Eva Olid Turned Hearts Into Title-Winners – Can She Do the Same at Man Utd?

Eva Olid has been announced as the new head coach of Manchester United Women. After transforming Hearts into a title-winning side in Scotland, can she do the same south of the border for the Red Devils?

Manchester United have appointed ex-Hearts boss Eva Olid as their new head coach following a mutual agreement to part ways with Marc Skinner on Monday.

The 40-year-old Spaniard made a name for herself in Scottish football as an exciting young coach and, after leaving Hearts Women at the end of last season, a move to a top club was to be expected.

Olid joined Hearts in 2021 and after several years of improvement, eventually guided the club to their first-ever Scottish Women’s Premier League title in 2025-26.

Before her appointment, the 2020-21 season saw Hearts finish rock-bottom of the division with a measly eight points. They avoided relegation due to Forfar Farmington withdrawing themselves from the league.

Change was needed, though, and to say that Olid delivered that change would be an understatement.

Every season under her reign, Hearts improved their points tally. In 2021-22, Olid’s first term in charge, the Jambos showed a slight improvement with a 20-point finish.

It’s hard to revolutionise a team in just one season, though. Once Olid had really implemented her tactics and style of play, it was a much sharper trend line.

The 2022-23 campaign saw Hearts end the season in fourth with 49 points. In 2023-24, that increased to 54 points, then 59 in 2024-25, before they accrued 62 points last season to go one better than the men’s team and secure the title.

The club knew that what they had with Olid was special. When she signed a contract extension in 2023, the praise from sporting director Joe Savage was effusive.

Speaking to the official Hearts website, Savage said: “We feel we have one of the best coaches in the league in Eva. The only way is up for us.

“The way the team play is only going to get better with the calibre of player that Eva and her coaching staff can attract to the club.

“I could see it in Eva when she was appointed in 2021. I could see she was a very special coach. The sky is the limit for her. We are lucky to have her here at Hearts.”

So, what was it about Olid’s tactics that led Hearts to the SWPL title last season, and what can United fans expect?

The Jambos were particularly good on the counter. They ranked first in the SWPL last season for direct attacks (53) and second for fast breaks (22), scoring six goals from such situations; in comparison, Man Utd scored just once from fast breaks in the Women’s Super League.

Despite their successes in these areas last term, Olid has previously spoken in interviews about how she favours a possessional style of play. To her, having the ball is absolutely paramount.

So, if this is the case, why did Hearts have only the fourth-highest average possession (56.8%) in the SWPL last season?

In short, they are Hearts. Scottish women’s football, much like men’s, is usually dominated by teams from Glasgow.

Since 2007-08, only twice has the SWPL title been won by a team outside of the city. During this period, Glasgow City have won the league 15 times, with Rangers and Celtic both emerging victorious once each.

Much like the WSL, whereby recent dominance has been asserted by Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, winning the SWPL title as one of the ‘other’ clubs is about as far from straightforward as you can get.

This didn’t stop Olid’s Hearts, though. Since 2021, the Jambos showed season-on-season improvement in their build-up play; last season they ranked second in the league for build-up attacks, with 50. That shows Olid progressively turned Hearts into a side that could control the ball and build through the thirds to attack.

Man Utd boast a number of technically gifted footballers. In particular, Dominique Janssen and Hinata Miyazawa are two players who could thrive under Olid’s system.

Of defenders to have played at least 1,000 minutes in the WSL last season, Janssen ranked seventh for passing accuracy (88.4%).

Of midfielders with the same criteria, Miyazawa had the league’s third-highest accuracy with 88.0%. That bettered the likes of Yui Hasegawa (86.7%), Keira Walsh (86.6%) and Mariona Caldentey (85.6%), some of the WSL’s very best technicians.

Further up the pitch, Hearts’ 85 goals were the most of any team in the league last season, five more than Rangers and 20 more than Glasgow City.

Perhaps the most impressive part of all of this is how young Hearts’ title-winning squad was. Their average age in the 2025-26 season was under 24 (23 years, 352 days) – for a manager to win the league with such a young group of players is quite extraordinary.

This was likely a big factor in Man Utd’s decision to appoint Olid. It was alleged that her predecessor, Skinner, left the club due to the board’s approach and ambition in terms of recruiting new talent.

According to reports, Skinner felt as though the Red Devils needed to invest more money into signing new players if they wanted to compete for the title. The board, however, appear to have a different plan: youth.

United seemingly do not feel as though the current spending habits of teams across the WSL is sustainable. As a result, they’d like to lean on their youth and create more success stories through the academy.

If this is the case, then Olid appears to be an ideal appointment given her outstanding success with such a youthful squad last term.

From 2021 to 2026, Olid took Hearts from relegation-threatened to title-winners. During the same time, Skinner took Man Utd from fourth to… fourth (albeit he did deliver an FA Cup along the way).

If she can have a similarly sizeable impact in Manchester, Olid gives the club a far greater possibility of delivering on their aim of winning a WSL title by 2028.

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