Robert Vilahamn spoke to the media on Thursday afternoon ahead of our Barclays Women’s Super League encounter against Chelsea at Kingsmeadow on Sunday (6.45pm).
Here’s what he had to say…
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Team news
First up, team news and an update on Hayley Raso, Amanda Nilden and Ella Morris…
Robert: “Amanda is in training so, hopefully, she can play on Sunday but she’s still training on Saturday to make sure we have the right progress with her. Hayley's still out for this weekend, she's on the field, but she's not really back yet. Ella is back in full action so she will, if everything goes well, be ready for Sunday as well. Shuang [Wang] and Amy [James-Turner] are not ready yet and Maite [Oroz] is out as well for six to eight weeks.”
Robert was then asked about the impact of Maite’s injury to the squad…
Robert: “She was one of our big signings and, I think, she was one of the best players in the first games. She has a quad injury which means there's nothing to do… it's unexpected and not like there was any reason behind that, it was more like an accident in training. For me, we have good players that can replace her but, of course, she's one of the best technical players and passing players so we're going to miss her, but part of this game is to make sure we have a good squad and the players coming in get the chance to show where they are. I always try to find a way of seeing injuries, not as a good thing for the player, but as a good thing for the group because other players get the minutes to show where they are.”
Sonia Bompastor
Robert was asked about Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor and what he made of her start at the Blues…
Robert: “She has a very impressive CV. I played against her with Hacken against Lyon in the Champions League, they had a strong team and they had a good identity as well. She's adapted to the English League in a very good way, signed some really good players and she knows how to win games because they're not looking brilliant in all the games so far, but they’re finding ways to win them. She’s a great coach with a great team, it’s going to be a tough game. On the other hand, we had some good games against Chelsea last season and I feel like we are performing quite well, so we just need to make sure we have a really good defending mindset and some really good finishing this game, then we have a good chance.”
On producing more history
We have yet to take points off Chelsea in the WSL since our promotion to the top flight in 2019 and Robert was asked whether his side can produce history this weekend…
Robert: “We have a clearer identity now, everybody knows how to play and we have some quality players. We are playing one of the best teams in the world so we need to have a perfect game to win this, but I know that we can do it, I know that we have the characters in this squad who can do it. If you look at the Man United game, it's not a bad performance for most of the game but it's some poor situations that creates the loss. We know how good Chelsea are, but we also know that we can compete against them.”
How would you look to contain Chelsea’s goal threats?
Robert: “They have scored a lot of goals in that game against Crystal Palace, but if you look at Chelsea's squad, you realise that they have a very, very good squad with a lot of talented players. The main thing is how they score goals in different positions, Rytting Kaneryd is one type of player, Aggie Beever-Jones is another type and Mayra Ramírez is a different player so, of course you need to look at the structure, how they want to score goals from phases of the game and then you can look individually as well and support the players with individual clips depending on who you’re playing against. We also try to mostly focus on ourselves, how we are going to collectively defend in parts of the game so they don't create those chances, but it's a tough task because they have so many good players.”
On last week's learnings
Robert was asked about what he and the squad learned from the 3-0 defeat to Manchester United last weekend…
Robert: “We looked at the analysis of the game and how we started the game well, how we pressed well, and then we looked at the goals they got and how they created those goals, it was not like they were playing us out, it was us not taking the work we should do or we're not in the positions we should be. It’s situations that we need to learn from and we learned the hard way in this game…. we have addressed that. It was also a learning like last season, we worked quite a bit with box defending and how to protect the crosses, we were quite good at it in the end. We just need to keep going back to stuff as well and make sure we work with that and, of course, we need to finish the goals as well. We had some really good chances in the beginning and if you score there, you have a bit of self-confidence to keep dictating the game, but we’re learning every week, whether we’re winning or losing.”
“When you look at the players, how they've tried to follow the game plan, tactically and how they tried to take the game all the way to the last second, even at 3-0 down, that shows some really good character. We’re also learning that if we don't do it all the time, the teams are too good, so we can never, ever do that. I feel like the most important thing is to go there on your own and, if you don't do it, we need to demand that from each other and make sure we dare to tell each other what to do in those situations. We are a team, we demand stuff and we need to be brave enough to tell people to do the work.”
Jess Naz
Robert was then asked about the forward’s call-up to the England senior squad for the second time following her strong start to the season…
Robert: “I think her journey together with me, how we have worked, it's been great to see her come from in and out, injured, not playing too much to actually take a starting position, be a really good threat, handling out of possession, how we press and creating chances. I think if you look at the first games of this season, she's been good but she's not been great because she's still hasn’t got the consistency of finishing one against one, scoring goals and doing assists, so there’s still stuff to improve, but she's still very good in the games. I’m really pleased with what she has done and I also know that the potential in her is so much higher, so when she gets more consistent and creates more chances, scores more goals, then she’s probably going to start for England as well because she's that high quality and when I speak to Sarina, she sees the same stuff we see. There’s more to come, she can be even better but she already now a top player in this league, she just needs to be a little bit more consistent.”
Lenna Gunning-Williams
The academy graduate received her maiden call-up to England Under-23s squad this week and it was put to Robert about what is the plan with her for the rest of the season…
Robert: “We had a chat in the first week where we discussed potentially going out on loan again, or to stay and fight and I said, ‘I actually think you are ready to fight and get minutes, if you are ready to also handle some weeks without minutes’ and she liked that, so we started there. Then during pre-season, she was really good, she was scoring goals and was understanding the tactics, so she's getting closer and closer. We then signed Haley Raso and Anna Csiki, having more players to compete with, but she has continued to compete and perform.
“She's in my head sometimes to actually be able to start games now but the main thing is to find ways for her to grow with the team. I'm happy that she's in England Under-23s now because that's a good thing for her to develop as a person, to go away and see some high potential to be a starting player in this team, but also respect the journey. She played for Ipswich last season, it’s a big step to play now in the WSL and there’s more stuff that she needs to learn, but I have a plan to try to make sure she gets the minutes here and there, then it's up to her to take those minutes and how quickly she wants to play even more minutes. But she’s a great person to work with, I just love her attitude and how she takes information and tries to do what we ask for.”
Watch - Vilahamn speaks to media ahead of Chelsea trip
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