2022 will go down in the history of the Finnish women’s game as a year of mixed feelings, with there being a great deal of positivity over their appearance in the Euro 2022 finals after missing out on Euro 2017 but plenty of negativity about the way that the team performed in England, with the former semi-finalists losing all three matches, scoring one goal and conceding eight. With that and their disappointing start to the 2023 World Cup qualifying campaign in mind, the decision was made to end the tenure of head coach Anna Signeul early, with her vacating her role at the end of the Euro tournament.
Her replacement, initially on a temporary basis, was then-U17 coach Marko Saloranta, and it was a move that has given the fans plenty of optimism due to the way that he has reinvigorated the team and introduced a more attractive style of play. He has also been picking up results as his time in charge has gone on, with his first major success coming as Finland topped their League B group in the inaugural Women’s Nations League and secured promotion to the top tier.
All in all, there is a lot to like about the direction that Finland are going in under Saloranta’s leadership, and this tactical analysis will take a closer look at how he has transformed them on the field and why his players have bought into his tactics and key principles. The analysis will also highlight which players have proven to be the right fit for his system and will look at why 2024 could be a massive year for them, with the Euro 2025 qualifying rounds only just around the corner.
Rapid transitions
One of the things that Marko Saloranta has put a lot of emphasis on since his appointment is the need for the ball to be moved quickly around the field and for no player to hold onto it for longer than a few seconds, with him having a firm belief in slow play inviting opponents to close the ball down or to attempt an interception and therefore preventing his team from building any momentum.
This has taken time to drill into the players, and it has not been a short-term improvement, with it involving a complete reset of their on-field mindset that has seen them abandon the long-ball style of play that Signeul favoured. From his first game in charge, though, it was clear that the players understood what he wanted from them, and that will have given him huge encouragement that he could lead the team forward and that they would implement the brand of football that he wanted them to.
One player who was really crucial to him getting his message across in the early games was forward Jutta Rantala, with her lining up in the forward line but known for her tendency to drop back and to connect the play. It is that that Saloranta looked to build on as he tried to ensure that his players were keeping the ball on the ground and playing through the thirds more rather than being too direct.
To explain, with Rantala on the field but given the freedom to drop as far back as she has here, during Saloranta’s first game in charge in the Republic of Ireland, she (and Tottenham Hotspur Women’s Eveliina Summanen, who is also known for her passing abilities) were effectively tasked with creating chances for those ahead of them rather than scoring them. By doing so, Saloranta knew that the ball would be naturally kept on the ground when the team were in transition, and it worked here as Rantala passed forward to experienced fellow forward Linda Sällström, but with the ball being kept on the ground, where it was then sent into the goal area.
As mentioned, Rantala is primarily a forward. Still, her pass map indicates how effective she has been at shifting the ball around the pitch for her country, with her having plenty of touches during Finland’s outings in 2023 and constantly altering the direction of the play as needed in order to ensure that Finland are as unpredictable and as difficult to win the ball off as possible.
It is not only something that she does well for Finland, though, with her getting into the same pockets of space and making identical delayed runs up the field for Leicester City Women this season, having moved to the King Power Stadium last summer from Swedish club Vittsjö. Therefore, this is not something that Saloranta has needed to coach into her and has instead had available to him from the first day of his tenure, which is why Rantala has played such a key role in allowing him to implement his game plan and in aiding Finland in registering an 85% passing accuracy throughout 2023.
As time has gone on, Finland have built on those early tactical improvements with a few more complex ideas, and one thing that Saloranta has looked to introduce more of since his appointment is quick passing sequences and central midfield overloads in order to facilitate them.
To do that, he has tended to move away from having traditional wingers in the wide channels. He has instead tended to deploy central midfielders there instead, with the idea being that they will naturally drift infield, so Finland will always have more players in the central channel whenever they are in possession. As a result, moments like this when Olga Ahtinen (also now of Tottenham) has moved inside the pitch with the ball have become increasingly common in their play.
As well as creating those overloads, the other positive that has come from this tactic is that those who were already in the middle can now push higher up the field, and that is why many of Finland’s matches have shown Rosengård midfielder Ria Öling almost playing as an additional striker. Again, there is a novelty to this, with not many coaches choosing to play this way due to the obvious risks that come with it should the ball ever be lost, but Finland have come to benefit from having Öling higher up the field and have shown an increased dependence on her ability to do so as Saloranta’s time in charge has gone on.
On this occasion, her effort failed to lead to anything, and Slovakia didn’t concede, but the smoothness of the movement and the way that the ball was played into Öling’s path demonstrated just how dangerous Finland are when they get into these situations and are allowed to move the ball into the open spaces ahead of them.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to get away from those aforementioned risks, and there have been times when Finland have conceded possession and left themselves too open when they do. In this case, the ball has been moved from Öling to Emma Peuhkurinen to Oona Siren but has then been given away whilst travelling back towards Öling, with Romania midfielder Olga Iordăchiuși intercepting Siren’s pass and starting to move back up the field with the ball.
However, what is key about Finland is that they always have a way of protecting the areas behind them and of regaining the ball as quickly as possible, and it was provided here by Portland Thorns defender Natalia Kuikka, who met Apollon Ladies’ Iordăchiuși and prevented her from making it too far up the pitch. Kuikka has been a mainstay of the Finnish defensive line for several years and is an experienced player. Her ability to read the game well is what Saloranta has come to rely on her for, with it here allowing her to spot the danger and to act before the counterattack could materialise into anything.
Therefore, even when Finland look like they are leaving themselves too open, they always have ways to protect themselves in situations like this, and this is why they have tended to dominate the ball under Saloranta, with them averaging 65.71% possession per game in 2023, and have been able to recover from mistakes at speed.
Attacking threat
When looking at how those quick passes and their ability to build through the thirds has impacted their attacking play, the fact that Finland averaged 3.08 goals per game in 2023 provides a clear indication that, yet again, their change in mentality is leading to positive results, and what is even more impressive is that they have achieved that despite seeing just 39.1% of their shots head on target in the same time period.
That ability to be clinical comes from their ability to get additional players into the final third, such as Öling, and so increase their numbers at the top of the field, but it has also come because they have a good balance in the midfield which has allowed them to keep moving the ball around and to find spaces from which they can shoot at goal.
It has already been mentioned that Rantala plays a crucial role in this, but another who has stood out in this aspect of Finland’s performances is Oona Siren, with the KuPS Women midfielder another who starts on the wing and cuts inside and someone who is known at club and international level for her distribution of the ball (with it being a critical factor in KuPS’ historic domestic campaign last year).
Here, she can see how Öling has pushed up the field and knows what her role is here, with her needing to find one of those ahead of her in order to set up a shot at goal, and this is something that she has always been good at and which has led to Finland having a 77% progressive passes accuracy during the entirety of last year.
The other thing that helps her here is that the two strikers have moved apart from each other and have drifted into different areas of the pitch, and this leads to another key point about Finland’s forward line in that they have different types of strikers available to them, and so can approach matches in different ways.
Sällström and Rantala are a lot more mobile. They will look to create as well as score, which is why it is always an advantage to have Öling alongside them when they do vacate the central spaces. Still, they also have players who will tend to stay in those areas, such as Real Sociedad Femenino’s Sanni Franssi and Como Femminile’s on-loan AC Milan Femminile forward Oona Sevenius.
That variety in striker types is something else that has helped Finland to pose an increased threat under Saloranta, with him able to start with his regular duo and then to bring on his out-and-out attackers once the opposition have tired and spaces have opened up more. This was undoubtedly the case during their penultimate group game in the Women’s Nations League last year when Romania visited the Veritas Stadium in Turku and ended up conceding six goals.
The other key tactic at the heart of so much of Finland’s positive attacking play has been their wide threat, and this is where the full-backs come into the equation as they are the ones more often than not tasked with maintaining the width due to those starting as the wingers playing more centrally whenever the team has possession, as has been highlighted previously in the scout report.
In this case, it is clear how this had an impact on Romania’s ability to defend inside their own third, with their back line now forced to elongate across the pitch as they try to counter the threat that Finland are posing. However, by doing so, they have allowed Finland to have more time on the ball and to allow them to simply wait for the right opportunity to come about before they move the ball behind them. In this case, that didn’t take long as Romania bit early and moved out of line, leaving Oona Siren free to set her KuPS teammate Anni Hartikainen up to score here.
Despite all of the changes that Saloranta has been making, he has still retained some elements of Signeul’s tactics, with one thing that he has continued to insist on being a reliance on counterattacking and exploiting opponents when they are least expecting it.
However, he has tweaked what they were doing to make them a lot more efficient when they are playing this way, blending the best of the long ball tactics that his predecessor favoured with the transitional qualities that he has wanted to see more of.
In this situation, the effectiveness of that mix is made clear, with three players congregating deep inside the Finnish half and attracting the attention of the three Romanian players nearby, who believe that there is a chance to win the ball here and so look to press it. However, that is precisely what Finland want to happen — it allows BK Häcken Dam’s Kateriina Kosola to drop into the gap behind those opposing attackers and to receive the short pass from the three inside their own third, taking those pressing the ball immediately out of the game.
It is at this point that Romania realise what is happening and yet are powerless to stop the counterattack, with Ana Maria Stanciu pressing forward to limit Kosola’s options but not committing to it early enough and Kosola, as a result, playing the ball beyond her and into the paths of Rantala and Sällström, who are already angling their bodies as if to move into the open territory behind the Romanian defenders.
The whole sequence is slick and seamless and takes just two passes to execute, and that shows again how the basic elements of Finland’s previous long ball tactics are still there, but that Saloranta has added some more transitional traits to the mix and that, yet again, it has led to their attacking play looking more efficient both when they are under pressure and when they are on the front foot.
Defensive tactics
Some aspects of Finland’s attacking play have been prominent in their defensive play, too. The fact that they conceded just 0.46 times per game during 2023 is further proof that Saloranta’s methods are working and that his team are responding to them in the right way, with them not only posing a significant threat but also being hard to beat as soon as they do lose the ball.
Once again, there are fundamental principles to Saloranta’s philosophy that are constantly in play for Finland, and one of those is their ability to press high up the field and to win the ball at the earliest available opportunity. This has already been mentioned with regards to how Finland have backup players whenever they lose the ball in transition, but it is just as prominent whenever they are looking to stop opposing attacks dead in their tracks, too.
In this case, Iceland have managed to find Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir at the top of the field and are now looking to get numbers up the pitch in order to take advantage of their success in beating that initial defensive effort. However, the Wolfsburg Frauen winger has not been allowed to turn and run forwards here as she usually likes due to Kuikka once again showing her 1-v-1 strength and closing her down.
As with so much of Finland’s play, there is an inherent risk to playing this openly, with Saloranta’s side getting lucky here in that Finland were the first players back and not Iceland, which could have led to Jónsdóttir sending the ball to either side and removing Kuikka from the game. However, again, this is not something that Finland have generally been too concerned about, with them believing in the team’s ability to act in time and to track back to help each other out in these moments, and that is why they have conceded so few goals on the whole.
The other thing that Finland like to do when they can is to get out and to keep the ball in the wide channels wherever possible. During their meeting with Wales at the Pinatar Arena in Spain last year, this was very clear to see, with Ahtinen and Liverpool Women right-back Emma Koivisto doubling up here against Bristol City Women forward Carrie Jones to limit her options, and this was not the only time that Wales and other opponents have seen their chances be snuffed out at speed when coming up against Saloranta’s players.
This is not to say that Finland always get it right, though, with them succeeding in dislodging the ball here but having already conceded to Jones earlier in the match when they allowed her to cut inside and tap home from close range. So, there are still further improvements that they can make as they continue to develop under Saloranta.
Nevertheless, the fact that they can defend as a team in these situations shows again how so much of what has made them tough to break down has come down to the unity prevalent in so much of their play, with everyone working together.
As with any team, though, tactics can be made void through opponents finding a way to nullify them, so adaptability is also vital, and this for Finland means that there have been occasions when they have not been able to cut those initial crosses out and have instead needed to focus on winning first balls inside the central spaces instead.
This was especially the case during their meeting with Hungary last year, due to the Eastern European nation’s tactics revolving around making early crosses and Finland, therefore, needing to focus on preventing them from meeting their intended targets in the middle. As a result, their defensive play did not involve much pressing and instead was centred around getting tight to the central attacker and ensuring that they won each aerial battle and kept the ball away from their goal.
This delivery from Inter Milan Femminile right-back Beatrix Fördős was one of many that were repelled through that alternative game plan. The fact that Finland succeeded in 66.9% of their defensive duels and of their aerial battles last year shows how, when needed, they can fall back on this as a way of keeping opponents out and will have just as much success with it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at Finland’s play under incumbent head coach Marko Saloranta, highlighting how he has taken the team to new levels by introducing a quicker, more transitional style of play and how he has tried to ensure that they are on the right track ahead of their Euro 2025 qualifiers.
From breaking down their play, what has become clear is that there are several key ideas that have provided a foundation for his tactical philosophy, which include keeping the ball on the ground, playing at a constant speed and winning the ball back with urgency as soon as it has been lost. As his tenure has gone on, the way that he has implemented and built on these has been vital to the increased quality among his players, and there is no doubt that they will be very confident as they look towards the road to Switzerland.
Having taken over a team heading backwards after a disappointing Euro campaign and a poor start to their World Cup qualifiers, the changes that Saloranta has made have been nothing short of extraordinary, and there is no doubt that they are a very different animal with him at the helm. On the international stage, they will be ones to watch in 2024, and their desire to return to major tournaments on a more regular basis may not be as insurmountable as some may have believed when he initially took the role.
