Hervé Renard Back In France: What To Expect Of The New Women’s National Manager – Head Coach Analysis

Corinne Diacre will go down in history as one of the most divisive head coaches of the French women’s national team.

Some in the national setup approve of her, while others severely disagree with her methods.

However, when it came to the players, and particularly those with influence in the side, there is no doubt what the feeling was, with captain Wendie Renard announcing in February that she had become “fed up with the lack of professionalism” around the national side, according to French football journalists, and being swiftly joined by Lyon Féminin clubmates Perle Morroni and Griedge Mbock Bathy and PSG Féminine forwards Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani in stepping away from the team until changes were made.

At that point, the Fédération Française de Football (FFF) stated that they would investigate the way the team was being run but also reminded everyone that no one was above the institution of the national side.

Only five days later though, things got worse for Diacre when FFF President Nöel Le Graët, who had been one of her last remaining supporters, announced his own resignation, following investigations into claims of inappropriate behaviour.

With no one left to back her, it came as little surprise when she followed Le Graët out of the door.

Her dismissal as head coach was confirmed earlier this month.

The search to replace her unearthed several candidates, and some people were interviewed for the role, but the person who now looks set to take over is current Saudi Arabia men’s head coach Hervé Renard.

He has been in his current role since 2019 and will be familiar to many football fans as the person who led his side to a remarkable win against eventual champions Argentina in their opening group game of the 2022 men’s World Cup.

He will need to work fast if he is to successfully implement his ideas into the French women’s side, with their own World Cup getting underway in just over four months time.

This tactical analysis will look in greater depth at what he could change tactically before and after then and how France could eventually look under his tutelage.

Hervé Renard Tactics : Hybrid system

The first thing to mention is that Hervé Renard likes his teams to keep the ball and not take risks when moving it around.

Every side that he has coached during his 23-year career tends to dominate possession statistics (they have averaged 63.7% in 2023 so far) and regularly rack up the pass count.

That idea of not taking risks is particularly evident here, with Saudi Arabia trying to feed the ball into the area behind Oman’s defensive line during the recent Gulf Cup.

With the space available and a player making a run into it, there is an opportunity to play the ball directly into their path, but what Saudi Arabia actually does is to play through Turki Al-Ammar, as the yellow arrows show, with two shorter passes being made and not one aerial ball.

By doing so, S