Liverpool FC Women on Aston Villa Challenge: “We Owe Them One”
Hot off their first win of the Women’s Super League season against Tottenham on January 25th, Liverpool took on Manchester United last weekend knowing they faced a far tougher opponent but hopeful they could earn some kind of a result and perhaps drag themselves off the bottom of the table.
That didn’t happen, with the Reds losing 3-1 to the Red Devils. To make matters worse, Everton, a point ahead heading into the weekend, won their match. Fortunately, West Ham didn’t and remain just a point up. Still, time is running out if the goal is to avoid relegation, and Aston Villa are up next.
“It was a frustrating day for us against Manchester United because we weren’t at our best,” noted head coach Gareth Taylor. “There are things for us to improve on, for sure, and lessons to be learned. Aston Villa are a tough proposition but we are at St Helens with our supporters behind us again.
“This is a good opportunity for us and we owe them one after what happened at Villa Park. They caught us in a poor moment with the tight schedule of games we had that week and we were a little bit depleted with the squad. We are looking forward to it, we will get the focus back, and go again.”
Liverpool suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat away at Villa when the two sides met in December, but a string of January signings, that win over Spurs, and the game being at home all give at least some cause for hope. Meanwhile, Villa sit eighth in the 12-team league, better than the Reds but hardly untouchable.
A point against them at home, then, will have to be the absolute minimum. Fail to earn even that, and with perennial title chasers Chelsea up next there’s a real risk a gap will start to form that could prove insurmountable for this group—and with it, a second relegation in recent seasons will beckon.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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