ColumnMatt Beard on St Helens excitement, Everton friendly and new contracts
It goes without saying that we are excited and looking forward to playing our first game at St Helens, our new home ground, on Sunday.
It’s going to be great. Teams didn’t like coming to play us at Prenton Park so we need to replicate that at St Helens, which I think will be our biggest challenge.
We’ve got great support home and away so I’m sure the fans will create that same atmosphere that we had at Prenton Park, and it’s going to be great to be in a red stadium.
We’ve also got three games at Anfield this season, so that’s exciting for the team and the fans.
This stadium enables us to do so much more as a team and as a club. We’ve got our own branding there and it becomes like a home. Tranmere Rovers were fantastic with us but Prenton Park wasn’t our home so we are really looking forward to this.
Playing against Everton is a great way to end the pre-season for us before the season gets under way on September 22 against Leicester City.
The key with this friendly is we needed a game at St Helens before the season starts – that was important. This is an important game for us because it is the last pre-season fixture and I have got some proper selection headaches this year, but that is what we wanted.
The first four weeks of pre-season were a bit disjointed because of the injuries we had, but we are over that now and that is positive. Competition for places is so important and you can just see us in training now – the standards have been raised.
It was important for me to address the top end of the pitch because we have had a lot of injuries there in the past few years.
The likes of Leanne Kiernan, Sophie Roman Haug, Mia Enderby, Smithy [Olivia Smith], Kappy [Cornelia Kapocs], they are all different types of players, so all the best picking a top two or top three out of that group!
Whatever way I look at it, I feel the team is stronger. I’ve seen a lot of changes in the WSL – managers, squads – and I know how tough it is.
Brian Sorensen has done a great job in difficult circumstances at Everton and I think they have had a really good recruitment window. But it’s important that we hit the ground running and it would be great to win against Everton.
However, the main focus is the start of the season and making sure we start with three points against Leicester.
We have recently announced new contracts for our captain Niamh Fahey and Leanne. I’m absolutely delighted with the news.
Niamh is going to be focused on her playing, first and foremost. I felt last year before her injury towards the back end of the season she was excellent for us. She just seems to get better every year.
What we want to start looking at, as we want to make sure we are looking after our players, is a player-coach role. So, Niamh is focusing on her playing duties mainly, but we are looking at transitioning her into a potential coaching role in the future.
She is a great voice in the dressing room and her football brain is fantastic. So to have her voice and opinion with the coaching staff is going to be fantastic.
Niamh has done her directorship course as well as we want to make sure we are looking after the futures of our players and this gives her a good opportunity to potentially explore what happens post-football.
The contract is definitely on merit. I thought she was excellent when she was available for selection last year. She is great in the dressing room and she holds the players to high standards.
I think giving her this opportunity of a potential dual role is a good option for her to explore, and the club deserves a lot of credit for backing that as well. Niamh is a real leader and when you get that Fahey stare you know you are in trouble!
Her performances speak for themselves and she has been one of our most consistent performers week in, week out – not just for us but for her country as well.
They are all good people here in this group, but Niamh is the ultimate professional.
As for Leanne, I am delighted to see her committing her future here.
I know that she can score goals, I’ve seen her do it for years, and she is settled here, she is happy in the city. I’m looking forward to seeing what she can produce this year.
Obviously Leanne had a couple of tough years injury-wise. But I thought in the second half of last season once she started to find her feet again and started to get fully fit, she had a great impact and end to the season.
If I go back to the Chelsea and Leicester games specifically, when she got her confidence back, I started to see the Leanne of old.
We’ve got great competition in the forward line this season. I think last year when we played the 4-3-3, I don’t think we were defensively good enough in that system, but going forward we were good.
We wanted to address the balance of how that 4-3-3 looked. Leanne can play down the middle, she can play wide right and wide left, her energy that she brings to the pitch is fantastic. The great thing is she can play in all of the front three positions.
For me, I still think her best position is through the middle. Whether we are playing a 5-3-2 or 4-3-3, Leanne covers all bases. She is a wonderful person who is great for the dressing room.
Thank you for your continued support.
YNWA,
Matt
Matt Beard was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter