Passion and knowledge

The first three months were difficult.

I had arrived in Scotland to become manager of Hearts, but now I was thinking: “What is this I have got myself into?” It was so hard, I was alone and not being myself.

My boss at the time said to me: “Where is the Eva that we saw in the interview? The one with passion and knowledge. We want that Eva.”

That conversation made me switch, because I did not want to lose the opportunity.

I had worked so hard to get there, because I didn’t have the help that maybe other coaches have from playing in top teams, or contacts who helped them from the beginning. Instead, I had to start from the very bottom of the ladder.

Growing up, there was always football in our family home. My dad was a football fanatic, and every weekend we would watch four or five games together. As I grew, I became more and more obsessed, studying the game.

We had a book on the Spanish League with information about every team and I studied it until I knew everything. I started playing with boys at seven years old, then at age 10 I said to my dad that I wanted to play with girls. In our town – Sabadell in Catalonia – we had a good women’s club. Their first team was in the first division, and has produced some excellent players including Alexia Putellas – one of the best in the world.

“When someone tells me that I cannot achieve something, I want to do it even more”

After a few years playing there, I had to decide whether to focus on playing or studying. I was not receiving money to play football and was sacrificing a lot to play – time and money. At that moment, the club had no resources. So you had to pay for travel, and even for your club tracksuit.

I decided to focus on university, to become a teacher. But my passion for the game was always there. I was still obsessed with watching and analysing games every weekend.

At that time, the image people had of what a female football coach looked like was not exactly my image. If you were really feminine, people thought you couldn’t be a football coach. I would go to the pitches and they would say to me: “Are you the physio? Why are you coaching?” They didn’t take me seriously. But when someone tells me that I cannot achieve something, I want to do it even more.

I started coaching quite young, at 26 years old, with Sant Quirze in the women’s third division in Spain. It was challenging, because I was so serious and focused on becoming a professional football coach. But the players were there for fun.

We had a really good first season, though, and finished in the club’s highest-ever league position. I asked the club: “What are your ambitions? We can go to the second division, which is a really good division.” But they were not interested as it would mean more travel and need more money.

So for a new challenge, I went to coach at Sant Cugat FC’s boys’ academy – the third best academy in Catalonia, after FC Barcelona and Espanyol. It gave me a different experience where I learned a lot. There was a lot of coaching technique to the boys, rather than tactics. That was useful for me.

“I had to think about what I wanted, and decided that I wanted to fight for women’s football”

At Sant Cugat we worked a lot on perception. We used colours that the boys had to identify during play – turning their head and scanning all the time, seeing before receiving – which helped a lot with basic decision-making.

Even now, working with professional players in the women’s game, there are basic things I have had to coach to players at first-team level that I had coached to boys at Sant Cugat. For example, correct body shape. That is sad, because it means nobody taught these basics to women when they were younger. Fortunately, girls growing up playing football now will have more knowledge of these basics.

I spent a few years with the boys’ academy. They offered me older age groups, wanting me to stay. But I had to think about what I wanted, and decided that I wanted to fight for women’s football – to help change things for the better.

I knew female players needed professional coaches with knowledge, so I went back to coaching my hometown team, Sabadell. It was so competitive in the age groups, because we were competing with FC Barcelona and Espanyol. Then I worked with the first team, and became head of women's football, organising the academy and the first team. I also coached a team of disability players, which was one of my best experiences.

One day, I received a call from a university friend, who told me: “My husband is in the United States. He knows a club that is looking for a female coach in Catalonia, because they have a women's team going there for a tournament.”

That was Houston Dynamo, and I took the opportunity. They liked my coaching and offered me the chance to go to the United States, on my first professional contract. I went to coach in their academy in Louisiana, working with Under-19s on the men’s side, and with the women.

“We did a lot of work on technique, and learned the basics before we worked on tactics”

I was so happy there, because it was the first time that I woke up in the morning and went to work as a coach. Before this contract, I had to do two or three other jobs, plus studying, then coaching. Now, finally, I was focusing only on coaching, which was a dream and opened a lot of doors.

Then Covid came. Before the pandemic, I had more offers in the United States, but the projects were shut down because of the virus. With the travel restrictions, I didn’t want to risk not being able to see my family for a long time, so I cancelled the flights I had booked. It was a difficult time for everybody, and for me a difficult period without football.

When everything started getting better, I started working in the Catalan Football Association, doing methodology and co-ordinating all the teams of the association. I was also in contact with the head coach of Celtic Women, Fran Alonso. When he was working for Lewes in the English Championship, I went to see how he worked, and did the same when he was at Celtic. He liked my football ideas, and called me one day to let me know that Hearts were looking for a manager. So I sent them my CV and application.

They asked me to prepare a presentation with my methodology, idea of play, everything. After I had explained all my ideas – and 100 other things – they offered me the job. I accepted, but didn’t arrive for another month, because of Brexit-related problems with the visa. It was a crazy month trying to get that sorted, and pre-season had already started.

So at first, it was difficult. The players were young and didn’t really know anything about football. I was thinking: “Where am I?” But from there I changed the mentality. We started training five days a week. We did a lot of work on technique, and learned the basics before we worked on tactics.

The year before I arrived, the club had finished last but weren’t relegated because of Covid. So the objective in my first season was to stay up, which we did. Going into the second season, I asked for a little more money from the club. Not too much, just a little to start doing a few small contracts.

“At 1-0 with time running out, we went to attack, attack, attack”

With that and a lot of hard work, the next season we finished fourth. That was crazy, like winning the league for us, because the top three had much bigger budgets.

Last season we finished fourth again, but also arrived to the final of the Scottish Cup for the first time. We went into that game against Rangers at Hampden Park with eight injuries, playing with 15-year-old players.

We wanted to win, but we were competing against Rangers with young players, and players who had practically not played all season. But we were competitive, and at 1-0 with time running out we went to attack, attack, attack. Unfortunately we conceded a second, but it was not a game with a big difference between the teams. That was another milestone for the club.

Now, halfway through this season, we are up there fighting with the big three of the Scottish Women’s Premier League: Glasgow City, Rangers and Celtic. There is still a lot of football to be played, but to arrive at Christmas a point off second-place Rangers – when normally they would be 20 ahead – was a massive improvement.

In the cup, we played a big Edinburgh derby against Hibs in the third round and won 1-0. That came after our best night of the league season so far, when we got the better of Hibs tactically and won 4-0 at Easter Road. Then there was a first win in our history against Celtic, from a game where we had a really attacking plan.

In December, against the league leaders, Glasgow City, we drew 0-0. We had a really brave game plan, individually marking high. In attack we were playing 3-5-2 but fixing with four, with the wing-backs high and two strikers. We went to win the match, but drew 0-0.

“We want to attract the pressure because then we can beat that first line, to then play in behind”

My obsession is how we beat the first lines of pressure. In pre-season, I always start working on building up from the goalkeeper and insisting that my players know how to play under pressure. My keepers have to be good with their feet because they are an extra player, giving us a plus one or plus two in the build-up. Teams press us high because of our combination play, but the keeper gives us that extra player. We want to attract the pressure because then we can beat that first line, to then play in behind.

When a team is well organised, in a mid-block or low block, it is difficult for us because it is more difficult to play between the lines. So we have to work more on attacking from wide areas and switching the play.

I also work a lot with the third-player combination. That is, when you attract the pressure and there is a free player, but you cannot play direct to them, we use a player in the next line to connect with the free player between the lines. We also work a lot on creating the spaces, and on my players feeling confident to play under pressure.

Our number 10s are so key for the build-up, because 90 per cent of the time the pivots are marked, so we want more receiving from the second line. For example, we connect with the 10 under pressure and then a pivot makes a double movement, attracting their marker, then going and receiving from the 10 in space. Or, sometimes the 10 can receive in space between the lines without pressure, and then they can turn.

This season we have been playing a 3-4-3 for the first time, which came naturally from thinking about how to create the spaces and overloads. If you want to fix the opposition back four, you need at least three players. It can be a striker and the 10s, but in my case, I do it with the striker and high wing-backs for width. When you do this you can then have a plus two – the keeper and another player – in the build-up or the creative zone.

With our number 10s and the position of the pivots together, we create a line of pass with the 10s and the wide centre-backs. The 10s can sometimes also move wide to create overloads, but they have to work together and we need to play short passes. We don’t want massive distances, because if we lose the ball we can then press together. Otherwise we are going to be leaving a lot of spaces for the transition.

“We always play long balls with intentionality”

I explain to my players every time: “Be together, close to each other, short passes. We keep width and can switch play to the player we have in the opposite channel, who is giving us width. But the rest of you? We have to be close to each other. Then if we lose the ball, we can counter-press, and not leave spaces to counter-attack.” That is a key message to transmit to the players.

While we like to beat the first line of pressure, if the opposition comes high and the space is behind, we play into the space. But we always play long balls with intentionality. We create the space first and have a runner; normally the wing-back, or the number 10 with a diagonal movement, or the striker with a diagonal movement from the middle channel. Everything is done with intentionality.

With Hearts, it would be a big step to play in a European competition and win a cup. As for me, I always want football in my life – and projects that support women’s football to grow. It is growing a lot, but still we need a little more push.

One day, I aim to coach in the Champions League and, longer term, with a national team. Those are my dreams.