Bompastor: Kerr is officially back - but we need to be patient
Sonia Bompastor has declared Sam Kerr is "officially back" but has urged patience after the striker made a goalscoring return at the weekend.Kerr came off the bench to tap home Chelsea's third late on in the 3-1 win over Aston Villa - for her first goal in 634 days, after around two years of injury hell.
"Sam has been great," Bompastor said ahead of Chelsea's next Women's Super League game at home to Leicester, live on Sky Sports on Sunday."I think she's been smiling from last Sunday which is really nice to see. But again it was a relief moment for her and everyone in the club, first of all, to see Sam back on the pitch officially. It was really positive news.
"Sam is one of these players who people pay to watch on the pitch. I would probably pay!
"It was great and positive news for her and the club to be able to come in for 20 minutes, to impact the game, to score her 100th goal with the club is fantastic. It's been a lot of positives after everything she's been through.
"That's important for her confidence, her morale. She is human. It was a log time for her rehabbing and all these months and weeks were tough. That's normal, just for her to see the end of the tunnel is a really nice feeling.
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"She's now officially back. She's scored her 100th goal. She has a lot of things to achieve with the club and the team - but we still need to be patient. It was a long time away from the pitch and everything won't just come like that. Even if the fans don't realise that."What is nice is she's working really hard in the training sessions with us. She has the support of everyone in the club. That's a nice feeling for her.
"She's probably not 100 per cent yet. She's probably not ready to start a game. But from her experience, even if she has to, maybe she's not ready to play 90 minutes."She's someone who you have to tell her to go slowly, to stop her a bit, because she's so excited and she wants to be on the pitch as much as possible, which we understand. We have to be careful with her still."'We are among the best teams in Europe - but we're not the only ones'
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Bompastor believes Chelsea have one of the best attacking frontlines in the country
Kerr is going into an already strong Chelsea line-up which was bolstered over the summer by the Deadline Day signing of Alyssa Thompson.With Aggie Beever-Jones already a key part of that Chelsea forward line, Bompastor believes the Blues are among the best attacking sides in Europe as they aim to complete the quadruple."With the quality of players we have, we are the among the teams who have the best quality up front for sure," she said."We have talented players, young players, with experience and that's really important because we are playing so many games. The schedule is intense and we want to compete in all four competitions."So it's important to have depth in every area and healthy competition, to go into every game and be a competitive team."When you look at teams across Europe, they have invested a lot of money in players. So we are among the best in Europe, but not the only ones. So we will have some good competition, it will be nice to see that."Analysis: Bompastor needs to balance attacking talents
Sky Sports' Laura Hunter:634 days is a long time in football. It's a long time in life.But there was something so familiar about the sight of Sam Kerr slamming into the back of the net 13 minutes into her reintroduction, you would be forgiven for thinking no time had passed at all.Kerr, no less instinctive, pounced on a loose ball after a goalmouth scramble, tucking inside the post to round off a "perfect day" for Chelsea and Sonia Bompastor."You know what Sam represents," Bompastor beamed after beating Aston Villa. "For me, she's an idol. She doesn't like getting the limelight, but she really deserves it."Kerr's place in the spotlight has been earned over many years. She did not feature at all during Bompastor's first season in charge as Chelsea roared to a domestic treble, sidelined with an ACL injury, but has already reached a special milestone this term, scoring her 100th Chelsea goal.Her 59 league strikes in 76 games gives her the second-best goals-to-games ratio (0.78) of any to score five or more in that period - just behind Man City's Khadija Shaw."She's an absolute demon in the box," goalkeeper Hannah Hampton told Sky Sports. "It's about time she starts annoying opposition goalkeepers." But the real test is this: how will Kerr fare alongside those who were recruited to plug the gap during her prolonged absence?Both Mayra Ramirez and most recently Alyssa Thompson were signed for respective club-record fees, totalling the best part of £2m. Bompastor must balance her attacking threats perfectly to keep all that wonderful talent on equal footing.
