Matt Beard rages at what he saw in Liverpool Women draw v West Ham United
Matt Beard couldn’t believe his Liverpool Women’s side failed to take their chances in the 1-1 draw with West Ham United.
The Reds have drawn their opening two Women’s Super League fixtures as Riko Ueki salvaged a point for the hosts at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Sunday [29 September] after Olivia Smith scored her first WSL goal to open the scoring.
Beard was raging in his post-match interview with the club’s official website [30 September] as his side failed to learn from their mistakes.
He said: “Two weeks on the spin. Both goals we’ve conceded in the last two weeks we’re disappointed with. We shouldn’t be conceding from a diagonal ball and a flick-on. We’ve got ourselves to blame.
“We’ve had chances again today and we’ve not taken them – it was exactly the same last week, not taking them. All the time it’s 1-0 the opposition have an opportunity to obviously get back into the game.
“After that, we’ve had two really good chances when they’ve equalised and we should have had a penalty.”
Liverpool Women rue missed chances again
The Reds can feel hard done by, Fuki Nagano was brought down in the penalty area after getting in front of the opposition marker and the referee should have blown his whistle for a spot-kick.
Regardless, if Beard wants his side to challenge at the top of the WSL this season, the tie should have been put to bed long before the penalty shout.
Liverpool addressed the lack of goals in the squad throughout the summer with the signings of Smith and Kapocs, however, it seems that none among the crop that helped Beard to a fourth-placed finish last term are clinical enough to push the side to the upper echelons of the league.
The Reds have faced two sides at the beginning of the season that finished tenth and eleventh in the league last season, opposition that should have guaranteed six points minimum.
Now, Liverpool are already off the pace in the WSL, and with injuries plaguing the side paired with a tough trip to Manchester United in the WSL FA Cup on Wednesday [2 October], it will not get any easier.
All the play on Sunday came through Smith, she became the youngest Canadian goalscorer in the WSL with her strike against West Ham but cannot be relied on alone to carry the burden of goals and her teammates need to step up.
In other Liverpool news, Ibrahima Konate should keep his Reds place despite what he did against Wolves.
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