Reaction'We gave everything' - Gareth Taylor on London City Lionesses draw
Gareth Taylor believed his Liverpool FC Women side 'gave everything' during their 0-0 draw with London City Lionesses.
The Reds secured a point at St Helens Stadium on Sunday afternoon in the Barclays Women's Super League with the two teams unable to be separated.
Read on for the post-match assessment from head coach Taylor regarding the stalemate.
On keeping a clean sheet...
It's a first clean sheet in the league, which I think is really important. It's easy to say it's no coincidence that obviously Jennifer [Falk] brings a wealth of experience and calmness. I didn't think she had a lot to do within the game, but what she did, she did really well. Coupled with the players in front of her [who] I thought were very good. We defended well when we needed to and felt like we dominated the first half of the game and needed to be better in the final action.
It's obviously difficult with the players we're missing at the front end of the pitch. Alice [Bergstrom] did well considering she's a full-back. She can play in the wide position but it's needs must a little bit. We didn't want to do that on her debut. We want to try to give her a bit more familiarity at right-back but that's the situation we're in and hopefully we can get some players back fit. If Beata [Olsson] comes back that's going to help us and obviously we're still active in the market.
On having a fortnight until the next WSL game...
This game came around really quick. I know the TV take the rights and they did the men's FA Cup this weekend, but normal practice has been FA Cup as the first game after [the winter break]. It gives you a little bit more time to get prepared. It's come quite quickly but I have to say, the girls were first-class today. I felt that they gave everything and left everything out there on the pitch. We look a lot fitter now and look like we're able to repeatedly press at the top end of the pitch and I have to say, they gave everything, the girls.
On holding London City Lionesses to no shots on target...
That's impressive. I think there were only a couple of actions from London. They have good players, but I think they'll be disappointed with the lack of attempts in and around the box. Of course, it's a new coach coming in with new ideas and it can take time. It was really testament to us that we limited them to very little.
On the return of Grace Fisk...
She brings leadership back there and brings a quality, and with and without the ball she gets it right the majority of the time. I think it's really good to have her back. She's our skipper and, of course, we have a couple of new players in the team today. She had a new goalkeeper playing behind her and I think that's something to be really positive about. Grace has done well when she's played for us this season. It's not easy playing on that left side. We know that her best position is on the right side, but we've only been able to field her there [in] one game this season. We're hoping as that improves and players come back and we start to bring more to the club, we can really see the best version of her.
On whether the winter break has been a chance to reset...
We always review what we do. We had a lot of tough things to deal with at the beginning of the season. Not just results but things on and off the pitch. Injuries too and, adding to that, we came into the building really late. We lost good players and didn't replace them so that's been really tough and then when the injuries come as well [it's difficult].
I think you'd probably struggle to find anything else to chuck at us to deal with. But I have to say, the players... the proudest thing for me has been the way they have behaved in those moments. In the good moments and the difficult moments, they really stuck together. You can see a team really united there today and one that was really determined and one that was prepared to leave everything out there. That's the standard we have to set now in every game. We've not had that in every game for one reason or another and it takes some time to build that resilience as a team and to think that we might not be at our best and not be able to find the goal that we need, but the opposition are going to have to do a lot to take anything.
On remaining hopeful over adding further to his squad...
It would be nice. We've got two weeks now until the next league game so it gives us a little bit of time, but it also doesn't because I think any head coach would tell you that getting players in before the end of January is great, but you want them in now to be integrated and training with the team. Jennifer had two training sessions and Alice had three. When you look at it like that, it's not a lot when you're coming to a new club and a new country with new teammates. The good thing with those two is they played in their previous team together.