Press conferenceMatt Beard: These are the games we want to be playing
“These are the games we want to be playing in,” was the message from Matt Beard as he previewed Liverpool FC Women’s hosting of Arsenal.
The Reds return to Prenton Park on Sunday for a 12pm BST meeting with a side who have collected maximum points in the Barclays Women’s Super League so far this term and have yet to concede a goal.
Beard’s charges are aiming to bounce back from a narrow 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend and produce a repeat of their season-opening victory over Chelsea.
Ahead of the contest, the boss spoke to the media at a press conference, where he discussed the game, the latest team news and ongoing tweaks being made as Liverpool adjust to the WSL.
Read a summary below…
On another big game at the beginning of the season…
Yeah, it has certainly been a challenging start. Like I have said time and time again, this is why we want to be in this league: to be testing ourselves up against the best teams. Arsenal have had a fantastic start to the season and obviously the performance against Lyon the other night as well pretty much shows the form they’re in. We know it’s going to be a tough game but these are the games we want to be playing in.
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On what Liverpool need to do well on the day to get a result…
We just need to concentrate on ourselves. We’ve started the games slowly, which has been frustrating, so we can’t do that against Arsenal. We definitely can’t concede early against them. There’s little things we’ve looked at that we need to make sure we address for ourselves. We need to be on our A game on Sunday, without a shadow of a doubt. They like to play through or they can go over. I think that’s the biggest thing that Jonas [Eidevall] has added to Arsenal, maybe the pressing intensity and they can mix their game up as well.
On team news and whether Ceri Holland is ready to start again…
Yeah, it wasn’t just the amount of minutes that both her and Razza [Rhiannon Roberts] played for Wales, it was the emotional side of it as well, being so close to that penalty shootout [in the World Cup play-offs]. We had to assess both players when they came back from international duty last week. We sort of knew how the game probably would pan out when it comes down to Tottenham’s press and the game opens up, especially in the second half and maybe the last 10 or 15 minutes of the first half with Tottenham. It sort of panned out the way we anticipated and Ceri came off the bench and we felt was a big asset. She’ll be back in the team at the weekend. She has had a great pre-season and a great start to the season. Obviously we’ve got one or two little injuries and we couldn’t afford any more really, so we just had to protect the ones that have been away with a view of them coming off the bench against Tottenham.
On whether he could change the team’s shape this weekend…
We’ve been pleased with the way we’ve been playing but we need to address the way we’re starting games. We have adjusted one or two bits in training this week for that. We’re pleased with the way we’re playing, we’ve got different ways of playing in different systems so we just have to adapt to what Arsenal do. We’ll set up to play one way, Arsenal will try to stop us and vice versa, and pictures change in games – we just need to adapt to that quicker than what we have done.
On Shanice van de Sanden’s fitness…
She’s progressed again this week, which is a real positive. Hopefully she’ll be back in part of team training today but we’re still probably looking at a couple of weeks at least. We’re just taking it week by week because she had good weeks maybe a month ago but then she broke back down again. But she seems to be getting stronger and stronger each week. We’re sticking positive on that front but we’re still probably a couple of weeks away.
On the amount of goals Liverpool are scoring…
I’m not concerned because we’ve been creating the chances. If we weren’t creating them, that’s when it becomes an issue. I’m not concerned. Obviously you take Leanne Kiernan out of the team, you take Shanice van de Sanden, it doesn’t give us issues [but] it’s obviously a blow because Leanne is an instinctive finisher and Shanice’s pace and creating goals, you take those two out and it does have a slight effect. But because we are creating a lot of chances, I’m confident that as time goes we’ll start to take them. We’re not going to get as many as we did last year at this level, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re composed in the right moments and we’re not snatching at shots, or we’re making the right decisions in the final third. But that will come.
On what the Reds learned in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup tie against Arsenal last season…
We used that cup game last year to maybe look at one or two of our own players; we wanted to see whether we could compete, could we press? We used that game really to mould what we look like this year. We learned a lot. It was a competitive game. I thought 4-0 was a harsh reflection on the day but that’s the difference with the top, top teams – you look at Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and even probably Manchester United now. But we learned a lot that day. They’re a fantastic team, you look at the run they’ve been on. We’re looking forward to the game but it’s going to be a tough day for us.