Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey has admitted that she used ChatGPT to help determine the team’s tactics for multiple matches this NWSL season.
Speaking on the Soccerish Podcast, Harvey said that she started by asking the large language model various questions about tactics and strategy in the NWSL, which eventually turned into more detailed breakdowns on how to beat individual teams in the league.
“One day in the off season, I was writing things into ChatGPT like, ‘what is Seattle Reign’s identity?’ And it would spurt it out. And I was like ‘I don’t know if that’s true or not,’” she said. “And then I put in ‘what formation should you play to beat NWSL teams?’ and it spurted out every team in the league and what formation you should play. And for two teams, it went ‘you should play a back five.’ So I did. No joke, that’s why I did it.”
Harvey declined to name which teams she used the tactic for, but women’s soccer analyst Kim McCauley pointed out that the Reign first played with a back five in April against Orlando Pride, a game they lost 1-0 while generating about 0.5 more expected goals than usual.
The Reign have played with a back five at multiple other points this season, which has seen a marked improvement in results compared to 2024. Harvey and the Reign finished second from bottom in NWSL last season, but are fourth in the league – good enough for a playoff place – heading into the final day of the regular season this weekend.
Harvey said that she and her coaching staff “researched it, we did a deep dive on it, we thought about how we could play it,” before acting on ChatGPT’s suggestions.
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Harvey is in her second stint in charge of the Reign, having rejoined the club in 2021 after previously coaching them from 2013-2017. The Englishwoman has previously managed Arsenal in the WSL and Utah Royals in the NWSL, along with time as an assistant with the US women’s national team and various US youth teams. She was named NWSL coach of the year in 2014, 2015 and 2021.
