Inside Andree Jeglertz’s strategy in Man City: why Yui Hasegawa is so important for success | Football news

Saving one by one with Andree Jeglertz is a fascinating experience. For a coach with more than 20 years of experience in the women’s match, it is striking to see how open it is. No pretension or front just an honest assessment of the way he sees things.

“This group, at the beginning, perhaps waited a little like I told them what to do,” he said about his first weeks of post at Manchester City. “I don’t think you are developing this way. Most of the things that players should be able to solve in a match themselves.”

Jeglertz firmly believes in empowerment. He likes that players are free in a structure that allows each individual and their forces to prosper. There is a subtlety to the changes it has so far brought to City – modifies this point towards evolution but do not harm a style firmly anchored in the club’s fabric.

Last Friday, City’s 2-1 victory perfectly summarized the strategy.

The first objective, noted by the inevitable Khadija Shaw, is the manual. Directly from the manual of the City man.

Alex Greenwood plays a pass through the lines, Leila Ouahabi is high and wide, ready to hang up a deep cross to the rear post where Shaw arrives to power a head at home. Nothing new, also impressive precision. The city has marked this way for millennia.

Last season, they scored 15 counter-assisted goals, at least six more than any WSL team. They scored 13 goals to the head, at least four more than any other. Mathematics make sense since they generally had a monopoly on the best wingers of the division. And Shaw is a convincing target to aim.

Their second goal – the winner of Yui Hasegawa – however, is the place where interest culminates. A decision that has undoubtedly won the Jeglertz approval stamp, prepared in pre-season in order to increase the influence of Hasegawa in a specialized role.

“Yui is one step ahead all the time,” Jeglertz told me on the eve of the new campaign. “We attracted more attention to the fact that it was not stuck in a position, we would like to make it understand more. She has qualities to play higher on the field because she spots space so well. We must use her intelligence.”

Imagine the pleasure of the Danish coach when, only two games of the season, Hasegawa stops a movement with a slippery blow between the width of the posts, involving Lauren Hemp, Auba Fujino and Kerolin. Knife through the butter.

Four passes, all intentional and complex, had Hasegawa Un-On with the goalkeeper of the opposition and she slipped the chance like any good attacker. The hemp decision to invade inside rather than heading towards the signature was just as deliberate. The evolution takes place.

Jeglertz wants City to become less predictable, with multiple means of scoring goals, beyond the threat of wide with which they were so durable. City, after all, has some of the best central technicians in the League, Hasegawa.

“Many things in football, these are relationships, how do players work together? Do they know when to expect certain movements and races? Do they know when crossing, when to shoot-it is to create connections,” he said.

Under Gareth Taylor, City had a rigid game model with less seen tactical flexibility. Often this took the form of a 4-3-3. Hasegawa was a fixed n ° 6, hemp and an out and out-out winger, a boxer of the box only.

This new system is not a radical change, but rather an offer of greater freedom in a flexible framework. And it means playing higher and more aggressively too. In a break with Taylor’s patient construction style, City Under Jeglertz is an urgent force.

“Small details really count. This is everyone’s project.” Jeglertz is important for property.

“The best thing about being a professional footballer is feeling, taking a step back and enjoying it. And then we can play forward, gaining turnover, creating energy to support. It’s my job to put players in roles to optimize the way we want to play football.”

It will take time to knit completely, but the players quickly joined the process. The design is already obvious. “I’m proud of the players’ patience,” said Jeglertz after beating Brighton. “There was no stress”. And Hasegawa, if at the heart of the city’s adoption by the ideas of their new head coach, was the coolest in the lot, just behind Shaw in XG value while displaying a passing accuracy of 91%.

The rivals of the city will undoubtedly be attentive to the fact that the last time that the club does not juggle with the interior tasks with the rigors of European football in 2023-24, they were beaten by the title only on the difference in goals. The absence of Champions League requests will allow the time necessary to improve the finest details of a match plan that already seems promising.

And with Hasegawa at the heart of it, the possibilities are endless.