For many fans of the WSL, Dario Vidošić will not be an especially familiar name, which is entirely understandable given that the Croatia-born former Australia midfielder has only been a head coach for two years and spent both of them in charge of Melbourne City Women in his adopted country.
However, those who follow the Antipodean game closely will vouch for his reputation as one of its most promising coaches at this moment in time.
He started out as an assistant to his father, Rado, at Melbourne before stepping up to replace him once the latter had taken charge of their men’s team.
Under his watch, Melbourne demonstrated continual improvement and finished third in his debut campaign before securing the Premiers title in the most recent one.
It was not only the results that caught the eye, though.
The style of play that he implemented also contributed to his burgeoning status.
Melbourne strongly emphasised the need to control proceedings and averaged 62.87% possession per outing last season.
They were a side that no one relished coming up against.
That is what likely attracted Brighton and Hove Albion Women to his services over the summer as they looked for their fifth coach since former England manager Hope Powell’s departure in October 2022 (including interim spells for Amy Merricks and Mikey Harris).
The Broadfield Stadium outfit have aspirations to compete for a place in the WSL’s top four but have struggled to achieve that aim, and the hope is that Vidošić will be the person to help them finally realise it.
The early signs have been positive in that regard, with Brighton sitting fourth in the standings at the time of writing after winning three of their opening four league matches.
It is evident that the players are buying into his tactical philosophy.
With that in mind, this tactical analysis will examine the key principles behind his preferred tactics, both in and out of possession, and highlight where they can still improve as the season goes on.
Ball Progression Route
As mentioned, the key thing to understand about Dario Vidošić’s philosophy is that he wants his teams to be in control of their own destiny.
He has spoken openly about how he suffers on the sidelines whenever the ball is out of his possession.
That mindset forms the framework for so much of what Melbourne and now Brighton and Hove Albion Women have done well under him, and fans can expect to see his current charges rack up significant possession statistics as the players continue to adjust to his ideas.
As with any team who operates within this style of play, it begins at the back, with Vidošić wanting his defensive line to play an intrinsic role in progressing the ball up the field and in breaking opposing lines.
The two who play a key role in making this work are the full-backs.
Vidošić needs them to be effective at pushing into advanced spaces and creating options for those behind to then look for.
It was for this reason that he opted to start Bryleeh Henry, a forward by trade, at right-back for Melbourne last season after Australia international Kaitlyn Torpey’s switch to San Diego Wave.
Henry has a natural instinct to move up the field to support the offensive play.
Since joining Brighton, he has not faced any difficulties in implementing the same strategy, with Brighton having several full-backs on their books who are known for their attacking instincts.
In this case, during the Continental Cup match with Birmingham City Women, it is left-back Poppy Pattinson who has moved up the pitch, with former Rangers Women full-back Rachel McLauchlan holding back to ensure that the back two do not become isolated in the event of a counterattack.
It could just as easily be the other way around, though.
It should be mentioned that Vidošić also recognises the benefits of holding onto the ball for extended periods of play.
He is happy to see his players make a series of horizontal passes in deeper areas.
This is a risky tactic to employ, given that it can invite pressure from the opposing side, but it is one that highlights the new Brighton coach’s desire to not concede possession unnecessarily and his understanding that playing the long game can sometimes be the best policy.
As soon as the ball travels into the midfield, attention turns towards connecting the two halves of the team together.
Therefore, Vidošić needs a player in the engine room who has an excellent awareness of their surroundings and a high passing accuracy.
At Melbourne, Laura Hughes performed that role in his system.
She thrived at it and was a key reason Melbourne dominated matches as they did.
She quickly became one of the A-League’s more underrated players during Vidošić’s two years at the helm.
Since moving to Brighton, the player who has been handed this responsibility is Maisie Symonds, who had a really strong campaign last time out and who is a perfect fit for Vidošić’s game plan.
She has always demonstrated an exceptional awareness of what is happening around her, and there is no doubting her role in Brighton, registering an 85.6% passing accuracy for the campaign so far.
In this case, it is her lack of hesitation that really stands out, with Scotland full-back McLauchlan feeding the ball into her path and Symonds instantly sending it back up the field and towards another summer recruit in Serbia midfielder Jelena Čanković.
The speed at which she does this allows the former Chelsea Women player to send Japan forward Kiko Seike behind the defensive line, with only the intervention of Birmingham full-back Martha Harris preventing her subsequent cross from reaching Madison Haley.
All of that stemmed from Symonds having the vision to identify the gap, and the fact that 87.9% of her passes have found their intended targets shows why Vidošić will need her available for every game if he is to successfully implement his tactical vision.
The reason that Vidošić depends so heavily on having that profile of player in the central third is because it then frees others up to support the attacks, creating numbers inside the final third that increase their chances of converting their opportunities.
At Melbourne, it was common to see both Daniela Galic and captain Rhianna Pollicina get into goalscoring positions and support New Zealand striker Hannah Wilkinson and those outside her.
It was something that worked well for the A-League side and led to them averaging 1.84 goals per game.
Vidošić plays with attacking fullbacks, which also helps to facilitate this.
The presence of McLauchlan and Pattinson allows both Pauline Bremer and on-loan Barcelona Femení forward Bruna Vilamala to make inverted runs here.
However, there is also a need for the player operating through the middle to play their part by dropping back at times and offering more than just a goal threat.
This wasn’t something that Vidošić was able to rely on as much at Melbourne, but he has got that player at Brighton in the shape of summer signing Nikita Parris.
The former Manchester United Women forward has provided a mobile presence during her first games at the club, making it easier for others to get into goalscoring positions.
In this case, she dropped back to receive the ball in a deeper area before setting up Bremer to find the back of the Aston Villa Women net.
Her 82.1% passing accuracy to date highlights how she brings more than just goals.
Tactical Flexibility Out Of Possession
This is not to say that everything about Dario Vidošić’s tactics revolves around their work in possession, though.
He also watches how his team operates without the ball.
Again, his philosophy prioritises getting on the front foot and taking the game to their opponents, instigating an aggressive press when they can, but it has also been noticeable that Brighton and Hove Albion Women have quite multi-dimensional during the early stages of the campaign, with them having the ability to adapt and to deal with different types of opponents.
That desire to regain the ball at the earliest available opportunity was evident from his first league match in the dugout, with Brighton never giving Everton Women a chance to catch their breath and instead getting tight to them and using their natural pace whenever they could.
In this case, former Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies attacker Seike moved forward and successfully dislodged the ball from Elise Stenevik, which led to one of her three goals on the day.
It should be mentioned that Everton were the architects of their own downfall in many ways.
One of the major issues under Brian Sørensen was their tendency to give the ball away while building from the back.
However, Brighton still deserve a lot of credit for forcing the issue and for not waiting for the ball to come to them, with it providing a clear indication of how much the players are buying into Vidošić’s tactics and at how dangerous that has made them when opponents do give them opportunities to defend on the front foot.
As mentioned, though, Brighton’s new head coach has recognized that this strategy will not always be viable.
Against Manchester City Women, he recognised that his side would spend more time without the ball, and so he tweaked the game plan to focus on being as tough to break down as possible.
This not only involved asking them to sit back but also saw them change their shape to the 4-2-3-1 formation he favoured in Australia, instead of the wing-back setup that Brighton have generally utilised under him.
As a result of that tactical flexibility, Brighton proved to be a largely immovable object at times, with their hosts forced to make diagonal passes in their bid to find a way through, just as they have here by switching it to Aoba Fujino on the far side wing.
This is not an unfamiliar concept for Gareth Taylor’s side, with their own tactics revolving around their use of the wings, but they did noticeably struggle to convert their possession into clearcut opportunities in this match as a result of the way that Brighton sought to frustrate them.
Manchester City might have won the match in the end, but it was with just a single goal scored, and it was a performance that Brighton will have taken a lot of confidence from.
The reason that Brighton have favoured a wing-back setup is because it gives them more mobility on the wings, but another advantage that comes from it is the three-player central defensive line that it affords them.
This is another thing that Vidošić has based a lot of his defensive tactics around.
In this case, it is Pattinson and Norway duo Maria Thorisdóttir and Guro Bergsvand who have formed that line, and it is immediately apparent how Aston Villa now have less of a chance of delivering the ball into the middle and of converting it into a goal.
Add to that the fact that Seike has moved to limit the angles that Adriana Leon has to work with, and it perhaps comes as no surprise to learn that the Canada forward’s delivery was overhit and left former Brighton forward Katie Robinson frustrated.
This is not the only time when Brighton have made life difficult for their opponents through this setup, with them succeeding in 63.8% of their defensive duels and 43.7% of their aerial contests so far.
It is yet another indication of just how much they have improved the defensive side of things alongside developing their offensive threat, which is why they are currently in a very strong position in the league standings.
Early Problems To Address
The points made in this analysis so far could give the impression that everything is heading in the right direction for Brighton and Hove Albion Women under Dario Vidošić.
There is certainly a lot to admire about how quickly he and the players have formed a working bond.
However, they are not yet the finished article, and there are things that can still be tightened up, which will create excitement among their fans as they relish just what the team is capable of this season.
They need to ensure that their game plan doesn’t contain too many tactical ideas.
The players mostly adopt Vidošić’s ideas but occasionally show signs of not knowing which option to choose from.
This was one of those moments.
England star Fran Kirby was in possession and had enough of a gap ahead of her between Birmingham captain Christie Harrison-Murray and ex-Charlton Athletic Women player Tegan McGowan to send the ball towards Symonds.
Making that pass would have been in keeping with Vidošić’s desire to move the ball forward and make territorial gains wherever possible, but Kirby instead opted to send it back towards the defensive line, which by this stage had positioned itself around the halfway line.
Whilst it was not a bad decision as such, and the goal did eventually come when Kirby penetrated the goal area and turned home a cross from Haley, it was a sign of the disadvantage that can come from having multiple messages on the field.
It is just something for Brighton and their head coach to bear in mind as the campaign goes on.
Staying on the theme of decision-making, Brighton also need to be wary of not making it too easy for their opponents to break them down, with the match against Manchester City one example of that.
As has already been analysed, Brighton focused in that game on sitting back and being tough to beat.
However, there were a few times when players moved away from that and reverted to closing the ball down, which made it easier for their hosts to break them down.
This was one of those moments, with Thorisdóttir reading the pass out towards Netherlands full-back Kerstin Casparij and attempting to win the ball back for her team.
The fact that she has made 27 interceptions in four matches so far suggests that she has the ability to disrupt opposing play, and so she could be forgiven for backing herself to do so again here.
However, this was not the game to defend in this way and it showed, with the former Chelsea and Manchester United player leaving a sizeable gap exposed behind her and allowing Lauren Hemp to make a run into that space.
Whilst it might not have led to anything, it was a situation in which Brighton created their own issues and was a warning of the perils that can occur from players making poor decisions as to when to press and when to hold their position.
Perhaps the most pressing of these three areas, though, is Brighton’s tendency to give the ball away in dangerous positions, largely due to Vidošić’s desire to play out from the back.
There is no denying that it is an excellent strategy to have for those who can execute it in a tidy manner, but not enough teams get the detail of it right and end up conceding possession unnecessarily, with Brighton falling firmly into that category at times and it being one of the main reasons that they have conceded 0.6 goals per game so far.
As this graphic indicates, the majority of goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley’s passes (with her being their first choice between the posts so far) have been across shorter distances, with only a few travelling higher up the field.
The fact that she has always had teammates close by her when passing out is one of the reasons that she has racked up a 91.3% passing accuracy so far.
However, Brighton have not always been that tidy and those moments when they have lacked precision have led to their goal coming under avoidable pressure.
On average, they have lost the ball 3.85 times per game when playing out from Baggaley and have seen 3.58 of opponents’ shots at their goal be on target in those games she has featured in, which will concern those watching on from the stands.
It should be mentioned that this is a common theme in Vidošić’s philosophy.
Melbourne, too, gave the ball away cheaply at times and conceded 1.2 times per outing last season, so it is not only a reflection on the Brighton players.
They will need to keep working on it, though, because loose passes at the back are exactly what other sides in the WSL will feed off as they try to locate Brighton’s weaknesses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has taken a closer look at new Brighton and Hove Albion Women head coach Dario Vidošić, who has been entrusted with the team that so many have sought to take into the top four of the WSL and which so far has struggled to meet that target.
As the analysis has indicated, the former Australia midfielder has an exciting way of playing, and his ideal tactics match those desired by the Brighton board.
Thus, the visions of both are aligned, which will help them work together during both positive times and when things do become tougher.
From the early games, it is clear why he is rated as one of Australia’s brightest young coaches.
The fact that the players have responded well to his demands will give those watching on from the stands and at home plenty of encouragement about their prospects this season.
If they can remedy those things that aren’t quite working out for them now, then they could be a force to be reckoned with and another of Vidošić’s sides that no one looks forward to facing.
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