, really exciting.

And I’ve said it before: I think it’s a league where everybody can beat everyone and it’s exciting – no game is easy today.

So yeah, I would agree with that.

RENÉE SLEGERS, ARSENAL

I wonder why you think this WSL season seems the most competitive it’s ever been?

Renée Slegers: Yeah, because, I think the top teams are, of course, getting better and better, but everyone else underneath as well.

And it’s going so explosively if you look at what clubs are investing, quality squads, players that are coming to the league.

It’s really high quality.

Well, it’s only round two, going into round three.

So I think it’s way too early to draw conclusions yet, but yeah, it’s highly competitive.

We’ve seen that; we felt that last weekend as well [drawing 0-0 at home to Palace].

I love football, but try to be neutral. So it’s great to watch different styles like your game against Palace to see how they defended – I was going to say like lions, but they defended like eagles. But for you, this must be a nightmare, just not being able to predict what’s going to happen?

Slegers: Well, yeah, if you say it like that… but it’s not fun when it’s easy!

There’s no challenge when things are easy.

So no, I love it.

Of course, it’s challenging because, you know, every single game, everything needs to be top.

But we have great squad, great staff, everything in a really good place to be able to do that.

With the challenge comes with some stress, I must admit, but I take joy out of challenges… mostly.

MARTIN HO, SPURS

It’s only two games in, but it strikes us that this is the most open season. It’s very, very unpredictable, apart from City so far. And I wonder why you think it is so open this season.

Martin Ho: Before the season started, in any media, I said this will probably be one of the most, if not the most, competitive season in the WSL for a long, long time.

Because of the quality of players that have been recruited, the expansion of the league, more investment from clubs, more quality.

Not just with young players, but more experienced players, either coming back to the league or being in the league or being recruited.

And then just in the individual development of teams and squads.

There’s a lot of good work that goes on to enable these players to be at the top of their game.

Whether that’s via coaching, whether that’s their own individual work they do themselves, I think the league is going to get stronger and stronger.

NATALIA ARROYO, ASTON VILLA

It’s early days but it feels like there’s a shift in the WSL this season. Maybe it’s more open – results less predictable, would you agree? And why do you think that might be?

Natalia Arroyo: Yeah, so I get why – we drew against Chelsea, Arsenal drew as well. Hopefully that is good, so let’s see if it’s just a couple of accidents.

The big teams will have ups and downs sometimes at the beginning or they can be less ready in the middle of Champions League, they can be distracted. So who knows?

The obvious thing is that the level is increasing everywhere; that happens in the international level as well. So there’s no easy game. We saw that in the men’s World Cup as well. 

That’s the main lesson we are learning now: everyone is capable of running and defending, and being really good and strong and competitive for 90 minutes. Even if the ones in front are, in theory, better.

That’s the reality of football. That’s how it is. Players can cope with the physicality, can cope with the running part, and they have the technical ability as well.

Hopefully that means the teams that get promoted are stronger than ever and we are stronger than ever. And we can see every fixture without assuming that this team will win here.

That will be, I guess, amazing for you journalists, amazing for the fans. Let’s see if we can take the benefit of that and be more of a contender in every game…

SONIA BOMPASTOR, CHELSEA

Sonia, you’re playing Birmingham, who’ve put up a fight in their games. And we saw what Palace did at Arsenal. Our theory is that it’s very open, even though we’re only two games in. It feels like the WSL is up for grabs a lot more this season?

Sonia Bompastor: Yeah, every team is able to beat anyone in this league, which is the most enjoyable thing I think for the fans, maybe not always for the coaches, but yeah, we prepare every game step by step and taking one game at a time.

Because, as you just mentioned, I think every team is able to come on the day and to have really good tactics.

They have the ability also with individuals and with the team to have a lot of quality in terms of the defensive aspects, but also hurting the teams in different ways.

Most of the time for us, it’s making sure we keep a good balance.

Because the teams transition really well against us, and they can hurt because they have the quality to do that.

So again, we are preparing the game tomorrow with a lot of respect for Birmingham, and we are also focusing a lot on us.

If we approach the game with the right mindset, every time we will have a better chance to win.

And so that’s the reality.

But again, I watched the two first games and some of the games in preseason for Birmingham, and they have a lot of quality.

They are really well organised defensively as well.

And even if they lost the two first games, the performances were good.

So we need to be at our best.

Does that make it more fun for you that everything is a bit more open this season?

Bompastor: Fun… for the fans, for sure!

For us, more challenging, I would say. But it’s good.

I think every player and every manager comes to this league because they want to be challenged.

And that’s also why I came here.

I probably could have stayed longer in France and been more comfortable with winning more games, with not having maybe as much opposition.

But that’s not who I am.

I want it to be challenging.

I want to find solutions when it’s difficult, and this league is really good for that reason.

JO POTTER, CRYSTAL PALACE

Coming out of WSL2 into the WSL – out of one very competitive league into another – I wonder if the WSL ever been as open?

Jo Potter, Palace: We spoke about something similar last week, didn’t we?

Where we said: we’d see things pan out very differently to maybe it has over the previous years, and I think that just goes to show the growth of the game as a whole.

You know, it’s not just always necessarily the fittest and the strongest teams now that are going to finish on top.

But there’s still a long way to go.

You know, that could very well change, and things could look very different at the end of the season with the strength of squads and ability to be able to change and move things around.

But I think you know it’s been a different start to what it has been previous seasons, and it’s already showing a difference, which is great.

I think it’s great for everybody to see. It’s great for the league. It’s great for the clubs that are involved, and it shows how much the game’s moving forward in this country.

KAREN HILLS, CHARLTON

You were in WSL2 for some time, which was usually seen as the most competitive league. But is it now the WSL that’s the most competitive and maybe most open?

Karen Hills: Two games in, I probably would say that the two games we played have been very competitive.

But at the same time, I do think there is still some gaps and gulfs between teams in the WSL.

Whereas WSL2 for me last season was probably the most competitive, and any team could have beaten anyone on any given day.

But as you’re seeing this season, that’s also happened in the opening couple of games.

Where some of the teams that you would think of just being able win games have come up against some teams that were probably mid-table last year, and they’ve actually nicked points from.

So, I would say the opening couple of games is always an interesting opportunity for teams, especially if you’ve had a good pre-season…

And for some teams, they’ve had only had a couple of players brought in, so then maybe their culture, the way they’ve played, they probably have an identity straight away.

Then, when you as a team like us who had a big turnaround of players, it takes a little bit of time to get up to speed, to gel.

But if you look across the league, I would say that now it is it is very evenly keeled, but I think you’ll find over the next month or so it might start evening itself out a little bit, and you’ll see the gaps and mini leagues that start appearing within that league.

EDER MAESTRE, LONDON CITY LIONESSES

I wonder what your theory is as to why the WSL is so open this season, Eder?

Eder Maestre: Of course, after watching last weekend, you can understand how difficult it is winning this competition.

The margins are going to be very tight and we need to be very clinical in the way to understand the spaces that can appear in the boxes. So being clinical in the boxes is going to be one of the key points to have any chance to push for the champions.

We need to keep developing the way to take advantage of the many chances, many opportunities when we are reaching the box.

The other side is trying to keep the out-of-possession consistency we reached last season in the second half of the competition, because we were the second best in conceding expected goals.

So if we can be on that same page and keep building through things we already have, I think we are going to be pushing until the end.

Finally, it’s about having luck, if you are creating chances and aren’t able to take advantage…

So hopefully we can still create chances and avoid conceding expected goals, as we were doing.

As head coach, it must be exciting when one day you’re facing a team like United who don’t really know where they are at. Then West Ham, with a game plan to split your defence. Now Charlton… How excited do you get before each game for the different challenges?

Maestre: Well, every team has their potential players to use through their structure.

So this rich tactical situation pushes every coach to find the gaps where you can punish and try to neutralise any danger that they can have.

I think – even having the same structure because of the different players, all the squad – the different situations you need to cope with are huge, and this is very demanding in terms of trying to anticipate any situation that can happen.

It is something that is challenging, and in my case I love being in that position.

Photos: Helen M Jerome; Brighton