NewsGareth Taylor match reaction: London City Lionesses 1-0 LFC Women
Gareth Taylor conceded Liverpool FC Women are ‘suffering with results’ following Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by London City Lionesses.
The Reds were narrowly beaten at Copperjax Community Stadium in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
A late penalty from Elena Linari settled the contest the way of the hosts in a competitive encounter.
Read LFC Women head coach Taylor’s post-match reaction to Sky Sports below…
On whether he had any ‘complaints’ over the late penalty decision...
No, I don’t think so. It’s a long diagonal ball, which we need to defend better. It gets caught up in the wind a little bit and we make a rash decision in a moment of the game where I felt it was petering out. We were igniting them a little bit. We were playing a little bit fast from our build-up and putting ourselves in situations we didn’t need to. For me, I wasn’t surprised when a penalty was given.
On making four changes in his attempt to reshuffle his attacking threat...
I think what we’re seeing at the moment is snippets - but snippets aren’t enough. I think we controlled most of the first half. We lost that control in the second half due to a number of things, like decision-making and a little bit of fitness. I think to be able to repeatedly win the ball back, like we want to do, it can take it out of you and we need to get to that level. I think we’re seeing some signs and some periods in games where we’re in control.
Like I said, it’s not enough and we’re suffering with results. It’s what we were brought in to do. We knew that we lost good players from last season and we know that we’re at a level that we need to improve and it’s going to take time, unfortunately, as much as we want it quickly. There are some positive signs and the girls are working tremendously hard - we’re just suffering at the moment.
On working on the team’s consistency...
Of course, but we’re changing completely the identity of what we were previously. That in itself can be really challenging and tough. There were some parts to today where you could take some real positives from that. But, of course, like I said, we’re suffering a bit with the results side of things and that’s what people look at and rightly so. We always knew this would probably be the reality of assessing the squad and where we’re at.
On there being a ‘slow progression’ for his team this season compared to London City...
I think it’s hard when you’re comparing with other teams. I think the only team we want to compare with is the one we have been previously. We’ve had some personnel changes, which happens at every club in every summer, but I think when you see the type of players and the experience they brought to the club then they [London City] are kind of accelerating that process a little bit. It doesn’t guarantee you will get instant results and I think for them it’s about consolidating this season.