Ted Lasso’s Lizzie Is Already One of Richmond’s Best New Players, and Faye Marsay Has a Real Football Story

Lizzie Davis arrives in Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 3 without the polished introduction expected for one of AFC Richmond’s most promising recruits. She turns up for the women’s team’s open tryouts with her child because the decision to audition was so spontaneous that she could not arrange childcare. Lizzie identifies herself as a center back, quickly takes charge when Niamh and Siobhan start arguing, and ends the session with Coach Beard calling her “by far” the best player they have seen, despite Richmond desperately needing a striker instead. The coaches recruit her immediately, making Lizzie part of the Lady Greyhounds’ rebuilt squad. She is played by Faye Marsay, whose casting has an unusually fitting real-life connection: long before Game of Thrones and Andor, Marsay seriously wanted to become a footballer herself.

Episode 3 only gives viewers the beginning of Lizzie’s story, but the character is clearly being positioned as more than another name on Richmond’s team sheet. She is a mother trying to reclaim space for her own ambition, an experienced defender and a player whose natural leadership becomes apparent before she even earns a contract.

Who Is Lizzie Davis in Ted Lasso Season 4?

Lizzie Davis is a center back who earns a place on AFC Richmond’s women’s team during the open trials in Episode 3, “Richmond’s Got Talent.” Unlike several of the younger hopefuls, Lizzie arrives carrying responsibilities that have nothing to do with football, immediately apologizing because she had to bring her child with her after failing to arrange childcare. That small introduction tells viewers considerably more about her than a long speech about sacrifice would have. Lizzie is not simply chasing a sporting dream with nothing to lose, because every training session and match has to coexist with being a parent. Season 4 production material describes her as a single mother whose determination to continue playing is constantly competing with demands elsewhere in her life.

The character fits directly into Season 4’s larger shift toward women’s football. Apple officially describes Ted’s new assignment as coaching Richmond’s second-division women’s side, with the season focused on people taking chances they might previously have avoided. Lizzie embodies that premise without needing to be an inexperienced underdog. She already knows the game and appears comfortable directing other players. Her gamble is finding out whether there is still room in her life to make football important again.

Related: Ted Lasso Season 4’s New Match-Winner Quit Football Because of the Coach Who Needs Her Now

Why Does Richmond Pick Lizzie at the Open Tryouts?

Richmond picks Lizzie because she is the strongest overall footballer at the tryouts, even though she does not solve the coaching staff’s immediate problem at striker. During the session, Niamh and Siobhan become distracted by arguing with each other, and Lizzie instinctively intervenes, telling them to work together as twins and as a defensive unit. She does not wait for a coach to reorganize them, which gives Ted, Beard and Alice an early look at the leadership qualities she brings to the back line. When the coaches later narrow the candidates down, Beard describes Lizzie as comfortably the best player remaining. The only hesitation is positional: she is a center back, while Richmond entered the trial hoping to find someone capable of leading the attack.

That problem is not enough to cost Lizzie her place. Ted approaches her after the tryout and tells her Richmond wants her on the team, producing one of Episode 3’s most genuinely surprised reactions when she realizes the afternoon has turned into a professional opportunity. Her child celebrates with her, reinforcing how closely the two parts of Lizzie’s life are connected. Alice’s reminder that future practices cannot include children immediately introduces the practical challenge that will follow her beyond the audition. Lizzie has proved she belongs on the pitch, but earning the spot does not make arranging everything around it any easier.

Lizzie Could Become the Lady Greyhounds’ Defensive Leader

Lizzie’s first episode already suggests she could become an organizing presence in Richmond’s defense. Marsay has described the character as someone with leadership instincts who keeps functioning even when her circumstances become difficult, while also cautioning that Lizzie should not be reduced entirely to the team’s maternal figure. That distinction feels important after Episode 3, because Lizzie’s instinct to settle Niamh and Siobhan could easily establish her as the responsible “team mum.” Season 4 appears interested in giving her an identity beyond taking care of everyone else. Her football ambition belongs to Lizzie personally, not simply to the mother or leader she is for other people.

Marsay has also identified Lizzie’s tenacity as her major strength and difficulty admitting when she is struggling as a weakness. Those qualities fit a defender remarkably well but also create an obvious character conflict. Someone accustomed to carrying responsibilities without complaining can become indispensable very quickly while quietly exhausting herself. Ted’s coaching style tends to notice those emotional problems eventually, making Lizzie a natural candidate for one of Season 4’s more personal football stories.

Who Plays Lizzie in Ted Lasso?

Faye Marsay plays Lizzie Davis, adding another major television role to a career that has ranged from fantasy and science fiction to crime drama and historical television. Marsay graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2012 and won the Spotlight Prize that same year, an award for graduating acting talent. Her early breakthrough came as Anne Neville in The White Queen, while many international viewers first recognized her as the relentless Waif who pursues Arya Stark in Game of Thrones. More recently, she played rebel operative Vel Sartha in Andor and Detective Sergeant Misha Frank in Netflix’s Adolescence. Her other credits include Pride, Black Mirror, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Ten Pound Poms and Fresh Meat.

Marsay was also specifically eager to join Ted Lasso once she learned the fourth season would center on women’s football. She has said she actively asked her representatives to get her considered because football remained a major personal interest, rather than treating the series as just another acting opportunity. Joining an established ensemble still came with pressure, and Marsay admitted that stepping onto the Ted Lasso set could be intimidating despite her extensive experience. Hannah Waddingham, however, recalled being excited as soon as she learned Marsay had joined the cast.

Related: Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 3 Ending Explained: Richmond’s First Win Comes With a Much Bigger Test

Faye Marsay Nearly Chose Football Instead of Acting

Marsay’s own football history makes Lizzie particularly appropriate casting. Growing up around Middlesbrough, she played competitively for a local girls’ team and has said football was enormous in her family. As a young player, she even remembers facing a team featuring future England and Lionesses star Jill Scott, years before Scott became a European champion. Marsay has said she seriously considered pursuing the sport, but a significant knee injury as a teenager ended that possibility and acting gradually became the more realistic path. Another interview identifies her position during those years as attacking midfield, making her switch to Lizzie’s center-back duties in Ted Lasso a fictional change rather than a recreation of where she actually played.

The timing of women’s football is something Marsay has reflected on as well. She has wondered whether being born later, into an era with more developed opportunities for female players, might have pushed her toward football rather than acting. That gives Lizzie’s story an extra resonance without making the character autobiographical. Marsay had to give up football after injury, while Lizzie is trying to preserve a place for it despite motherhood, work and everything else competing for her time. Both stories turn on how easily a talented woman’s path through the sport can be narrowed by circumstances beyond what happens during 90 minutes.

Lizzie’s Bigger Season 4 Story Is Only Beginning

Episode 3 establishes Lizzie’s talent immediately, but Marsay’s comments indicate that her larger storyline will examine whether motherhood and an athletic career are allowed to coexist without one automatically swallowing the other. She has spoken about the limited support women can face when trying to maintain elite sporting careers after having children and about Lizzie needing an identity that belongs to her beyond motherhood. That makes the childcare joke in her first scene more important than it initially appears. Lizzie has already done the difficult part of winning a place at Richmond, yet simply getting to practice can create another problem before she touches the ball. Her Season 4 challenge may therefore be less about proving she deserves to play and more about finding a structure that allows her to keep playing.

For Richmond, that makes Lizzie exactly the type of player Ted’s new project needs. She organizes teammates naturally, is good enough to survive an open trial even when the coaches are recruiting for another position, and brings experience that the developing Lady Greyhounds cannot manufacture overnight. For Marsay, the role also returns her to the sport she once imagined pursuing professionally. Ted Lasso may have cast a familiar face from Game of Thrones and Andor, but Lizzie works because the football part of her story is something Marsay understands particularly well.