Reaction'Disappointing, but we were us' - Gareth Taylor on Man City 4-2 Liverpool
The Reds recovered from an early Lauren Hemp goal for City to take a lead by the half-hour mark at Joie Stadium on Friday night.
Alice Bergstrom and Vivien Endemann were on the scoresheet in quick succession as the teams played out an action-packed game in the Manchester rain.
Khadija Shaw equalised prior to the break and a second half full of chances swung in the hosts’ favour as a Grace Fisk own goal was followed by another Hemp strike in the final minutes.
Read head coach Taylor’s reaction to the game when speaking to Sky Sports post-match below.
On his overriding emotions about the night…
Disappointing but ultimately, we’ve just come up a bit shy. I thought the way the players attacked the game, the way we were us – which was what I wanted – I think that’s the most important thing. I said that to the players afterwards. Playing that way, we believe we’ll win a lot of games this season. We’re in a decent position. A lot of the second balls and the skirmishes were falling to City. And of course, when they get their moments at the top end of the pitch, they tend to make them count because of their quality. That’s where we’ve got to improve, our final action, because there were moments when we could have edged ahead a little bit more than what we were.
On the areas where the difference was made…
We’re going up against Manchester City, the champions. We are a team that finished 11th last season. When you add those things up, it’s not going to happen overnight. But what you saw was a more improved version of what we were last season towards the end of the season. The application and the attitude from the players has been first-class, they gave a lot tonight. They’re obviously disappointed, because we looked like we were maintaining our unbeaten start to the season. But, like I say, when they’re able to make the changes that they made over us having two 16-year-old players on the bench, there’s a difference. You can feel that difference, you can sometimes overcome that difference, but it takes a bit of time.
On whether the feeling of disappointment is ‘testament’ to how well the Reds have started the season and the expectations being set…
Yeah, but we’re realists as well. We know coming here tonight is going to be really tough when they’ve got players, like I said, bringing on [Sam] Coffey, [Kerstin] Casparij, [Aoba] Fujino… Lauren Hemp is always going to give you problems, Mary Fowler is a top player and Bunny Shaw scores goals. I’m really proud of our players, there were some really good performances tonight for large parts of the game. I think that’s the thing for us, just trying to really improve those final actions we have in front of goal. I think that’s going to be really important for us to make that next step.
On if there’s a need to pick any players back up after individual errors…
I think they’ll be fine. Everything was positive in the chat with the players. We’re us, we’re playing the way we want to be, we have an identity and a style. We didn’t do it in every single minute of tonight but we did it for large parts. I think that’s what we are capable of. Last season when we came here, it was very much a performance without the ball, which was excellent. This season, it was that plus we had our lion’s share of the ball against a good team. If we can improve that final action then we’re going to win a lot of games this season for sure.