How did Sarina Wiegman level up the Lionesses?
England captain Leah Williamson described Head Coach Sarina Wiegman as the "missing ingredient."
In this blog post we explore the creative strategies Head Coach Sarina Wiegman introduced to the Women's England Football team, which lead to their unmatched performance and sterling victory at the Euros 2022.
The Lionesses’ electrifying win at the 2022 Euros sent shockwaves around the nation, as they managed to finally bring football home for England in a major way, the last time being over 50 years ago in 1966 when the men’s squad defeated Germany in the World Cup final.
England captain Leah Williamson described Head Coach Sarina Wiegman as the "missing ingredient."
How did Sarina Wiegman lead the team to victory at the 2022 Euros, as well as recording 0 losses for the Lionesses that year?
WIEGMAN WAS UNAFRAID TO MAKE BOLD DECISIONS
She had previous experience turning the Netherlands women’s team into champions, and brought her assured demeanour to England.
Wiegman was unafraid to make bold decisions, such as dropping former captain Steph Houghton from her squad before the tournament. To many people’s surprise, Wiegman also kept the same starting XI players for each match, becoming the first coach in Euros history to go with the same starting line-up in every game.
Confident in her choice, Wiegman knew this ensured each player understood their responsibility, and that those on the substitutions bench weren’t seen as a back-up plan, but as crucial as the starting XI.
Alessia Russo became known as ‘super sub’ for her impact, ending the Euros with four goals, including the famous ‘back-heel’ goal which went through the legs of the Swedish keeper in the semi-final. Ella Toone, another sub, was told that her role was to be a ‘difference maker,’ and that she was – scoring the first goal for England in the final against Germany after being on the pitch for just 4 minutes.
“there's a lot of clarity in the way we've played.”
Equalising the team, while giving them distinct and important roles, strengthened the players’ bonds with one another. Beth Mead, Golden Boot winner and Player of the Tournament at the Euros, commented: “there's a lot of clarity in the way we've played.”
Sarina Wiegman’s alternative approach to England football was creative in how it focused on strengthening the team dynamic to improve play.
HOW CAN THIS APPLY TO YOUR COACHING?
Research has shown that we need three different capabilities to generate creative outcomes:
Task motivation to solve a challenge
Domain specific skills to do the work e.g. coaching skills
Creativity knowledge and how to apply it (the ability to use creative thinking techniques)
Let’s see how this applies to Sarina Wiegman’s coaching.
Task motivation
Wiegman wanted to try her coaching style in an unfamiliar territory and yield great results outside her home-country of the Netherlands. This motivated Wiegman to create the most successful women’s football team in England’s history.
Domain specific skills
She had a ton previous experience, for example leading the Dutch national team to victory at the UEFA Women's Euro in 2017.
Creativity knowledge
Wiegman took a holistic approach by analysing every aspect of her team and the competition, not unlike the broad range of topics covered by creativity triggers:
“I can’t say one reason as being the most important behind our success because it was a puzzle and all of the little pieces of the puzzle fit into each other.”
She was also not afraid to ask questions related to adapting, modifying and reversing the usual process – elements which can be found in the
SCAMPER creative problem solving technique – such as starting with the same 10 players each game and sending on subs later in the matches.
The third factor, creativity knowledge and how to apply it, can often be the most beneficial, but also the most difficult to source. It can sometimes take years of trial and error and experiences to find the right creative solution, but there are ways to think more creatively instantaneously.
Taking steps to use creativity methods and exercises and fire up game-changing ideas can help you get there faster. Check out our guides that you can use as problem solving exercises by hitting the button below.
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