Portland Thorns: Why tactical and structural continuity has led to their strong start to 2023

When Rhian Wilkinson departed her role as Portland Thorns head coach at the end of last season, following off-field issues, there were those in Oregon who feared that the continued progression of the team would be disrupted by the arrival of a new person at the helm, who would undoubtedly bring new ideas and methods for how they should approach their games.

However, the club instead made the brave decision to promote Wilkinson’s former assistant Mike Norris to the role, having recognised that he had made a significant impact on the squad since joining last year and had demonstrated his ability to develop players and help them to improve as individuals. It was a risk, given that Norris has never been a head coach or manager before in his career, with him mainly serving as a goalkeeper coach, but the club had belief in him and, so far, it has proven to be well-founded.

What Norris has done really well is that he has not changed the style of play too much from last year, and that is perhaps understandable given that he helped to implement the tactics that took them to the Championship title. Even so, with him now being in charge of the team, there might have been some who would have seen the step up to take the reins as a good moment to make drastic changes and go in a different direction, and yet, so far, he has avoided that temptation.

Offensive quality

That is not to say that he hasn’t tweaked a few things though, and one of his aims has clearly been to increase Portland’s overall efficiency, particularly when it comes to their exploits in the final third. They still have the same three-player line at the top of the field as before, but each player is now being asked to add new elements to their games this season, and that shows how Norris is introducing his own ideas, but without undergoing a complete overhaul.

“On the field, efficiency is probably something we target, in terms of chances created, we'll be more efficient with them. And then from my goalkeeping background, if we can just solidify the defensive side site and tighten that up a little bit.”

Mike Norris, speaking to the club website after being appointed as Portland Thorns’ head coach.

Sophia Smith is a great example of this, because, whilst she is still making the same runs up the field as she did before and is still Portland’s main attacking outlet, she has also been seen drifting out to the wings or dropping deep to receive the ball, and that wasn’t something that she often did under Wilkinson.