How Sarina Wiegman's Substitutes Won England's First European Title
Hello! Here’s a quick update on my plans for West Ham+ 19 as the Premier League season swings into view:
Although the following article is my final piece on Euro 2022, WH+ 19’s coverage of women’s football will continue through the 2022-23 season. I’ll fill you in on the specifics once the Super League season kicks off.
Secondly, it won’t have escaped your attention that the Premier League starts on Friday night. I’ll be dropping some preview content before then.
Finally, I’m releasing my three-part series on referee abuse next week. I wrote it as part of my master’s course and can’t wait for you to read it.
Anyway… back to today’s scheduled programming.
England’s triumph over Germany in the final of Euro 2022 was historic for countless reasons. The win propelled the Lionesses to superstardom, ending 56 years of hurt in the process.
It also leaves Sarina Wiegman standing alone as the only coach to win the European Championship with two nations. If there was ever any doubt about the Dutchwoman’s class, it evaporated on Sunday.
"She is the missing ingredient England were looking for," Leah Williamson said during the Lionesses’ Trafalgar Square celebrations. "She has brought us all together. She is a special person and puts us first as human beings."
Mark Bullingham, the Football Association’s chief executive, added: “She is just incredible. She was our No. 1 target when we were going out to look for a manager and she was just brilliant all through that process.
“Not in our wildest dreams did we imagine this success so soon. We thought that this tournament might be too early. We weren’t sure we’d win this one – we were hoping we would win one in the future.”
England’s transformation under Wiegman has left the football world trying to answer the ‘how?’ question.
How did the 52-year-old orchestrate England’s championship run… what is her secret?
As is often the case in elite football, the code is simple: Wiegman planned her way to the summit. Let’s break it down:
Six Matches, Zero Changes.
Wiegman named Mary Earps, Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright, Leah Williamson, Rachel Daly, Keira Walsh, Georgia Stanway, Fran Kirby, Beth Mead, Ellen White, and Lauren Hemp as her starters for six matches straight.
Even in England’s dead-rubber affair against Northern Ireland, the former midfielder stuck with her core.
“I believe in rhythm,” Wiegman said before the match. “When you have nine days in between the Norwegian game and the quarter-finals that’s too long. You need more rhythm and keep the focus and keep playing. So, you couldn’t expect lots of rotations – during the game, probably, but not before.”
Wiegman’s approach was unprecedented: it was the first time in European Championship history that a coach named the same starting eleven for every match.
But it wasn’t a coincidence; she made very few changes en route to winning the Euros with the Netherlands in 2017 and instead made her impact from the bench. Wiegman continued the trend at Euro 2022, using scripted, on-the-fly changes to swing momentum in her side’s favour.
Sarina Wiegman’s Super (Co-Ordinated) Subs:
England’s squad included 23 players: 11 started every match, seven featured from the bench, and five didn’t play at all. Plenty has already been said and written about the Lionesses’ XI, but their most impactful players entered mid-game.
Wiegman deployed the same five subs – Greenwood, Toone, Russo, Kelly, and Scott – from the bench in fixtures against Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Germany. In games that were settled in extra time (Germany, Spain), she used her extra change to introduce Nikita Parris for Hemp – presumably with penalties and fresh legs in mind. Carter’s cameo appearance versus Northern Ireland was the only exception to the rule.
According to fbref.com, the super seven’s deployment breaks down as follows:
Alessia Russo: six appearances, 268 mins
Ella Toone: six appearances, 241 mins
Chloe Kelly: six appearances, 204 mins
Alex Greenwood: five appearances, 155 mins
Jill Scott: four appearances, 53 mins
Jess Carter: one appearance, 17 mins
Nikita Paris: two appearances, 6 mins
Beth England, Demi Stokes, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Hannah Hampton, Ellie Roebuck: zero appearances, zero mins
This approach paid off because it allowed Wiegman to prepare England’s substitutes for individually relevant situations:
If they were physically outmatched in the middle and needed a stabilising force, Scott entered
If they were struggling to link midfield to attack, Russo and Toone appeared
If they needed to lock down the left, Greenwood figured
How is Mead looking? Tired… okay, Kelly’s up
It’s the kind of long-term scoping that the Lionesses (and Three Lions) have lacked for decades.
Wiegman repeatedly spoke about the importance of being prepared for every scenario, and she walked the walk on that. In effect, her approach to squad management boiled down to a pair of simple questions:
How do I intend to use [insert player] in a crunch situation? How can I best prepare them for that situation?
It’s a simple rubric, but one that explains why Wiegman completely steered away from using players she had no intention of relying on in a potential final.
“It was so tight but who cares,” she told reporters at Wembley. “We won 2-1 and we are European champions. If you really want to win and become better every single day, that’s what I have noticed the whole year. It’s been incredible. We agreed a couple of things on behaviours, they weren’t just words, we lived it. And this is the result.”
Mission accomplished.