“A side steadily rebuilding”: Why positive tactical development is behind Bristol City’s WSL return – scout report

Having flirted with relegation from the WSL for a number of seasons, 2020/21 saw Bristol City Women’s luck finally run out, with them slipping through the trapdoor and bringing their five-year stay in the top tier to an end. Whilst fans would have hoped for an immediate return, the simple fact that the team needed a new interim head coach to replace Matt Beard, who had departed to take over at Liverpool Women, with Tanya Oxtoby still on maternity leave, and had seen 19 or so players depart for pastures new meant that the chances of doing so were very slim.

Instead, when former assistant coach Lauren Smith was handed the reigns in the summer, her task appeared to be more rebuilding the squad and implementing a style of play that would produce exciting football than achieving immediate promotion, with results not expected initially due to the amount of development and change that was required.

Nevertheless, it quickly became clear that Smith was the right person to lead the team, and, when Oxtoby announced her permanent departure a few months later, the Welsh coach was handed a permanent three-year deal. It was a sign of faith in her plans for the team, and, fast forward to now, that faith has been repaid, with Smith leading the club to the Women’s Championship title and promotion back to the WSL at the second time of asking.

The way that she has achieved that feat has led to plenty of plaudits both from inside and outside the club, with many noting how she has transformed the team’s tactical identity and given them greater freedom on the field than they had previously enjoyed, whilst her recruitment has been smart and has been key to her getting her ideas across. This tactical analysis will look at both of those in turn, first making comparisons between the team that came down and the one going back up and then highlighting some of the players who have contributed to their success.

2020/21 relegation

When Bristol City Women’s relegation was secured, there were a great many reasons that were picked out to blame for it, with some suggesting a lack of club backing and others noting how young and inexperienced the squad was. However, one thing was clear, and that was that, despite Bristol’s best efforts to stay in the division, they had simply not been able to attain the points on the field required to maintain their place in the league.

As a result, it seems prudent to examine why that was the case, and one thing that immediately stood out when watching them was their “defend first” mentality under Beard’s management. More often than not, they tended to set up in either a 4-1-4-1 or 5-4-1 formation under him, with each being used on 32% and 22% of occasions respectively, and it was clear that his aim was first and foremost to not concede.

That is not to say that he and Bristol didn’t value goals though, because their game plan did revolve around counterattacking as soon as they won the ball. It was just that that was not their first priority.

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