Teams are often said to be afraid of facing a side which has just parted ways with a manager for fear of the so-called ‘new manager bounce’. So Sunday’s Women’s Super League match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool offered quite the conundrum for such a theory.
In the days leading up to kick-off, both teams had got rid of their managers. Liverpool parted ways with Matt Beard on Thursday, and 24 hours later it was announced that Laura Kaminski had left Palace.
The ‘new manager bounce’ derby was won by Liverpool, who beat Palace 1-0 thanks to a Jasmine Matthews goal in the 10th minute, leaving the Londoners rooted at the bottom of the table with just one victory this season, but what went on prior to the match says more than the result itself.
After Arsenal and Aston Villa’s new managerial appointments earlier in the campaign, it now means a third of WSL teams have changed managers or head coaches this season — although the context of all have been vastly different.
Liverpool’s announcement came as a shock. Beard, a two-time WSL winner with the club in 2013 and 2014, had rejoined in 2021 with the club in the Women’s Championship to help regain promotion to the WSL. He achieved that aim the following season, then guided the team to a historic fourth-placed…
