Beard Report: “A Lot Of Positives” From Closed Door Friendly
The Liverpool FC Women took on Birmingham City at Melwood after a plethora of Reds returned from injuries.
The Liverpool FC Women continued preseason preparations on Sunday with a closed door friendly at Melwood against Championship side Bristol City. No score was reported, but Liverpool manager Matt Beard said after the match that he was pleased with the performance.
“I thought the performance was good, especially in the first half. It was really pleasing to see some of the final-third stuff come off, especially some of the combination play we’ve been working on of late. We managed the game well so a lot of positives to come out of today and obviously more minutes in the tank.”
The fact that the friendly happened at all was good news for Beard. Just a week prior Liverpool had to call off a friendly with Manchester United due to a rash of injuries in the side, leaving only a very limited number of players available. Having most of his injured players return this week, and no further issues during the match, was a boon for the manager.
“The most important thing after the injuries we’ve had is that everyone has come through OK and it’s a great step in the right direction. If I look at last week, we’d have had 12 players available with a couple modified, whereas this week those ones had planned minutes today.”
“The training has been good because we’ve got the bodies back, especially in doing the tactical work. My biggest frustration this pre-season has been not being able to do the work I want to do, although sometimes that can be a positive because you work on other things. So it’s been a good day today and a good week from a training perspective so we can build from here.”
While there was no accounting of the friendly itself, Beard did highlight a burgeoning partnership between last season’s lead striker, Sophie Roman Haug, and new attacking player Cornelia Kapocs. Beard also revealed Kapocs goes by the nickname “Kappy”.
“We know what we’re going to get from Soph, she can score all types of goals, she can get flick-ons, she can link up, so she’s a tough player to defend. I thought Kappy did well with her, they had a good understanding, a good relationship.”
Liverpool still have three weeks left to prepare for the upcoming WSL season. An unusual change in the international calendar has put a wrinkle for Beard to contend with, but he feels confident his side will be able to get to where they want to be entering the season. Unlike last year, the squad is fairly settled, with only a few players coming in and needing to be integrated.
“We’ve still got plenty of work to do, we’ve been a little bit disjointed in the first few weeks of pre-season, and the international window definitely had something to do with that – I can’t believe they took the September one out and put it in July. But we didn’t make many changes this summer so we’re confident we can kick on and progress.”
If all goes to plan, Liverpool will have two more preseason friendlies before facing Leicester City to open the season. The Reds are slated to host Manchester City at Melwood next Saturday before playing Everton in Liverpool’s first match at St. Helen’s Stadium in September 15.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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