ColumnMatt Beard on St Helens importance, WSL start, Fisk update and more

It goes without saying we are all excited for the start of a new season and I feel we have got a really exciting young squad with plenty of selection headaches ahead for me.

• Get your tickets for Sunday's WSL clash with Leicester here

Overall, I was pleased with our performance in our final pre-season outing against Everton. I thought we started slowly but felt we grew into the game, so I was pleased.

What we tried to do was give everyone fair minutes and look at certain players together, like Sophie [Roman Haug] and Kappy [Cornelia Kapocs]. I want to get the right balance in the team.

I thought we finished the game strongly and felt we could have, and deserved, to win it. But it was one of those days in front of goal, but I’d much rather draw in a pre-season friendly against Everton than on Sunday when we play Leicester City and we want the three points.

I thought defensively we were very good against Everton and we’ve just got to keep working at it in that final third. We restricted them to just the one chance and it was a heck of a save from Lawsy [Rachael Laws].

There is still work to do, I know that and as I’ve said before we are probably a week behind of where I would like us to be tactically, but we had a period of injuries for two to three weeks which we are over now, so hopefully we can hit the ground running on Sunday against Leicester.

The players that we have brought in during the summer have settled in really well. The great thing about players coming in is we have such a good group and they are so welcoming. I met Gemma Evans’ mum and dad on Sunday and they told me she feels like she’s been at Liverpool for ages.

The advantage for Kappy is we have a few Scandinavian players here in Sophie and Sofie Lundgaard, so we’ve got different cultures. Everyone gets on, it’s a good environment to be in. There’s still work to be done tactically on the pitch and it’s not going to happen overnight.

Smithy [Olivia Smith] had four weeks with us then went to a World Cup with Canada U20s so she is playing catch-up, so is Kappy because it was a late one coming in, as was Gemma.

It was fantastic to get our first game out of the way at St Helens Stadium. The whole set-up is fantastic, just everything about it.

Tranmere Rovers was a fortress for us but the women’s game has moved on, the game is moving on year on year, and I think if we are going to compete at the top end of the table we need a stadium like St Helens and we need to play more at Anfield, and that is what is happening.

If you look at Arsenal as an example, the amount of money they are making from their home games because they are filling out the Emirates with 55,000 to 60,000, it’s setting them up. We know we’ve still got a lot of work to do on that side, growing the fan base etc, but I think this move to St Helens is a big step in the right direction.

It’s a modern stadium, a red stadium and there is a lot more as a football club that we can do there for the fan experience.

We start our new WSL campaign in St Helens when we welcome Leicester City (kick-off 2pm BST).

They have a new manager in Amadine Miquel who has done a fantastic job in pre-season. I met her at the WSL media day and this is going to be a tough game.

I think they have made some fantastic signings as well and I actually think Leicester and Brighton could be the surprise packages in the WSL this year.

It’s going to be an interesting WSL this season. I believe for the first time in the history of the WSL that there is not a team that is expected to go down, because everyone on their day has got quality.

I really believe it’s going to be a fantastic league this year, the toughest ever, so let’s get ready for an exciting ride.

As for us, every year we just want to improve on what we have done. We’ve got to make sure we improve on last year.

I think we have improved the team during the summer, and the competition for places, and we just want to do the best that we possibly can.

I’m not going to set any targets, I’m not going to set anything that is unrealistic. We want to improve on what we did last season and we will just take it game by game.

If you start focusing on stuff that is months away then there’s no point, so we are just focused on the here and now and that is what we are going to do like we always do.

Squad-wise, we are without Grace Fisk unfortunately, who is still two to four weeks away from a return but that is why we have the squad depth now.

It was great to give Hannah Silcock some minutes on Sunday after her return from injury and she could have played for us last season, no doubt, and she did very well on loan at Blackburn Rovers.

I’ve got some good headaches this year. If I look at the back line, we’ve brought in Gemma Evans who was excellent against Everton.

I said to the players after the Everton game, as far as auditions go they were fantastic, every single player staked a claim to be in my team on Sunday, so we’ve got some real tough decisions to make.

We’ve got Smithy back from the World Cup and she is a very exciting young talent who I know our fans will enjoy watching, so apart from Fisky and Faye Kirby we’ve got a fully fit squad to select from.

Last week we announced an extension to Yana Daniels’ contract and this is great news for me.

With Yana, her versatility is a big thing for me. She can play wing-back, in any of the front two or three positions, very rarely is she injured, and she is just a great person to have around the building as well. I just feel we need that little bit of experience with Yana because we have recruited young.

If you look at Yana’s performances for us last season, it got her back in the national team, so I am looking forward to see what Yana can produce again this year.

• Get your tickets for Sunday's WSL clash with Leicester here

Thank you for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

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