Gareth Taylor: Liverpool dealt “Reality Check” with Manchester City Clash
An agonisingly close 1-0 defeat to Manchester City saw Liverpool’s dominance and fantastic football tainted by a Rebecca Knaak 90+2 minute winner from a flurry of last minute corners for the team with the title at the tip of their fingers. Liverpool will however be proud of how they bounced back from the defeat against West Ham, with 9 shots and 2 big chances created, Falk making 4 big saves. There will again be concern for the red’s key forward Ceri Holland, dealing with injury woes throughout the back end of the season, who was substituted in the 88th minute, after a commanding game on the wing.
Before this, Liverpool’s defeat to West Ham United last weekend acted as a “reality check” for the team ahead of their league defining match up with Manchester City this Sunday.
A dangerous corner to the back post flicked into her own net by Kapocs was all that separated the sides, and Liverpool looked to go back to winning ways; before last week they hadn’t suffered a defeat since Chelsea in February.
Mathematically safe from the relegation play-off position after Leicester's 7-0 thrashing by Arsenal midweek, the former Manchester City turned Liverpool boss reflects on the progress made by the side, not picking up a point until early November, to confirming their safety, an FA Cup Semi Final on the way and the power to wield an upset in the title race.
Team News
Liverpool currently have seven injuries in the squad, including two ACL tears to Austria’s Marie Hobinger and Norway international Sophie Roman Haug. Star player for the reds Ceri Holland, 3 goals and 3 assists in this campaign, also withdrew from the recent international break with Wales:
“Ceri is ok, unfortunately we had to take her off in the last game which we knew would always be the case but you want to keep her on in that game as she has been key to everything we have done well over this period. Gemma Bonenr and Lucy Parry are still a few weeks away. Martha Thomas is touch and go whether she will be back before the end of the season. Sam Kerr is back in training but has to get back up to speed.”
Setback defeat to West Ham after previous block’s momentum:
With their league status secured for another year and a massive post Christmas shift with 30 points dropped before Christmas to only 13 after it, Taylor reflects on how far the squad has come:
“It was a huge disappointment. The good thing is that we are disappointed, we knew we were off colour. There were parts of the game that we improved, we pretty much dominated the play but we made a slow start and when we did get into our gear we didn’t work their goalkeeper enough. As much as it is disappointing, with the Leicester result in the midweek, that confirmed our status in the league. Great credit to the players because where we were before Christmas, we were in a really difficult moment, really struggling to make any type of substitutions. Bringing players to the club in January really helped us get to the point we are at now, great credit to the players because it wasn’t a pretty picture but they have worked really hard and the form has been really good. It was a bit of a reality check and a bit of a jolt last weekend, yes we have made really good steps but there is a lot more to do.”
The importance of individual duals
“If you are going to lose a game you don't want it to be with the nitty gritty of the game, we didn’t do it well enough and West Ham did it better than us. That’s the annoying part because it’s been an area we have previously been really good in, allowing us a platform to build on our game, so it’s frustrating but hopefully the players can use that fuel the right way this week. We’ve been training really well and we know our opponent is really strong but we have identified some areas we can hurt them in.”
The strength of the WSL
Manchester City currently sit top of the WSL table on game week 21 of 22. However, with the leaders dropping points to Brighton last week, who are currently 6th in the table, anything is possible:
“Teams can take points from one another, it’s a difficult and long season, there is pressure on every game for every club in different ways. Their (Manchester City) form has been pretty solid, but they drew recently with Aston Villa and went to Brighton, and Brighton on their day can beat anyone.
The league is split a little bit, there are the top 4 teams, the next 5-7 (Tottenham Hotspurs, London City Lionesses, Brighton) and then there is the rest. The challenge for us is getting closer to where we want to be. It's not something you can flick and switch and jump to in a season, as coaches we’re not patient, you want the team to improve and get better. From where we were to where we are now there’s been a lot of improvements, on and off the pitch, at this club and we just want it to be quicker and we continue to strive to get better and the girls are giving everything they can.”
Manchester City’s corner threat
The reds have conceded from 6 corners this season whilst the blue side of Manchester has the highest corner goals:
“We turn our focus to set plays in the last couple of days, it's really current at the moment and it's become more of a focus. The data now is really clear, City’s goalkeeping coach Diago (Restrepo) has created some really good attacking numbers for City this season, but I feel we have also been a threat from our set plays. Defensively, of course, last weekend was disappointing. The consistency of the way we train means we don’t over emphasis set plays so we try to keep focus consistent and prepare in the same way.”
One game at a time Mentality
With their league position safe, the league season reaching its closure and the Wembley arch within touching distance, Taylor was keen to emphasize that focus is on one game at a time:
“We have two tough league games to finish with, with the cup semifinal sandwiched between them. We want to see a reaction to last week, that’s the focus against City. Once this game is put to bed we will change the balls in training back to the FA Cup ones and do everything we can to get to Wembley, so it’s exciting.
When you look at our games between City and Arsenal earlier in the season, the scorelines were very close, maybe closer than the game was, but they are a good marker to see where we’re at and where we need to improve”.
The prospect of returning his former ground
“It will probably feel a bit strange but I’m looking forward to it, seeing faces I didn’t get to say goodbye to. I have a lot of time for many of the people there, lots of the players there were a credit to work with, the likes of Hempo (Lauren Hemp), Mary Fowler, Leila (Ouahabi), Viv (Miedema)."
“I have to give a special mention to Laura Coombs.” Laura announced her retirement from professional football at the beginning of the week after 19 years, making 69 appearances for Liverpool and seeing her final years out in Manchester, 154 appearances for the blues, 119 of them under the management of Gareth Taylor. “She has been a great ambassador for Manchester City and for us at Liverpool too, she is such a good player, such a good professional, she has given a lot to the teams she has represented. Outside of being a really good footballer that got to experience playing at a World Cup Final’s which she truly deserved, she is also a top person and I know she is really well thought of by everyone at City and certainly by myself.”
Disrupting the title race
Liverpool have been central to the WSL title race in recent seasons, despite never being in the picture themselves. In the 2024, a 4-3 win against Chelsea secured by a Gemma Bonner 92 minute winner, looked to unsettle the London clubs title hopes. A 2-1 win for Liverpool against Tayor’s Manchester City three games before the end of the 2022/2023 season saw the side miss out on Champions League football:
“We have a say in it (the league title) with these two games, City would have liked to have done the job a bit earlier. Arsenal have been pretty consistent but something Arsenal have struggled with and that has favoured City is the fact they are playing in the Champions League and the strain that puts on a squad. City has a squad that could play in the Champions league but they don’t have that so they can focus on one competition. If you look at Arsenal, they have a game every three days, it’s a tough run in with a game nearly every three days, which can sometimes be really helpful. Of course we know our games are going to be pivotal in where this title will go. It’s one game at a time for us, it’s not about Arsenal or Brighton at the moment, full focus is about this game at the weekend.”
The threat of Bunny Shaw
The Jamaican International has 19 goals and 4 assists in 20 games this season, consistently proving herself to be one of the greatest strikers in women's football. Gareth Taylor was the manager that bought the striker into the WSL from Bordeaux in 2020:
“Her performances and her numbers have just been exceptional, she is a really good character to get to know, the team around her is brilliant, she is a force to play against. It’s not been too pretty against Liverpool in recent years, we are looking to put that right, but regardless of what happens at the weekend, if we can keep Bunny quiet, fantastic. The accolades and awards she receives is fully deserved as she works so hard.”
Whilst able to contain the super striker, the last minute corner and subsequent defeat proves there is more work to do, but the red side of Liverpool are certainly moving in the right direction.
Liverpool have little time to reflect, with a season-defining home FA Cup semi-final against Brighton next week, a chance to book a trip to Wembley in their sights for the first time since 1996. Their final day of the WSL season sees another chance to upset the table against Arsenal at Anfield.