Why Always She? - A Women’s Football Podcast

Episode 39 - Million Dollar CB

The mood is jubilant in the Why Always She camp this week after their beloved Leicester recorded just their second win of the season over Liverpool. Charli and Matt use this as a springboard to talk about some of this weekend's goings on in the league outside of what looks like to be a pretty sewn-up title race following Chelsea's narrow defeat of Arsenal. They then get on to the biggest piece of news in women's football in recent weeks (maybe months, years) - the arrival of US international Naomi Girma at Chelsea for a record-breaking fee. What will she add to Chelsea, and what does it tell us about the ambitions of other top teams in the league?  

Episode 38 - Tooney and temerity

Charli and Matt are back following the return of the WSL, and what better way to celebrate than with a suitably chaotic Manchester Derby? With Arsenal and Chelsea clicking along nicely, they once again turn their attention to City and how their rigidity in system and lack of proper squad building is starting to cause real issues. That's not to take anything away from United, who took the game to them and made hay while City made disarray. 
Please note this episode was recorded BK (Before Kerolin) and BG (Before Girma). Stay tuned until the end to hear our reaction to the Girma news in realtime. Thrilling stuff.

Episode 37 - The sun comes shining through

This week Charli and Matt try (and mostly succeed) not to be too insufferable about Leicester's solid performance and shock draw against the formidable Chelsea. They also discuss Everton's scene-stealing result against an injury-depleted City, and go in on Taylor for his failure to adjust his system or plan properly for the loss of key players. 

Episode 36 - Winter (break) is coming

This week Charli has a solo session on the January transfer window: who needs to recruit and where? Who's fine? Who just needs to have a bit of R&R and rethink their life choices to insist on playing out from the back? 

Episode 35 - Bert, Blues, Baltimore, (International) Break

The team tackle a pick and mix of topics this week: Charli starts on well-trodden ground with a rant about Manchester United and Marc Skinner; there's then a quick review of what's going on in the Championship, a discussion of what Chelsea might do with Sandy Baltimore with Niamh Charles coming back, and a quick preview of the injury-stricken Lionesses' friendly against the USA. 

Episode 34 - Renée or Yay

After an emphatic win in the North London Derby and ahead of what was pencilled in as her "final" game as interim manager, Charli and Matt discuss the hot topic in the WSL - should Renée Slegers be given the Arsenal job permanently? That's after they give their thoughts on the clash at the top of the table - can Chelsea be stopped? They also get into why they think things might be looking a bit bleak for Robert Vilahamn.

Episode 33 - WSL Deepcuts

This week Charli and Matt give some of the "unsung heroes" of the WSL a spotlight - basically going full football hipster and picking a player (or players - Charli, you cop-out) from each team who may be flying under the radar a little but putting in some solid performances. 

Episode 32 - The struggle is real

This week Charli and Matt take a deep-dive detour through the bottom half of the WSL, putting Spurs, Leicester, Crystal Palace, Villa, West Ham and Everton under their part stats, part vibes microscope. How have these teams fared so far, what do the stats tell us, and what's the short to mid-term looking like? There's also a quick overview of this weekend's NWSL playoffs and what to look out for there. 

Episode 31 - Always look on the Bright (Greenwood?) side of life

In this epic-length episode Charli and Matt attempt to deconstruct the future of the England team as we look ahead towards the Euros after two less than convincing performance this international break. What does Wiegman need to prioritise? What have we learned (if anything) from the two friendlies? Will it actually probably be fine and we all need to chill out a bit? 

Episode 30 - Somehow, I manage

In this episode the WAS team take a wider view outside of the weekend's games and get into a bit of manager discourse. What does Eidevall's departure mean for the women's game generally? How do other managers of ambitious teams fit into the conversation? And does it really matter if you don't have a clear system if you're getting the results (and you have a Swedish superstar who can bang in ridiculous volleys)? Matt and Charli also chat about the England squad and why everyone should stop banging on about the goalkeeper debate and worry about things further up the pitch.