It would border on the ludicrous to find fault in a manager who has reached the final of every major tournament she has coached in and led two different nations to become European champions. However, if there has been one slight criticism of Sarina Wiegman it has been a stubborn refusal to change her team.
That is what has made England’s progress to the World Cup final in Australia so remarkable. For the first time in her career, Wiegman has tinkered and changed. She has not stuck to a plan. In fact, she ripped it up after just two games and designed a new one, on the hoof, in the middle of the biggest and most prestigious tournament.
England started this World Cup playing their standard 4-2-3-1 formation. Wiegman had even resisted a temptation, at the suggestion of her coaching staff, to even practise with a 3-5-2. She wanted the squad, missing three key players from last summer in the injured Fran Kirby, Leah Williamson and Beth Mead, to be relentlessly drilled in a familiar style of play. It was, she argued, the “England way”.
That is what made the switch to a three-player defence, with five in midfield, including wing-backs, and a two pronged attack, so surprising at this tournament. Not only that, but Wiegman has made a number of changes in personnel too, keeping the opposition guessing about her intentions.
England had become too predictable for opposition teams and too easy to nullify. Her intelligence was to spot it, even if, as she has revealed since, it was her assistant Arjan Veurink who urged her to do so.
It is more compelling evidence of her brilliance as a coach, a people person and a tactician. It is another string to the bow in a formidable armoury of the best manager in the women’s game. Wiegman was already world class, now she looks like a genius.
At the European Championship in 2017, when in charge of the Netherlands, Wiegman made a total of three changes to her starting line-up during the tournament – and that was mainly down to the fact that one of her defenders was ill and had to be rested and then brought back into the starting XI.
At the World Cup in 2019, with the same team, she made just two alterations to the line-up as the Dutch reached the final, where they lost to the US.
Famously, as England triumphed in a home Euros, beating Germany in front of a capacity crowd at Wembley 2-1 last year, Wiegman named the same starting XI in every single match, including a dead rubber group game against Northern Ireland in Southampton.
As ever with change, it was to a large extent forced on Wiegman. The knee injury to Keira Walsh against Denmark, which initially appeared to be so serious that it would end her tournament, meant England needed to adapt. They had to come up with a different plan.
Yet, even before this there had been changes.
Against Haiti, Alex Greenwood was at left-back, against Denmark she started at centre-back, replacing Jess Carter as. Rachel Daly came into the side at left-back. In attack, Lauren Hemp started on the right wing against Haiti but was replaced by Lauren James, who scored the winning goal against the Danes.
Wiegman was trying to come up with a new formula even before Walsh’s injury. When the Barcelona star went off in the first half against Denmark, Wiegman sent on one of her most experienced players, Laura Coombs to shore things up in midfield.
But England were not playing well and Wiegman knew it. That is when the plan was ripped up and started again.
“In April, we were trying to find ways to be unpredictable for the opponent. So we mentioned it, playing three at the back,” said Wiegman.
“At that time the squad was with [sic] lots of wingers still and we thought, ‘No, we stick with what we want to do, with the shape’.
“Then, during the tournament, in the first two matches, we were struggling a little bit. So after the second match Arjan came to me and said, ‘Isn’t this the time to go to 3-5-2?’
“I said, ‘You’re completely right, this is the moment’. With how the squad is built, and the players available, we can get more from them and their strengths in this shape.”
The new formation has been a huge success, protecting the defence, stopping the Lionesses being overrun in the middle of the pitch and bringing more out of the marauding right-back Lucy Bronze as a wing-back. With Walsh injured, Katie Zelem got an unexpected start and was one of the best players on the pitch in the 6-1 thrashing of China. Walsh returned in the next game against Nigeria, but Wiegman had made her point.
The new formation also created a dangerous and potent strikeforce with Hemp restored to the starting XI alongside the previously misfiring Alessia Russo.
The initial plan was for James to pull the strings in the number 10 role, but when James was sent off for stamping, Ella Toone came back into the side for the quarter-final win over Colombia and scored the vital first goal in the semi-final win over Australia.
Wiegman has James available again for the final against Spain. It is expected that she will be used as an impact substitute, giving Wiegman one of the weapons she deployed so well at the Euros. But it will also keep Spain guessing.
England are no longer predictable. Wiegman has been both clever and brave, and England have reaped the benefits.
