Impetus’ Johnathan Stack was in Liverpool head coach Matt Beard‘s media conference today as the Reds’ head coach looked ahead to another tough fixture at Manchester City at the weekend (28/10/22).
Above: Liverpool head coach Matt Beard, who spoke to the media today ahead of The Reds’ trip to Manchester City on Sunday. Photo: Liverpool FC Women.
Liverpool will be looking at putting on another good display against top opposition this Sunday as they face Manchester City at the Academy Stadium.
The Reds have endured a tough start to the Barclays WSL season. An impressive opening-day win against Chelsea was followed by defeats at home to Everton and high-flying Arsenal. Matters don’t get any easier with a trip to City who themselves have had a mixed start to the season.
Liverpool picked up a vital Continental League Cup win against Leicester City in mid-week and Head Coach Matt Beard spoke of the positives from that game and what the team can take into the weekend’s game saying: “It was a good team performance. We looked at a different shape as well as we have been switching to 3-5-2 in a lot of the games with the injuries to the frontline, we’ve got I was pleased.
“I was pleased to get the goals from open play and pleased with scoring from a corner as well because last season we were dangerous from set plays. There were lots of positives to take. I felt we pressed Leicester well, we bypassed their press at times well, so from our perspective there were some valuable lessons learned and another way of playing which gives me a little bit of tactical flexibility with the group.”
The Reds’ hosts on Sunday are rejuvenated themselves having recorded back-to-back WSL wins against Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur before getting their Continental Cup campaign underway with a powerful 6-0 win over Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday.
Beard views Sunday’s opponents highly, stating: “They are a fantastic team. I feel it’s going to take them a little bit of time (to gel), especially with the turnover that they have had and the players they have lost. Each week their performance level gets better so it’s going to be a tough afternoon for us. We played them in pre-season, and it was a good game we learned a lot from it, so we can take some positives from that performance.
“If we look at the way that our season has gone so far, there are loads of positives we can take, but we just need to start turning the positivity into consistency and into points. “Gareth [Taylor] has done a good job since he’s been there, and it was always going to be tough taking over from Nick Cushing. But it’s a north-west derby and we are looking forward to the game.”
The Liverpool head coach emphasised how important it was for his side to ride the wave of their fiendishly tough run of fixtures to start their first WSL campaign after spending two seasons in the Championship. “There are no easy games in this division. “We won’t take anything for granted.
“What we will do is take the learnings that we’ve had in certain moments against these top sides to make sure we don’t allow it to happen against some of the teams that maybe we will be in and around, whether that’s now [or at the] end of the season, but what we have to do is remain positive.
“I said this after we played Chelsea, that we can’t get carried away. We just need to concentrate on ourselves and do as much as we can to put ourselves in a good position come to the Christmas break.”
Liverpool will be looking to put in a positive performance and pushing on up the table.
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