Martin Ho spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon, ahead of our Barclays Women’s Super League trip to West Ham United on Sunday (11.55am UK).
Here are some key points from what he had to say…
On his thought from last week’s performance…
“We were good with the ball, and maybe people will agree or disagree with that, but it's more how we're trying to look and the players' behaviours and attitudes, doing the right things. I think there were spells of that. The part that probably let us down was final third in terms of last action, last movement to go behind the line, we had some big chances in that game and maybe we should have taken some of them, and then the game changes, but we didn't. But overall, we were nowhere near where we needed to be in terms of with the ball and the attacking third, but defensively we were two or three yards off everything. As I said, that result lies with me and it's my job to make sure the players are motivated, they're organised and they're aware of what we need to do. As I said, the beauty of football is you have an opportunity again to do it at the weekend.”
On not underestimating opponents in the WSL…
“There's no game in this league that you can walk into thinking you're going to win. Every league game is now competitive, and you've seen that with some of the upsets that have happened in previous weeks. There are teams taking points off ofone another that maybe people don't expect, but we're in a good place. We're fifth in the league, on 23 points, and we have nine games still to go to grow and we can definitely still add to the tally we have. I think what the players have given me up to now and given this club up to now is something to be proud of. They have given us something to talk about, which is why people are maybe frustrated that we didn't win the game [last week against Liverpool]. I think it speaks volumes of what the players have done.”
On the importance of having consistent games for the second half of the campaign…
“It's good to have a run of games where you play consistently week in, week out and you have your full week to prepare. You have players where you can give them a bit of downtime, a bit of rest, but you can also push through this part of the schedule. So, I think when you've got games coming thick and fast, there's always an objective and an outcome in front of you. We need to make sure that West Ham is the next one and it's definitely got that London derby kind of edge to it. We want to make sure that we go out and perform, we show a better side than what we showed in spells against Liverpool. But we know we must raise our levels physically and in that defensive part of the game, if we want to be better.”
On West Ham and the London derby…
“[A] tough game. These games have a bit more edge. I felt that in the first league game we played this year against them. Two teams that want to defend on the front foot, two teams that want to have the ball, want to be exciting and want to be direct with the play. We've seen their games previously, now under the new coach, and I think she's given them a lot more organisation and stability. They're very well drilled, you can see that, and Rita [Guarino] was very known for that when she was in Italy. It's going to be a tough game, and we have to go there with the intention to win the game, as we always do, but we need to find ways to break down an organised and resilient block.”
On expectations of winning this type of game…
“We have to win every game, and that's not just West Ham. I won't go into any game not wanting to win and not putting a team out to win. We go in to win the games. You also must respect the opposition at the same time, you can't think you're invincible in what you do and when you go away from home, it also adds a different kind of spice to the game. We also know we might have to suffer at times with the ball. I'm really happy where we're at now, if someone were to put me in this position, we'd have taken that and we want to just make sure we can continue to build what we want to do now moving forward. We have to take the right steps in the right moments, and West Ham is the game in the way of us now, and we have to make sure we go into that trying to win the game.”
On what needs to be achieved to close the gap at the top…
“You need consistency, you need very clear foundations and platform, you need experiences. You also need to elevate the squad, enhance the squad, build the squad, and you need different variations of that. You need to understand adversity, you need to understand playing with the ball, playing without the ball and you need so many diverse experiences to be a Champions League team and what definitely gets you there is a consistency and a persistence with your performances. We don't want to be a team that just gets there, then falls out, gets there again and then falls out again. You want to be a team that, like the ones who are up there now, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Man United have started to come into that, you want to be a team that's consistently in and around that but you need to build the foundations on and off the pitch to make sure that you can continually do that. We've got a lot of work to do. We're four or five months in; we've just come from finishing down the bottom of the table and we're now changing the identity and really embarking on a nice project and chaptering Spurs Women's future. It's going to take time for us to build that team that's going to be a winning team, with a winning mentality who can compete on all fronts in all competitions and that takes time.”
On the importance of Bethany England’s leadership…
“It’s really important. In terms of her leadership qualities and her impact on the team, her impressions on the team. She's been remarkable in terms of how she brings the group together, the way she leads the group and how she keeps a really clear balance between challenging the group or bringing them a lot of positivity and a lot of support and you can see by the initiatives in the programme she goes to speak volumes about Bethany as an individual and we need more players to step up in those moments to produce those moments of leadership and management around a team.”