English manager confesses to using Chat GPT for tactics advice

Martin Macdonald

• 31 Oct 2025 12:00 CDT
• 2 min read

Nieuws

Seattle Reign manager Laura Harvey has confessed to using Artificial Intelligence tool Chat GPT for tactics advice.

The 45-year-old has had a managerial carer spanning over two decades and has had coaching or management spells at clubs like Birmingham, Arsenal, Utah Royals and Seattle Reign.

She has also acted as interim manager for the United States.

Despite her experience, she's admitted to playing a back five with Seattle after a 'conversation' with ChatGPT.

“One day in the offseason, 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 told the Soccerish Podcast.

“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 had never employed a back five on a regular basis in her long career until this season. She says that her coaches had been doing some research on the system before she, off the cuff, put a prompt into the AI tool.

“I’d never really done a lot of research on it,” Harvey continued.

“I’d never really, like, invested into how it could be played in the women’s game. I’d only ever really seen it from afar, you know, watching men’s games really.

“It was always sort of talked about as a way to see games out. You know, (you go ahead) and get into a back five and stop people from scoring, was sort of how, like, a back five had been talked about for me.”

It actually seems to have worked, too, as Seattle are currently in the playoff positions in the NWSL after finishing last season in 13th place.

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