“Everyone wants to beat us”: The tactics that helped Sydney claim a third straight A-League Women premiership – scout report

The great thing about being a football fan is that, as one league starts to enter its latter stages, another re-enters the fray. In the women’s game, just such a transition is happening at this very time, with many of the major European seasons entering their final weeks and others such as the NWSL starting to take centre stage once again.

Another league reaching its conclusion is the A-League Women, with it’s regular season reaching a conclusion at the weekend and Sydney Women securing a third successive Premiers title (the award given to the team who tops the league at this stage of the campaign) after seeing off Newcastle Jets Women 4-0.

However, whilst there will have been celebrations in Australia’s largest city following this achievement, Ante Juric’s side will also be aware that the job is only half-done, with there still being the matter of the Finals stages to navigate in order to secure the Championship title. In both of the last two years, getting their hands on that particular trophy has proved to be a step too far for them, so there will undoubtedly be a desire among the squad to make it third time lucky and end their wait to lift it (which goes back to the 2018/19 season).

With that in mind, this tactical analysis will look in closer detail at not only why they have been successful in landing a third straight regular season title, but also how they can improve to give themselves the best possible chance ahead of those knockout matches, highlighting examples from previous matches of situations where they have demonstrated elements of fragility.

Attack

When analysing their attacking play, what is immediately evident is that Sydney Women play with a lot of clarity on the pitch, with players always fully aware of their roles in the overall game plan and what they need to do in each situation during their matches.

This is down to Juric’s philosophy largely revolving around keeping things simple, with Sydney’s preferred formation being a basic 4-3-3, which has been used in 69% of their matches this season, and implementing a game plan that is not filled with complex tactical details.

However, that is not to say that there aren’t areas of their play where Juric has put his own personal touch on things, and one of the most noticeable aspects of their performances where this is easily noticed is the structure of their forward line when they have the ball. As is evident here against Melbourne City Women, the central attacker is used as a link between the midfield and forward areas, with them tending to drop back and get on the ball before turning and releasing the two wingers into the areas behind the opposing defensive line.