ColumnMatt Beard on Crystal Palace draw, return of Ceri Holland and international break

It was a frustrating day for us last Sunday because we weren’t at our best.

I’ll give Crystal Palace credit because they frustrated us, but I just feel our use of the ball – similar to the week before against Manchester City – could have been better when we had it.

If you look at the possession and the shots that we had, we could have been more clinical and better in those moments. But Crystal Palace were more aggressive than we were and they did to us what we’ve done to many teams in the past.

We have had a disrupted pre-season and the injuries that we’ve had to key personnel at times has had a slight effect – and it will affect us – so I do feel this international break has come at the right time.

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We’ve only lost one game. OK, we’ve drawn three and won one, and we could be in a much healthier position when it comes down to the points, but it’s not an absolute disaster.

We set ourselves a standard last year with the season that we had – but, like I’ve said time and time again, we earned that right.

I do believe that we overachieved but at the same time we earned that right, and that’s what we need to get back – earning that right to win football matches, because you don’t have a divine right to just turn up and win.

I was pleased to see Kappy [Cornelia Kapocs] score a nice goal. Kappy is still finding her feet and she was very unlucky – so was Mia [Enderby] – to come off at half-time because we wanted to make a tactical change and we just felt Smithy [Olivia Smith] and Leanne [Kiernan] could really stretch the opposition.

I was really pleased for Kappy. She came in late but is settling in now and it’s really pleasing to see how well she is doing.

It was great to bring Ceri Holland off the bench at the weekend, too. She is a big player for us – the engine in our midfield.

We have Fuka [Nagano] who can make us play out with her fantastic passing range, the creativity of Marie [Höbinger] and then we have Ceri’s athleticism with her ability to turn and run at people and stretch the opposition. When you don’t have Ceri, it does hurt you.

Obviously we had Sofie Lundgaard who can do that, but then we lost her to the ACL injury. So to be without those two at the same time was super-frustrating. But it was great to have Ceri back again.

It was also great to get Fisky [Grace Fisk] back on the pitch. We’ve missed her with the quality that she has got. It’s just the personality she brings to the pitch and everything that comes with it, the calming effect.

This is probably the first international break when we’ve only got five players in training. In the past we’ve had 10 or 11, but we can’t call up some of the U21s because they’ve got a tournament this week.

We are going to have a bit of downtime this week and I think the break for myself and the staff has come at the right time. It’s also an opportunity for the players that are still here to get some good work in and then we will give them a bit of time off to be with their loved ones.

There are still plenty of positives to take from last weekend, with the likes of Ceri and Fisky returning from injury. Like I say, it’s not been a disastrous start, but we know we should be better off in that points tally – however, that is where we are.

We’ve got a real tough period coming up for us with Aston Villa away, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. So, a real challenging run of games and we’ve got to be at our best and make sure this first part of the season is a learning curve and that we kick on.

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Thank you for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

Matt Beard was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter