When Leicester City Women brought Lydia Bedford’s tenure as head coach to an end in early November, the East Midlands side sat rock bottom of the WSL and were without a single point to their name. At that point, things looked very bleak for them, and there wasn’t a great deal of hope between then and Christmas either under former Everton Women boss Willie Kirk, who had moved from his Director of Women’s Football role to take charge of the side, with them unable to kickstart their season into life and seemingly destined for a return to the Women’s Championship.
However, following the resumption of the league after the winter break, Leicester have undoubtedly been one of the form teams in the division, with Kirk’s side picking up two wins from their opening three matches, against fellow strugglers Brighton and Hove Albion Women and Liverpool Women, and managing to keep Manchester City Women out for an hour in the other game before falling to a defeat, and there is now definite hope that they can avoid the drop and will be in the top flight next season.
This tactical analysis will look at what has improved in the last few weeks, focusing on what Kirk has changed tactically and how he has got the whole team moving in the right direction. The scout report will look specifically at their defensive setup, how they have used spaces around the field well and how their final third play has improved, with all three playing a vital role in Leicester’s seemingly impossible quest to stay in the division.
Defensive strength
When looking at Leicester City Women’s last three results in the league, it is difficult to miss the fact that their two wins were also both clean sheets, and that suggests that they have been working hard on their setup out of possession as they look to improve on the first half of the season when they conceded 25 goals in nine matches an average of 2.8 per match.
One of the main reasons that they have become more robust is because they have started to defend on the front foot in 2023, with their full-backs in particular often pushing forward to press their opponents and keep the ball as far away from their goal area as possible. In this case, it is Liverpool’s Taylor Hinds who has been closed down early, with her prevented from moving into a threatening area by right-back CJ Bott.
The New Zealand international is a player who likes to get up the pitch, but, before the winter break, she had been limited in what she could do by Leicester’s defensive setup, as they had been playing with her and Jemma Purfield as their two full-back options. Both are good players, but both have attacking mindsets, so neither was able to push forward as much as they wanted because that would have left the two centre-backs exposed and open to counterattacks.
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