Robert Vilahamn spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon, ahead of Sunday’s Barclays Women’s Super League clash against Aston Villa at Brisbane Road.
Here’s what he had to say…
First up, the latest team news…
"She (Bethany England) has trained well this week, so she's back running and, hopefully, she's in the squad for this weekend, which is very good news for us. Charli (Grant) came back from her national team with a minor issue, so she's unlikely to be involved this weekend. Luana (Buhler), as well, came back with an injury so she's out for the upcoming games and perhaps all four games, while Hayley (Raso) has a quad issue which means she can't play anymore this season."
On the potential of having Bethany back…
“If you start with the goalscoring perspective, how she is as a footballer, I think we’re looking quite good when we play right now, we’re creating a lot of chances and she’s probably one of the best finishers in this league, so we’re really happy to have her back. But when you look at her leadership, how she is as a person and leader, having her in the locker room, on the training pitch, around the players, she has a big impact on the others, so I’m very happy to have her back.”
On performances before the international break…
“We had a good game against Man City about four games ago, we created some chances, but we came away with no points, which was frustrating. We had a really poor game against Brighton, which made us have a clear meeting about what we need to aim for in the last games. We want the identity, how we want to play, do we want to create more goal chances? How are we going to score more goals or play our style? West Ham was a good step, we lost that game, but we created chances and looked the way we want to look. Leicester was quite a dominant game, we should’ve scored more goals and should’ve won that game but, still, we are creating chances and playing the style we want. Now we need to make sure we score more goals, that’s been one of the headlines this last three weeks, we’ve trained on how to enter the box, how to score, where should we score from and how we can build self-confidence in the players.”
On the target for the remainder of the campaign…
“We have four more games to gain as many points as possible, to make sure the result in the table is as good as possible, but the main thing for me is to keep growing the way we want to play, to make sure we keep being more dominant, to see the progress in how we play. Next year will be the third year, and I really want to make sure we can compete and close the gap that we spoke about, that we haven’t done this season. So, the performance is important for me, to see we can take steps, even if we have not won for a few games, or a lot of games, actually.”
On Aston Villa and Rachel Daly…
“When you look at their players, especially their attacking players, they have a lot of them, and Rachel Daly is obviously a really good striker. The main thing we want to do is keep them away from our goal by having a really high press, make sure they don’t get close to the goal, that’s the best way to do it. We had a really good game against Man City at home where Bunny Shaw didn’t have any chances, so hopefully our press can be really good and we can have the ball more than them. Then, we won’t need to worry too much about them (Daly and the attacking players).”
On Eleanor Heeps signing a new deal…
“I think it’s extremely good. It’s showing we can develop our players to take the next step. When I came here she was a very shy goalkeeper that didn’t really take the plays that she needed, but she grew in the first year with Perry (Suckling) as her goalkeeper coach, and this year with Chris (Williams). She has performed very well in the league and in the cups this season, she was in the England Under-23s squad last time, her journey is very interesting. Goalkeeper is a tricky one to sign and find all over the world, so when you find one in house where you can develop and take steps - that’s brilliant. So, it’s really good teamwork from her and the staff here at the Club.”
On using the upcoming Euros as motivation…
“We always try to use the Euros and whatever national team commitments they have because I think that’s a big thing for Women’s footballers, to try and make sure they can compete in those situations. Obviously, we work and compete here, and I want to make sure we take steps with the players we have, make sure we take the right decisions in the summer window and what we’re going to look like next season. So, the players need to compete here, show what they can do for this Club. In that, we’re also going to make sure they come prepared for the national team, but we’re focusing on ourselves, focusing on how we can improve and be even stronger for next season. But the national team is a bonus for them, and we’ll make sure they’re prepared for that.”
On injuries suffered during the international break…
“When you look at injuries and national team breaks, obviously it is higher risk because people are all of a sudden changing habits. They’re flying to different time zones, working with new coaches, it’s really hard, but that’s a part of the game.
We try to collaborate more and more with the national teams to make sure they have a really good transition, sometimes you pick up injuries, but I think we need to keep working with the collaboration, to make sure we load the players in the right way when they go away and when they come back. Sometimes they go away and play on artificial grass, it's extremely hard to find the right balance, obviously it’s a clear pattern that you pick up some more injuries on international break. It's also part of the game, so we just need to adapt to it.”
On the impact of Natalia Arroyo…
“I think they’ve had a tough year with changing managers. They have some really top players, adding a new coach, trying to find new ways to win, then being in a relegation battle is probably not what they expected. In the last two games, I can see she has changed the style a bit to make sure they get the points they need. They had big success against Liverpool, so you can tell she’s intelligent to find ways to get the points, she’s done a good job and It’s going to be an interesting game. Obviously, they still are a few points above Crystal Palace, so let’s see if they more play for the points or if they play for their identity.”
On the positives to take from the season so far…
“The positives are not always the results in the games, it's how we’ve developed through the squad, the squad development, staff development, Club development, so if I look at the squad, the potential is much higher this season than last season. We also signed new staff members and found new roles that make us stronger going into next season. I think we saw a few things that weren’t professional enough on the Women’s side which we are now improving on, making sure we have the standards really high for next season. I’ve learnt so much about the top teams, to make sure we don’t step away too much from our identity, to find the right chemistry between the players, to find the identity to play the way we want to play and I think the third season will be much better. I’m a big fan of learning from mistakes, so using information from these first two seasons to make sure we are prepared for the third season.”
