NewsGareth Taylor column: Injury update, midfield options and hosting Leicester
In his latest column, Liverpool FC Women head coach Gareth Taylor looks ahead to Sunday's Barclays Women's Super League meeting with Leicester City and provides an injury update.
We are looking forward to getting back into action after the international break and, as always, we keep our fingers crossed that the players return fit and healthy.
Denise O'Sullivan returned early from international duty with an injury, but I think it looks promising for her and I don't think it's as serious as we initially feared.
It could be touch and go for Denise this weekend but as we get closer to the game when she gets back to training we will make a decision based on that.
Anna Josendal has trained well with the team during the break and we are hopeful we can start to build her up into match minutes, so the signs are promising.
We are without Fuka Nagano and Risa Shimizu, who are at the Asian Cup, and particularly with Fuka it does leave us a little bit light in the midfield area due to the injuries to Marie Höbinger, Sam Kerr and Sofie Lundgaard.
We have been working on some things that we are trying to give us options in the midfield area and we have players who are flexible with abilities that they can play in different positions.
We know Ceri Holland is quite versatile so we will definitely be working on some things that will help us on Sunday.
I think the break has been good for us and it's given us a good opportunity to work with the likes of Martha Thomas, Beata Olsson and we had Kappy [Cornelia Kapocs] for a week as well. We've had Zara Shaw back training for us and Lucy Parry, Gemma Bonner, Faye Kirby and Anna.
So we've had a really good training group and youngsters like Neve McDonald and Maizie Trueman, so that has been really positive to get some good work into the players and get them all ready for this final run-in.
We host Leicester City on Sunday at St Helens Stadium and we have had some really good wins at our home recently.
It is a big game but I'm pleased we are at home because our home form has been good of late and our supporters have been fantastic getting right behind the team.
We have had some convincing victories during that period so we are looking forward to the challenge of Sunday, knowing our supporters will be with us and pushing us all the way.
It is an important game for us, we know what's at stake and we are excited for it.
Thank you for your continued support.
YNWA,
Gareth
Gareth Taylor was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter