The Top 4 Options to Replace USWNT Coach Vlatko Andonovski

It's not a matter of if U.S. Soccer will look for a new manager to lead the U.S. women's national team. It's a matter of when.

After the United States struggled at the Olympics in Tokyo back in 2021, finishing with a bronze medal that perhaps even flattered their performances and had many of the same tactical and personnel issues at the 2023 World Cup, Vlatko Andonovski's time in charge of the team will come to an end in the near future.

For U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker and USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf, finding the right person to replace Andonvoski should be their top priority. The Paris Olympics start in less than a year and the U.S. will work to have a permanent hire in place well before then.

The United States should be able to find an extremely qualified coach to lead the women's national team for this next tournament cycle. Though they came up short this summer, there's a ton of appeal behind the USWNT position: it's likely still the biggest job in women's soccer. Now with the chance to get the U.S. back on top after a poor cycle, there's a potential narrative boost behind the position, too.

So, who are some of the top options to replace Andonovski? Let's take a look.

Current Role: England manager

Age: 53

Sarina Wiegman is a name that many USWNT fans will already know: she helped lead the Netherlands to the 2019 World Cup Final, where they eventually fell to the United States. Since then, she took over as England manager, won the European Championships and is in the midst of a World Cup run this summer with her squad in the quarterfinals.

From watching her teams over the years, Wiegman regularly appears to get the most out of her players. With England, she often finds the right personnel mixture of technical ability and athleticism to help her team reach its ceiling. The Lionesses have used a 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, and a 3-4-1-2 shape under Wiegman in the last year, prioritizing ball control along the way.

While tactical approaches change based on the group of available players, if the United States decides to go after Wiegman, we should expect her to use a fairly similar controlled approach with the USWNT. Portland Thorns defensive midfielder Sam Coffey could be called upon to play in the Keira Walsh role at the base of midfield, with creative, energetic players surrounding her higher up the field.

Wiegman isn't a perfect coach — she doesn't like to rotate her team or make many substitutions, which can be a blessing and a curse. But she's had real success with two national teams already. Maybe she'll make it a third with the United States?

Current role: Japan manager

Age: 52

If you've seen much of this summer's World Cup action, you know how impressive Japan have been under manager Futoshi Ikeda.

Capable of creating chances with detailed, sharp possession out of a 3-4-3 shape or of defending in a deep 5-4-1 block and attacking at an elite speed in transition, Japan has thrived in every game up to this point in the competition. They were strong in the SheBelieves Cup earlier this year, too, beating Canada 3-0 and losing to the U.S. by only a single goal.

Ikeda has spent his entire coaching career in Japan, starting at the youth level, then taking over with Japan's U-20 and U-17 women, and most recently becoming the senior women's manager in the fall of 2021.

If the 52-year-old is looking for a new challenge outside of his home country, U.S. Soccer would be wise to give him a call. It's incredibly rare to find a team like Japan that can win games in so many different ways with impressive amounts of both skill and athleticism. Much of the credit for Japan's success should go to the players, but Ikeda has clearly played a role, too.

Current role: Chelsea manager

Age: 46

Winner of the last four FA Women's Super League titles with Chelsea, Emma Hayes has developed a top-notch coaching reputation.

Hayes has historically used a variety of different shapes, including a 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-4-3, and 3-4-1-2. She's willing to be flexible based on her personnel, but clearly wants to dictate how games are played with frequent defensive pressure and careful possession.

Now, discerning a coach's exact tactical game plan can be difficult without inside knowledge. If you're not in the locker room or in training in the buildup to a game, you're always going to have some guesswork to do when it comes to analyzing a manager's approach. But with Hayes, we do have a bit more public knowledge about her strategic acumen than with most other managers. Between her active instructions on the sidelines and her experience as a broadcast analyst, it's easy to see Hayes' understanding and influence on games.

Her ability to clearly communicate effective instructions and ideas to players would be a welcomed change after the Andonovski era.

Current role: France manager

Age: 54

At this point, it may be easier to pinpoint somewhere Herve Renard hasn't managed than somewhere he has. The 54-year-old has coached everywhere from Cambridge United to Zambia to Lille to Saudi Arabia to his current post: the French national team.

Renard prefers to dominate the ball, which is something that the United States does naturally as opponents bunker downfield in fear of their attacking talent. He's had some success getting his teams to turn possession into chances and prioritizes quick, aggressive defensive pressure, too. Still, Renard has also shown a willingness to be flexible based on available personnel. At both of the last two men's World Cups, where he coached Saudi Arabia (2022) and Morocco (2018), his teams averaged less than 50% possession.

Renard's ability to help players equal more than the sum of their parts could be useful for a U.S. team that repeatedly underwhelmed and failed to gel during the last tournament cycle.