On the eve of Euro 2025, Sarina Wiegman was looking ahead to England’s three group games and the different scenarios she and her coaching staff were preparing for.
As the defending champions and with a target on their backs, Wiegman had spent months working out ways for England to come into the tournament and be unpredictable, and she revealed there were certain ideas to have “in our pocket” that the Lionesses could turn to if they found themselves in trouble.
The opening defeat to France left England playing knockout football from their second game, but it was also a blessing in disguise. Beth Mead said the performance and defeat to France was the “best thing that could have happened” to the squad.
It told the defending champions that they would be going home unless they went back to basics and rediscovered the motivation and hunger that led to their title at Euro 2022. In the wins against Netherlands and Wales, Wiegman said the Lionesses were playing with “urgency” again.
Wiegman got her team selection wrong against France but she rectified it for the Netherlands game. The defeat also emboldened Wiegman to go into her pocket and pull out a solution; England faced three different games against France, Netherlands and Wales but they have approached them in three different ways after Wiegman fixed what went wrong in the opening game.
Wiegman has done so by using just 12 players in her starting line-ups and making just one change between the three group games, the fewest out of the remaining teams who are through to the quarter-finals. Ella Toone came in for Mead after England’s defeat to France and Wiegman named the same starting line-up from the Netherlands win against Wales - the first time the Lionesses had named an unchanged side since the World Cup two years ago. Wiegman, of course, became the first head coach to name the same starting line-up in all six games while winning the tournament at Euro 2022. But there has been more flexibility three years on.
There were other changes within that, bringing Toone into the team altered the midfield and pushed Lauren James into attack while Jess Carter and Alex Greenwood swapped positions in the back four. While England named the same line-up for the Wales game, there was a shift in their formation: Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp played as wing-backs against Wales with Toone and James both taking up positions at No 10.
“I think massive credit to Ella Toone,” Keira Walsh said after the win over Wales. “She's come in and done an incredible job. People speak about her offensively, but the defensive work she does for me and Georgia when she's in there is incredible.
“She covers a lot of spaces that we can't. That's probably been the main thing that's stopped other teams from playing as well. With LJ [Lauren James] on the wing, we've managed to get both of them on the pitch at the same time and they are two world-class players.”
If there was a danger that Toone and James, with her tendency to drift inside, could clash when looking to pick up the ball in central positions, that has been alleviated by a certain selflessness.
"It's so good to link up with LJ,” Toone said. “I know that if she's got the ball and she gives it to me, I can give it to her back. I can give it to her in tight areas. I can run off her. I can make an unselfish run and let her run into the space that I've created. It's a pleasure to play with someone like that.”
England’s players have also bought into making it work. “I think me, Kiera and Tooney have just got a really good relationship with each other,” Stanway said. “We look at each other, we speak constantly. I like to be in the pocket, she likes to be in the pocket. Keira likes to be on the ball and yeah, we've kind of just got a really good dynamic.”
At centre-back, Leah Williamson and Carter have quickled gelled while Carter and Alex Greenwood have also reset their relationship after swapping centre-back and full-back roles. “Jess is a real no-nonsense player and is a really big communicator so that works,” Williamson said.
The England squad are already preparing for the quarter-final against Sweden to be another different game, with Sweden bringing a certain physical and aerial strength that the holders have yet to face at the tournament. “Definitely it's one of their main threats,” Williamson said. “Obviously you want to try and stop the crosses, but we are all prepared for the battle in the air.”
Wiegman has reached the last four finals at major tournaments but she stressed before the Euros that every competition brings new hurdles and unforeseen challenges. In reacting to the France defeat and adjusting her plans, England can bring a different dynamic into the knockout stages now as well.
