Reaction'We showed good personality and character' - Gareth Taylor on Liverpool 4-2 Sunderland
Gareth Taylor praised Liverpool FC Women's character after they secured a 4-2 victory over Sunderland in the Subway Players Cup on Wednesday night.
The Reds went ahead in the contest via Zara Shaw but fell behind to two quick goals from the visitors ahead of the half-time interval.
However, three goals in 10 minutes after the break from Marie Höbinger (two) and Natalia Ramos saw Liverpool earn the points during their opening involvement in the competition.
Read on to see what Taylor had to say on the result post-match below…
On the victory...
I think we started quite well, but we were a bit slow. We were a bit like the old us last season a little bit. We were going back to the goalkeeper a little too much. We needed to stay through and hold our line a bit more and play closer together. I thought the reaction in the second half after adjusting a few things at half-time was really good.
On what the message was to his players at half-time...
Some of the fundamentals are always there. We need to be better in both boxes, our corners were good in the sense that we were landing in the right position, but we weren't aggressive enough. We certainly weren't aggressive enough from their set-plays and we found ourselves 2-1 down. And like I say, it’s just a difference in mentality in the second half, a bit more like the new us, we played faster, moved quicker and got into position quicker. We showed good personality and character to turn the game around really, really quickly.
On what the result says about the character of his squad...
It says a lot, yeah. I think it's just remembering who we are and remembering how we train. I think that's the most important thing. We made a lot of changes tonight, so sometimes that can happen in the first half performance, where you make that many changes and players haven't been playing so much that they're a little bit rusty.
But in saying that, there were some good spells in the first half, some solid bits of play. We just regressed into the old us a little bit. They stepped up in the second half with the changes we made and we got some young players onto the pitch as well which is important. It's nice to come away with the victory.
On the importance of using rotation...
Yeah, it is. It's important because this period is really tight. Next week will be even tighter with three games in six days. It's important that those players get the opportunity and take the opportunity whilst we're able to kind of rest a few of our key players.
On heading into the Merseyside derby at the weekend with confidence...
I think the players are in a good place. I think you saw in the second half that's the type of team we want to be and I think if we can hold those levels then we'll be a match for anyone.