Thomsen praises Fan Support, while Maestre credits Experience and Consistency ahead of First Away Day
A five star performance highlighted London City Lionesses high ambitions as a new era is underway.
The Lionesses will travel to the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Saturday to face West Ham United in their first away trip of their 2026/27 Barclays Women’s Super League campaign, where they look to build on an impressive opener. Head coach, Eder Maestre outlined long-term expectations, reviewed the team’s performance against Manchester United in the season opener, and highlighted the competition on the training pitch for a place in the starting eleven.
Meanwhile, summer signing Janni Thomsen addressed the media, discussing the differences between the WSL and NWSL, her new role at London City, and making her debut in front of a sold-out crowd in Bromley.
Team News:
With a wealth of new signings during the summer period, Maestre praised his large squad and confirmed most players will be available for selection this weekend giving him the blessing of an unpredictable starting lineup due to those with strengths across the field.
Spanish international Lucia Corrales will not feature this weekend; she sustained a muscle issue during the season opener. However, her injury is not as significant as initially feared and hopefully she will return to the full squad training schedule next week.
Regarding goalkeeper Mary Earps, who makes her return to the WSL following a spell with Paris Saint Germain in the Première Ligue, the head coach confirmed she is not quite ready to make her competitive debut for the Lionesses following a lack of consistency since joining the club:
“So, she hadn't the consistency in terms of game time to provide us the real confidence to afford this type of competition. Hopefully we have two very strong keepers in the squad, and Elene [Lete] is showing a very good performance, so it's about understanding and trying to show Elene that we can keep trusting her if her performance is still good. So, we are going to have a very good competition between each other, and I think this competition will push them into their best.”
Despite a difficult season with injury setbacks last year, Maestre praised Vice-Captain Daniëlle Van de Donk for her new role on and off the pitch, already in prime goalscoring form at the start of the new campaign.
“I'm very glad I've seen her enjoying being important in the team and scoring because she has this soul of a scorer, and she brings a lot of things in that freedom way to play. Because she's very smart to recognise the spaces that the opponent can allow her every time.”
With the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 fast approaching, it has been questioned why there were no England internationals in the starting XI to face United. However, Maestre backed his lineup and assured he is not worried for Lionesses looking to break into the World Cup squad, such as Poppy Pattinson and Freya Godfrey:
“I think it’s a consequence of the players we had ready and available to face United. The circumstances were like they were, so I’m not worried about the situation because as you mentioned we have good players to have involved in the starting eleven… so it’s about the circumstances, the match plan, and thinking about everything.”
Thomsen’s Move to Bromley
When London City called, Thomsen could not refuse the offer to play in the topflight of English football. She explained her long-term ambition to play football in England, which made her move to the club an easy decision despite enjoying herself in the NWSL setup:
“From when I was young, I have been following the English League, thinking that was one of the best leagues in the world. And so, as a player you want to achieve and you want to reach for the highest leagues in the world.
So, it has always been a goal for me to play in this league. Now the opportunity came with London City with all this project, and it just felt very right for me and my family.”
When questioned about her role for LCL compared to with Utah Royals, Thomsen spoke about how the strengths she developed in America in terms of physicality help her adapt to the demands of the WSL:
“I think like you have to remember yourself and what you're good at. Even though what league I'm playing in, and what team I'm playing in, you have to bring what you can, what you're good at.
I tried to bring that when I was in America. I took a lot of the physicality that I got from one year over there with a lot of transition and a lot of running and I mean, credit to the Americans player, they're very athletic. I became in a very good body shape. I think I can bring that into this team here.”
The WSL v the NWSL
When asked about the debate between the WSL and NWSL, former UTAH Royals Players, Thomsen confirmed that there are aspects to both leagues that make them special to be a part of:
“Coming from outside and not having the nationality involved, I would say for me personally, I think the American League is a very physical, very transitional league. It's a style of play that you also see in England, but I think here have the football, the knowledge, the tactical part, a little better and I think that's very demanding on the English League…
There are pros and cons in in both leagues. I don't want to say which one is the best I will leave that to someone else.”
Showcasing the LCL Style of Play against the Hammers
In comparison to facing United, the head coach recognises the different threat posed by the Hammers. West Ham constitute a more direct and attacking style of football, thus London City prepare to press high and be adept with their movements both on and off the ball to exploit their weaknesses, all while staying true to their humble mentality:
“For sure it is going to be different. We need to be humble; we must keep being in this humble mentality because every game in this competition is very tough.”
Maestre previewed this weekend’s opposition as a side not to be underestimated who have several strengths that the Lionesses must locate and prepare to prevent them moments of brilliance, whether this be on or off the ball:
“I think off the ball, we need to be aware of every attraction that we can suffer, because I think all the short pass combinations will have a real intention of attracting us to create the spaces behind us. So, trying to have enough numbers to protect the positional advantages that they can have.”
Building Relationships on the Pitch
Thomsen explained that working together on the training pitch and learning from those experienced individuals around you is essential to build strong relationships on the pitch, and become a consistent team capable of adept performances:
“For me, it's really important, like train good together. For me, it's about talking on the pitch, sometimes it's just asking, what do you think? In situations where we actually did really good, because it's about learning from each other and like as more, you're playing together, training together.
And I think if you had the willing on both sides that this is going to be good, then I think when you work together and throughout the whole summer, I think we have been working very hard to make those relations sit together. And we are not done yet. It’s about now only the 1st game and yeah, we put it down a great performance, but as we said before, now we cannot lay back and think now it's going to be easy the rest of the season.”
A Sold-Out Debut under the lights for Thomsen
The Danish international made her debut with a crowd of over 5,000 in Bromley. Regarding the number of fans supporting from the stands, she believes this is even more significant with their status as a fairly new club to league who are still building:
“The fans and the crowd mean a lot to us. And as a new club, it's maybe even more important because we have to build this from scratch and that we sell out the crowd in the stadium at the first game.”
Having started the season with a record number of season tickets sold at a full Copperjax Community Stadium, Thomsen addressed the pressure to give back to the fans and encourage them to continue turning up and supporting LCL on this journey:
“When you look at how many season tickets are sold, we are building so much, and we can really feel that. The people are following us, and they really support us and it's hard to give back, but we do our best on the pitch to give them something to come back for every weekend.”
Maestre’s London City side prepare to face West Ham away on Saturday 12 September (12:45 KO BST) where they look to make it two wins in two, while continuing to gel as a squad and prove themselves real contenders for the top places in the WSL.
