There are very little words for a loss like the one Liverpool Women suffered at the hands of Chelsea on Sunday. While something like a loss against the current WSL champions was probably expected for our struggling Red Women, but nothing to the extent of the 1-9 walloping they received in the League Cup, violently dumping them out of the one competition they had been able to get any wins against. Hopefully the loss is a wake up call for the front office that this thinning squad — including a whole
separate 11 players that are unavailable due to injuries, suspension, or investigations — is woefully unequipped to challenge the top clubs like Chelsea who have been consistently investing in their women’s teams for years.
Jenna Clark, the lone goal scorer for Liverpool on the day, spoke to the club website following the match, albeit briefly.
“Difficult. But I think we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that, we made it difficult for ourselves. That’s all I’ve got to say on that part,” Clark said of their performance.
While they were able to get that single goal in the second half, they were already four goals down from the first half, so the one did little to soothe the hurt. Even with a good press and energetic start, Liverpool were unable to stem the onslaught from Chelsea, and by the second half the mental strength had fully gone away.
“It’s difficult in that kind of game,” Clark continued.
“The way the first half went, we didn’t give ourselves much of a chance. And then in the second half, we did arguably worse than the first half. We know as a team that isn’t acceptable and just to apologise to our fans for that.”
The squad now go into their winter break, with the next match not until January, so hopefully time for more of those missing squad members to come back from their various injuries and illnesses. It should also be time for the squad to strengthen and to lick their wounds, and plan to start the new year from a better mental position than they have done this first half of the season.
“We’ve got a break just now and I think that’s really important. It is one game; it’s a very, very tough game to take. We’ll take a break and come back in the New Year,” the defender admitted.
As for notoriously tough manager Gareth Taylor, they may have been saved from some fire by knowing just how much they did wrong on their own.
“There’s not much that needs to be said on his part. Us as players, we know ourselves. So, there wasn’t much to say on that. Us as players know what needs to be done and know what can’t be acceptable.”
Liverpool Women return to action on January 11th, facing London City at St. Helen’s Stadium at 2:30 pm BST/9:30am EST. Let’s hope some other changes have been made in the three weeks between now and then.
