Variety's review of "Ted Lasso" Season 4, which arrives on Apple TV three years after the mixed critical reception of Season 3, finds a show caught between reinvention and repetition. Critic Alison Herman argues that while the new premise offers a genuine chance for renewal, the series undermines it by clinging to nostalgic subplots and an overstuffed cast of returning characters, making the season more compelling as a fresh start than as a continuation of old storylines.

The new season sees Jason Sudeikis's Ted Lasso return to AFC Richmond two years after quitting to take charge of the club's newly formed women's football team, the Greyhounds, at the invitation of Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley (Juno Temple) and Leslig Higgins (Jeremy Swift). Tanya Reynolds joins as new coach Alice Chilton, described as the only fully realised new character among the five episodes screened for critics, out of ten in total. The review criticises the show for continuing to centre established figures such as Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and Beard (Brendan Hunt), arguing their romantic and narrative subplots have grown stale and crowd out space for the more promising new direction.