Tactics Talk with Vanessa Gilles

The Lyon and Canada defender looks at the developments of being a centre-back over the years, analyses key partnerships and toughest opponents, as well as looking at some of her biggest games to date.

Canadian Vanessa Gilles has become well-known as one of the toughest centre-backs in the world. Image: Sportimage / Andrew Yates

Vanessa Gilles has just won the domestic double with Lyon and is in the midst of preparing for an assault on the World Cup with Canada this summer.

By her own admission, the 27-year-old turned professional late, not until when a short stint in Cyprus led to a move to Bordeaux where her performances for club turned into performances for country, and at the 2020 Olympics she was recognised as one of the best centre-backs in the world after helping her country to a first gold medal.

Since then, Gilles has gone from strength to strength, enjoying a short spell back in North America with new NWSL side Angel City FC before joining one of Europe’s most successful sides at the start of the season just finished.

She has played with and against some of the best players in the world, but given she originally set out to be a tennis player and even her football career started with hopes of being a goalkeeper, meaning her rapid rise has been a remarkable one.

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Gilles is though still well placed to firstly offer up an analysis of how the centre-back position has evolved more than any other over the past decade as the game moves away from the old-fashioned tough tackler to players who can play out from the back and create attacks, even from centre-back.

“I think you hit the nail on the head,” says Gilles. “It’s one of the positions which has evolved the most, certainly on the women’s side. [Virgil] Van Dijk has been playing out fantastic for years, but it’s becoming a thing in the women’s game now. Even in just the five years I’ve been professional it’s changed so much.

“When I first started, success was measured in the tackles you made or headers you cleared, it was solely defensive. You have to have that but more and more centre-backs are having success measured by pass completion, opportunities you create even though you’re the furthest position back. Players are doing amazing to adapt and coaches are doing well to get their team in the mindset of that’s how you play now.”

For a player who has built her repertoire largely on those old-fashioned attributes, the Lyon defender admits it was a struggle to adapt to a new way of playing at first, but credited the arrival of Spanish head coach Pedro Losa at Bordeaux as the first to really impress on her a new way of playing, even if it wasn’t easy for her to get her around at first.

“At first, I absolutely hated it!” she laughs. “I got into the game late so the technical aspect was never my forte, it wasn’t coached to me. I was there because I was strong, was good in the air and anticipated the ball well. I think my Spanish coaches coming to Bordeaux was a big part of the DNA, they made me comfortable with taking more than one touch, dribbling a bit, just playing a bit more with my feet.

“They weren’t necessarily coached, but pushed on us and I became more comfortable with that way of playing. It was more about controlling the ball and going forward rather than just heading it away. At first, I hated it, I wanted nothing to do with the ball, I despised it, but now I enjoy it, enjoy being on the ball and now I’m ok with it! It definitely took a little time to accept that role and evolution for sure.”

Gilles has been fortunate enough to play in one of the top European leagues for both Bordeaux and now with some of the best players in the world in Lyon, separated by a spell playing in the NWSL for Angel City FC.

The styles of play in Europe and the USA are known to be comparatively different, with the NWSL viewed as a more athletic, transitional style of play, while Europe has often been more tactical and technical.

As someone who has experienced being a defender in both, she says the differences are quite stark when it comes to defending, and she believes the ‘all-out’ nature of the NWSL makes it tougher for a defender, especially given some of the forwards she came up against.