USWNT: Jill Ellis 4-3-3 will take U.S. far in World Cup

The USWNT embark on their World Cup defense this June. Thankfully, Jill Ellis has a 4-3-3 system that makes the most of her fabulous talent.

The U.S. Women’s National Team showed several effective formations in recent years of competition under head coach Jill Ellis. She shifted her players into a 4-5-1 formation in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, but her latest lineups have been turned through an array of 4-3-3 versions that prove effective.

Ellis isn’t shy about tinkering with her USWNT, but when she began focusing on the 4-3-3 almost exclusively, her team had an unbeaten streak that started with a 4-3 win over Brazil and lasted a year and a half. The style to lead the team forward had seemingly been uncovered, even if there were different wrinkles each time.

Ellis demonstrated that no one — neither opponents nor fans — will know exactly where key players will land as the 4-3-3 shifts through its various iterations. Sometimes defenders will take wing positions and move up into the attack. Midfielders will drop back into the defense.

This all started in 2016, when the team had an early exit from the 2016 Summer Olympics. Ellis started training her players in the 4-3-3 formation toward the end of that period. Ellis described it as nailing down a system they wanted to play in terms of what fits the team, that being what helped the best players on the field achieve the best results. She called this the process of discovering nuances in their system. That describes the arrays of the 4-3-3 that appear as players respond to opponents’ efforts. They flow to the ball as circumstances evolve on the field.

They also apply the arrays, or nuances, to fit substitutes, different stages of the game depending on what is required based on the scoreline and the remaining time, and, obviously and most pertinently, the specific abilities of the players being used. And this, for Ellis, is where the current crop of USWNT stars really shines.

Ellis said she has quality players, the ones that she wants, in the squad now. Their formations represent putting the pieces together. Megan Rapinoe stated that this is the most talented group of USWNT players she has ever played with, and she has played with plenty of talented groups.

This current USWNT iteration, then, has the talent, the pedigree and now the system to flourish in the World Cup. As they look to defend their title, Ellis and her players should be confident of both their ability and their tactics.

So get ready to pack the stadiums again and watch Jill Ellis’ 4-3-3 flow to a complete U.S. Women’s National Team victory.