Securing Stars For the Future, a Formidable Attack and Set Piece Success: Jerglertz is Preparing to Win as Villa Away Day Looms
Last season's Champions face a determined Aston Villa on match day two of their WSL campaign. Manchester City started their first season in 10 years as title holders with a solid 3-1 win against WSL2 victors Birmingham City. A settled first half was brought to life in the second with a trademark Bunny Shaw brace and a Fowler volley getting past on-form Birmingham keeper Baggaley to secure the three points, the Blues getting a consolation goal through Jade Rose getting caught in possession at the back.
A tougher challenge awaits the Citizens as they head to fellow Birmingham outfit Aston Villa for a clash that could go either way. Buoyed by a draw against Chelsea on opening day, the Villan’s won't make it easy for Jerglertz’s side, but he is determined to win all the games they play and is confident that his injury ridden side have all the components needed to repeat last season's successes.
Team News
City entered the season with their fair share of injury woes. Forward Vivianne Miedema is expected to be out until the new year following a knee injury, with new recruit Niamh Charles still unable to feature. Rebecca Knaak suffered a foot injury in pre-season and German midfielder Sydney Lohmann is still on the sidelines following hip surgery in the summer. A positive is that Jerglertz “hopes Grace Clinton is available”, a boost to their depleted midfield after Clinton had a difficult first season in Sky Blue through recurring setbacks.
Award recognition
Following their double winning campaign, securing a WSL and FA cup trophy in the Swedish manager's first season at the club, the side were awarded a flurry of Ballon D’or nominations. Kerstin Casparaij, captain Alex Greenwood, midfield maestro Yui Hasegawa, Vivianne Miedema and Khadija Shaw, newly signed on a record breaking contract, were all recognised for their victorious season.
Jerglertz himself holds a nomination in the Women’s Coach category and he sees the recognition as “a fantastic thing for the club, for the people who have been nominated. Of course it's a big recognition of what we did last year and, I’m not really into celebrating these things, but of course it means a lot to me and like I said, it shows what we did last year was definitely unique.”
Villa Park in their Sights
Aston Villa’s is never an easy place to go, City know that first hand. The opening day of the 2022/23 season saw Villa get one over the Sky Blues, Rachel Daly scoring a brace in an exciting 4-3 loss of the Manchester side. The last meeting between them was also difficult, a 0-0 draw heading into the business end of Manchester's victorious season dragged on the race longer than needed. Villa are proven to be able to shake up the table and frustrate top teams with a solid defense taking the game right to the final whistle, can they do it again this weekend?
“Last year, when we played them away, I think it was a 0-0 draw and we were not good. I know both their coaches, both the head coach [Natalia Arroyo] and Brian [Sørensen, former Everton boss]. They are smart people, so they will definitely do everything to make it as complicated as possible for us. They are good at that, and they have done it before, so I expect a top game. Of course, they are a good team, and they have confidence from the last game against Chelsea, so it will definitely be a challenge for us. But we also have good competence from our last game, a good feeling in the squad, and we have some good sessions this week.”
Sorting the Defense, Harnessing the Attack
The Birmingham clash highlighted much of City’s quality upfront but also exposed their issues at the back, struggling to get going in the first half and conceding an unnecessary late goal. When asked about how they were adapting the learnings from last week for the Villa clash, Jergelrtz highlighted that there was still work to be done.
“We mostly have been focussing on our attacking play. We think that we did a lot of good, but there are some situations where we can create a little more chances from those. Even though we scored three goals, we can still be a little bit sharper in our relationship in the final third, that's one of the main things. Another thing is the transition moment, instead of so many transition moments, both attacking and defending that we definitely always need to be alert of.”
City fans may have had a few nervous moments during their opening fixture. There were miscommunications between defender Grace Prior and goalkeeper Yamashita in the first half and Jade Rose wasn’t able to read her attacker and got pickpocketed leading to Birmingham's goal. Jerglertz was confident that “it’s not going to happen again.”
“I think that it's the 1st game, we talked about it at half time. It's almost like we were waiting for somebody else to solve some of our problems, and we were not working at the unit and made some easy mistakes. We have also talked about it afterwards, and I'm pretty sure that the team and the players are definitely more disappointed themselves so, and it's not going to happen that way again, definitely not.”
Brilliant Blinkilde-Brown
Just minutes before Jerglertz took to the press, the club announced the contract renewal of rising Lioness talent and trusted City midfielder Laura Blinkilde-Brown, keeping her in Sky Blue until 2030.
Arriving from Aston Villa as a promising 20 year-old in 2024, she blossomed last season, starting six consecutive games at the beginning of the campaign and she was named as a standby player for England’s 2025 European Championship squad. Dictating play though the middle against Birmingham in the first half putting out an impressive display, Jerglertz says it “means a lot” to him that young players see City as having “a little bit of an environment for them to grow.”
“Bliky, what she did last year coming from the year before. She played so many games for us, had a massive impact and developed as a player and as a person.”
Starting ahead of USA International Sam Coffey who joined the City ranks last January, Jerglertz stressed that having three world class midfielders to choose from puts the side in a great position to change the game and make a difference throughout the long and difficult campaign.
“We have three, Sydney Lohmann is injured, but we have three central midfielders and neither of them I picked will be able to be the best player in the game because they are giving us so many different things. So, if we play Birmingham, we need one kind of midfielder and I choose that one, then we come into Aston Villa and I might need the same or I might need a different one then we can play them. I think that will be so crucial for us during this year where we are playing so many more games. When we sum up the year in May, I will be pretty sure that all three of them will have a massive impact on the team's performance.”
Versatile Aoba
Another young talent committing her future to the blue side of Manchester, Aoba Fujino also extended her stay until 2030, showing City are creating an environment that allows them to secure young experienced talent for the long haul. The 22 year-old Japanese International also joined in 2024, her versatility across the midfield and attack an asset that City couldn't lose. Jerglertz attests that “wherever you put her she will be one of the best players, the highest level she can reach is unbelievable.” Last Sunday, she impressed in the midfield, tracking back to help the defense, looking very composed even though that isn't her regular position.
“I think it gives her more flexibility, to be a better football player you need to be versatile you can just have one position you need to be able to play in different spaces of the field. If you ask her she would definitely want to be a winger and she is comfortable there but she also knows that the next level for her is being exposed to being more central, having players around her 360 degrees and that is challenging her in every training session and every game.
Her last game shows that she has already come quite far in that. She will be an exceptional player, she already is, but there is no player today, except maybe Bunny [Shaw] and the goalkeepers, but the others need to be able to play in other positions.”
Speaking on his excitement for both Laura and Aoba’s futures, he said:
“I want to be part of that journey, it means a lot that they trust that the club is present for them, for the future they believe in, and that this is the best place to grow in. So, yeah, I'm very pleased, and both of them had magnificent last year, and they both started very good this year. Look at their journey…so im really excited that we have acquired them for the coming years.”
English Stars Shine at City
Opening day sparked controversy as London City Lionesses and Tottenham fielded an all international starting XI ahead of their game against Manchester United. Nurturing England’s young talent has been front and centre of the agenda this summer, with the FA announcing WSL club PGA teams will be able to compete in the National League and with the current U20 World Cup taking place in Poland. Jerglertz was asked whether he felt a conflict to represent England talent whilst also being active in the international market. Manchester City have 12 home grown stars in the squad, one of the highest in the league.
“I think there are a few answers to that. The 1st one is that the club has the responsibility to raise young players, give our own talent opportunities to be in the squad, to compete every week, that is a club responsibility and I’m part of that. But coming to team selection, I always need to pick the team that gives us the best chance of winning the game. If that contains eight English players that are young and promising, or zero, at that point I don't care, I just want to win the game. Of course, if we have a lot of English players in our squad, of course opportunities are better but the most important thing for me is to select the team that gives us the best chance of winning.”
Set Piece Threat
Both of unstoppable striker ‘Bunny’ Shaws goals last weekend came from corners. The Citizens also bagged the most set piece goals last season in the league, scoring 18, 15 from corners. Jerglertz praised how much emphasis City put on set pieces in training, stating he had the perfect squad for set plays to be utilized effectively.
“I've been working in football for many years, and I've never put that much time that we are doing here, on set plays, but we are not doing more now than in spring or last year. So it's more like for the players to be very clear of their roles, and it comes down to we have personalities that are good in the box, both defensively and attacking wise so I think it's not, it's not more complicated than that. But it's also the service, the timing of it, so we spend time on it, definitely but not more than we're done before. At the same time, I think we spend maybe more time than other teams.”
Fowler Back with a Bang
Australian Mary Fowler opened City's 2026/2027 goal tally with an early second half volley last weekend. Spending most of last season coming back from an ACL injury suffered at the end of the previous campaign, the attacker is poised to be a key part of the squad. Her gaffer insists she brings the “x factor”, adding versatility and confidence to the field when needed the most.
“She showed already last year, when she came back from the injury, that she could actually be a player coming and changing little bit of the picture of the game. She can play different positions, but coming into this year, we talked a lot about finding the ideal position for her. We have been working with a little bit of that in preseason. But you see now, when she's playing last week’s game, she's more and more comfortable, also playing a little bit more central and sometimes wide, but a little bit more central.
So that's also for her to get used to. But just put her around the opponent's penalty box, or in, and she has the best finishes, both right and left foot, finding the right space, as long as we can get her in the final third.”
Champions League Nights Just Around the Corner
After a season away, Manchester City are back in Champions League action on the 22nd with a tricky away clash against European stalwarts Bayern Munich under the Bavarian lights. The Swedish manager is no stranger to Champions League glory, leading Umeå to the Uefa Women’s Cup title in 2004.
Carrying a depleted squad and preparing to navigate double game weeks, Her Game Her Way asked Jerglertz whether his squad were ready for the increased load and continental challenge but he assured that “we are prepared.” They have a chance to get used to the quick turnaround, facing Villa on Sunday and their match day three test against Liverpool on Friday.
“It’s important how we load the players in the games, how we recover and so on, but it always comes back to, we want to win all those games that we compete in. There’s not a thing of taking things for granted, we definitely want to win all games, and then you also need to use all the squad and be smart about how we are training and recovering.”
Manchester City will want to add another three points to the leaderboard at Villa Park on Sunday, Jerglertz is confident but Villa, already dealing their first upset of the campaign, will have confidence they can do it again. Will the victors keep up their perfect league start before the season truly ramps up, find out on Sky Sports or the WSL youtube channel.