Seattle Reign FC head coach Laura Harvey said she used ChatGPT for tactical advice this past offseason, which ultimately led her and her staff to test out a new formation with five defenders.
Harvey, who is a three-time NWSL Shield winner and three-time NWSL coach of the year, told the "Soccerish Podcast" that she had not previously played in a back-five or heavily researched it.
She was initially unimpressed with the artificial intelligence answer about her own team's identity, but she kept probing with more general questions about the NWSL.
"And then I put in, 'What formation should you play to beat NWSL teams?'" Harvey said on the 'Soccerish Podcast' in an interview published on Thursday.
"And it spurted out every team in the league and what formation you should play.
"And for two teams -- I'm not gonna say who they are, because they'll know -- it went, 'You should play a back five.' So, I did. No joke, that's why I did it. I was like, 'Hmm, let's go see.' It was earlier in the season. And I said to the coaching staff, 'I'm not joking, this is what I did.' And they were like, 'Huh, interesting.'"
The staff researched the formation and "did a deep-dive on it" to see how it could fit for the team.
"We liked it. And it worked -- we won the game."
Harvey declined to say which opponent she was testing out the formation against, responding to a question to say that it wasn't the Portland Thorns, "but the ones that are really good."
Seattle has played in a version of 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 formations frequently this season, although the Reign's tactics and systems have varied greatly.
Per TruMedia, Seattle first switched to a 3-5-2 four games into the season, a 1-0 loss to the Orlando Pride.
Three weeks later, the Reign defeated the league-leading Kansas City Current, 1-0, in a 3-5-2 formation.
"It didn't tell you how to play it, what to do in it or any of that stuff," Harvey said. "But it was like, 'This is what we would say to do.' And I was like, 'Hmm interesting.' And that was what spurred me to look into it. So, then I really looked into it."
Seattle currently sits in fourth place in the NWSL and has clinched a playoff spot heading into Sunday's final round of regular-season games. Last year, the Reign finished 13th in the 14-team league.