Willie Kirk has been sacked from Everton Women lately and Jean-Luc Vasseur was announced as the new Toffees head coach.
The French coach led Olympique Lyonnais to European glory for the last few seasons as he won the Division 1 Féminine with them, the Coupe de France Féminine and, more importantly, the UEFA Women’s Champions League, which earned him the 2019-2020 UEFA Womens Coach of the Year.
All in all, he won five titles during his spell at Olympique Lyonnais.
Vasseur is therefore used to coaching quality players and to competing for the top spots during competitions.
This is certainly a positive aspect to consider as it will affect the whole Everton Women environment positively and drive the team forward to achieving greater results than the previous ones.
It is true, however, that the new head coachs mission will not be a simple one due to the different issues that need to be addressed in order to compete seriously for the top FAWSL spots alongside Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and the rest of the teams.
The team failed to start the season in a successful way by losing several times while conceding a lot of goals per match.
Everton lost 4-0 against both Chelsea and Manchester City during the first two FAWSL fixtures before losing 3-0 against Arsenal and adding another heavy 5-1 defeat against Manchester City in the Continental Cup.
The failure in resisting and in lacking defensive compactness was clear during these games despite being able to win other matches.
Nevertheless, the usage of the newly recruited played wasnt really convincing during this period.
These motives and perhaps other motives as well confirmed the decision to sack Kirk and sign an expert European manager whose experience was unquestionable, given that he used to manage the best European team in terms of results during the previous years.
This experience however does not mean that Vasseur is a magician who will turn things upside down for the better in one week.
Experience also does not mean that Vasseur is guaranteed to succeed at his new club.
Thats why we will look at what he can propose in terms of tactics and how he will deal with this new difficult situation.
This tactical analysis article will provide an overview of Vasseurs tactical ideas and philosophy at Olympique Lyonnais while linking these ideas with Everton and attempting to determine how he will deal with the squad.
Vasseurs tactical ideas and preferred playing system at Lyon
In terms of attacking ideas, Vasseur is a coach who likes to rely on movement without the ball to create free spaces behind defences, especially on the wings.
Having had the opportunity to coach excellent full-backs at Lyon, he exploited his players excellent attacking addition and usually instructed them to advance when the team has the ball, creating a 2-5-3 formation that can transform even into a 2-4-4 formation.
This attacking approach worked well at Lyon and was used as one of OLs most efficient weapons.
Players like Bronze were crucial in terms of assists and attacking contribution thanks to this playing style.
It is also worth mentioning that the teams midfielders cover for full-back advancements so as to avoid numerical inferiority in counters and not put the team at risk during every opportunity.
Applying this type of attacking ideas is possible and may happen soon.
However, one must not forget that the squad is different and player characteristics are distinct.
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