England pathway coaches join Lionesses scouting hub for EURO 2025

A number of England’s pathway coaches will be involved in the scouting hub for UEFA Women’s EURO 2025.

The scouting hub, led by the FA’s Thomas Murray, has been in operation and used successfully at previous tournaments and allows the England senior technical team to track the progress of each game and each team throughout the tournament.

As part of the process, pathway coaches are allocated to a single team, watching each of that team’s matches live, providing a condensed summary of the match to the technical team and sharing tactical highlights to feed back to the technical team to allow them to accelerate the process of putting together a successful gameplan.

Among the coaches involved in the scouting hub for this summer’s tournament are England women’s under-23s head coach Emma Coates and assistant Gemma Davies. The pair will be attending games live in Switzerland to share insights and act as the link between the network of pathway coaches and the technical team.

“I’m really looking forward to going to Switzerland to support the seniors,” explained Coates. “It’s even more exciting this summer due to the number of young players who are in the squad and have come through the under-23s over the last two years.

“Gemma and I will be going to watch games live and scouting the opposition, looking at their strengths and the areas we can look to exploit. We’ll then be working with a team of coaches and analysts back home who will also be looking into other nations.

“Our job is to pull the findings into a report which we will present back to the senior coaching and analyst team on the ground in Switzerland.”

The initiative equips the technical team with a deeper level of detail and information on all potential opponents throughout the tournament, providing coverage of all teams involved, including those outside the Lionesses’ immediate group.

Coaches responsible for each team will use their understanding of the game from a tactical point of view to track that country’s progress and analyse their performances.

The scouting hub also allows pathway coaches such as Emma and Gemma, who are in frequent dialogue with the technical staff and head coach Sarina Wiegman through their roles, to observe the standard of senior football that is required of players currently in the pathway, along with the demands of senior football and the levels they need to reach.

“It's especially important for Gemma and me to stay closely connected with the senior team, as it’s our role to prepare the next generation of players in the pathway for senior international football,” continued Coates.

“Being on the ground at a senior tournament provides valuable insight into the current trends and demands of the game at that level. This will inform our work next season with the under-23s, helping us to ensure our pathway players are ready for the step up to senior international football.”

Pathway analysts are also involved in the scouting hub, coding the matches taking place to the support the work the coaches do, making for a collaborative initiative.