Another match, another demoralizing defeat for the Liverpool Women. This time it was against Aston Villa on Thursday, and the hosts wasted no time in taking the lead through a poor clearance from Faye
Kirby and a Rachel Daly goal. Three points remains ever elusive in the Women’s Super League, despite the progress made in the past weeks.
“I didn’t think we were at it at all. I think we have been more recently,” manager Gareth Taylor said following the match.
“I think when you look at the Chelsea game, even Arsenal and Brighton before that, we talk about sprinting, reacting. There was none of that tonight. The first half was really, really poor. The second half was marginally better but you can’t just do that at this level in the WSL. The minimum is you have to do those things.”
Taylor seemed rather unfazed by the loss, although he went straight to criticizing his players for giving away an easy goal in the opening minute, rather than maybe other more measured responses. As much of the conversation with the men’s team has been that the buck stops with Arne Slot, so too should the buck stop with Taylor.
“We gave away a really poor goal right at the start of the game, which is not ideal, but like, so what? Show some personality, show some reaction, show some energy and some competing in the challenges, and we didn’t,” Taylor said, rather scathingly.
“We made it really easy for Villa. When we did step up in the second half, we had a portion of the game where we had some moments, but by that time the game was away from us. I think that’s the really disappointing thing.”
To be honest, this writer is a little speechless reading that bit of the reaction. For all intents and purposes, it should have been a successful match for the women, with a strong lineup out on the pitch. To very publicly call them out for not showing a reaction or personality feels pretty offensive. Why should they react when that is the reaction from their very manager? We’re all human and allowed to show emotions, but being a leader requires some bit of decorum and not throwing your players to the wolves.
The match against West Ham on Sunday is now all the more important as Liverpool run out of time to get out of the relegation zone.
“It does [feel important]. I’ve not said anything here that I haven’t said to the players,” the manager explained.
“We have to go and show a reaction because if we don’t, we know that West Ham have players that can capitalise on that, and they will. We have to make sure we get fight, we get reaction, we get good body language, because if we don’t get that… that’s always going to be a real struggle for us because Liverpool can’t win games when we play like that.”
Liverpool visit West Ham on Sunday at the Chigwell Construction Stadium at 11:55am BST/6:55am EST, with the match being shown on Sky Sports and YouTube.
