Despite showing some signs of life in the recent weeks, Liverpool Women once again suffered a loss in the league, with Manchester United being the ones to dish it out this time. New signing Alice Bergstrom
was able to level the scoring in the second half after United’s Lisa Naalsund scored first, but the rivals would go on to score two more to end the match 3-1.
“Disappointing, we weren’t at our best,” Gareth Taylor told Sky Sports following the match.
“And at times we probably tried to play United at their game; they’ve been doing it for a long time and they’re a long way ahead of where we are. So, I’m just a little bit disappointed.
“We can fail but fail playing our way. We were probably a little bit more direct, maybe because Martha [Thomas] was having a bit of joy. Just a bit disappointed. But also really clear on kind of where we are and really clear on the opponent we’re playing today and where they are.”
Liverpool have only won one league match this whole season, and though it looks like the women are finally on the right track towards salvaging this season, another loss like this can certainly be a blow. It wasn’t all bad to Taylor, refreshingly. As someone unafraid to share their negativity with the press, Taylor did find the positives.
“If we look at the game again, we had our moments. We had our final-third actions, we had a fair chunk of corners,” the manager explained.
“I just felt we gave away too much to them, too many attempts on our goal due to some of our own mistakes. We allowed United into that a little bit just from our play.
“There was some significant upturn in the last two games on final-third action. Just a sense of disappointment really, but also really aware of where we are and steps that we have to make.“
Despite the loss on Sunday, there is still plenty to play for to ensure that Liverpool do not fall to the second tier again. The new signings are fitting in nicely and Taylor is focused on perfecting the identity of their play style, asserting that they need to play “their way.”
“Just that we’ve come up short today, and that’s fine, but we really, really have to do the basics of the game really well but also play our way. Failing our way is absolutely fine. When you try to play the same as United play then they’re going to do it better than you nine times out of 10,” Taylor said.
Liverpool Women host Aston Villa at St. Helen’s Stadium next week, Sunday 8 February, and hope to add another three points to their woefully low table score.
