Matt Beard shares Liverpool Women admission after Manchester City clash
Matt Beard believes his Liverpool Women’s side learned a lot in the 2-1 loss to Manchester City in a pre-season friendly.
Marie Hobinger gave the Reds a 1-0 lead heading into halftime but goals from Lauren Hemp and Jess Park secured a second-half turnaround for the visitors.
Beard remained positive despite the defeat and revealed in an interview with the club’s official website [8 September] that the match was a lesson learned for his side.
He said: “There’s definitely plenty of learnings from today, which I think is vitally important. The first half I thought we were good, especially out of possession, but in possession we could have been a bit braver.
“But, if I look at the balance of the first half, we created two or three really good chances and then got our noses in front just before half-time to go 1-0 up, which I thought was deserved. Second half, when you make a lot of changes you become a bit disjointed.
“City’s first goal is probably my fault because we should have dealt with the long ball, and the second goal I thought it was a foul on Gemma [Evans], but I need to look back on that.
“We then had a couple of good chances after that to maybe get back in the game. I thought there were some good individual performances [and it’s more] minutes in the tank. The learnings are important.
“There’s much we can take from our out-of-possession performance and we just need to tweak one or two things, but overall this has been a good exercise.”
Liverpool Women can compete in the Women’s Super League
The Reds found it tough against last season’s WSL runners-up and Beard should be proud that his side remained competitive against Man City, albeit in a pre-season friendly.
Liverpool suffered two crushing defeats against Gareth Taylor’s side last season, with a 5-1 defeat at the Joie Stadium before a 4-1 defeat at Prenton Park in the return fixture.
Beard recorded a remarkable fourth-placed finish in the WSL last season but the side struggled against those at the top of the league and finished 14 points behind Man City in second who lost out on the league title to Chelsea on goal difference.
After the club-record signing of forward Olivia Smith, joined by Cornelia Kapocs, the Reds will be expected to go again this season as Fenway Sports Group splash the cash to bolster their attacking line.
There is still much more work to be done for Liverpool to challenge Chelsea, Man City, and Arsenal at the WSL summit but the club is making significant strides both on and off the pitch to bridge the gap to their league rivals.
While it is only pre-season, the Reds have proven they can go toe-to-toe with the best and when City travel to Anfield on 13 October, supporters are set for a fiercely challenged contest.
In other Liverpool news, Diogo Jota is at risk of axe at the Reds, his replacement is raring to go.
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