Vicky Jepson: Pre-Season Tour Is a Step in the Right Direction

Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

Liverpool FC Women will play their final friendly in the U.S. tomorrow.

Liverpool Women joining the men’s side in their pre-season tour of the United States has been a bit of a conundrum for a lot of us. On the one hand, it’s excellent that the women’s team is getting attention and being treated like they’re part of the LFC family. On the other hand, trying to attend the women’s friendlies have been an incredibly frustrating task, and any US-based fans who were excited about watching the women’s side play in person have had to make do with Instagram posts and recaps from LFCTV.

But team manager Vicky Jepson is positive about this pre-season tour and what it means for the support the women’s side can expect in the upcoming season.

“I think us coming out here on tour is a big statement.” Jepson told the club’s official website in an in-depth interview. “With Peter Moore’s support and the club’s support, from LFCTV, we’ve got the right backing that we need to keep pushing forward and catch up with where the others are up to. So that’s a massive push for us because it will help us with recruitment and we are now being backed by Liverpool Football Club.”

Long-time fans of the women’s side are likely going to be a bit more skeptical of just how much support is forthcoming from the men’s side and Peter Moore, but we’ll hopefully be proven wrong once the next season begins on September 8.

When asked about her goals for the upcoming season, Jepson was eager to lay out her plan.

“We’ve looked at our season in phases, so it’s five games at a time and how many points we want to get from each phase. The players have been a part of that process and we have set goals for the squad. But for me, we have got to finish higher than was we were last season [eighth]. I think we have got players to add strength to actually do that. I think last season, with everything that went on, that was a good finish and we only finished one point behind where the previous team had finished the season before, so in hindsight that was a good achievement.

“Now we’ve added strength and we’ve built a good foundation, everyone understands how everyone operates from staff and from players that we should be looking to finish mid-table and that’s what we want to do. And in the cup games, we want to get some silverware if we can. It may be ambitious but that’s what you’ve got to be when you are in elite sport – you’ve got to want to win. We want to do that for our fans as well.”

Liverpool Women will play their final game of the pre-season tour against Metropolitan All Stars in Boston on Monday, July 22nd.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com