\n<\/p>\n
Lauren James’ talent is no secret, and yet her ability to amaze remains prominent. On Sunday, as she helped inspire Chelsea to a thumping 5-0 win over former side Manchester United, one such occasion came as she received the ball under pressure right by the touchline and, somehow, managed to keep it under her control and in play while evading several challenges from the opposition. Quizzical looks were thrown around the stands. ‘How did she do that?’<\/span><\/p>\n It was a footnote in James’ performance, one which saw her score a fifth goal in five Women’s Super League appearances against the Red Devils. That came as a result of a clinical finish after she had darted into the box and been picked out by the excellent Keira Walsh. It was a centre forward-esque strike on a day that saw James lead the line for Chelsea, something she did at times last season due to injuries and was asked to do again on this occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n But James wasn’t asked to be an orthodox No.9, rather a false nine, with head coach Sonia Bompastor giving her licence to roam while tasking the likes of Sjoeke Nusken and Wieke Kaptein with making runs in behind to ensure that the box was never empty. It meant James could showcase her full range of talent as her incredible two-footedness, combined with the freedom to drift left and right, allowed her to curl in crosses, shape shots that tested Phallon Tullis-Joyce and generally cause the sort of problems that United had no answer for.<\/span><\/p>\n It might not have been in Bompastor’s plans, nor her preference, to use James in the way she did at the weekend, but the England international’s ability to thrive in so many different situations is commendable. This time last year, she was a few weeks into what would be a three-and-a-half month injury lay-off; this time around, she’s fit and firing. If she stays that way, she’ll be crucial to not only Chelsea’s bid to bounce back from a bad year, but the Lionesses’ pursuit of World Cup glory come the season’s end.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lauren James’ talent is no secret, and yet her ability to amaze remains prominent. On…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}