ReactionMatt Beard on Tottenham draw, Roman Haug delight and more
Matt Beard felt there were ultimately positives to take as Liverpool came from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
A Celin Bizet finish gave Spurs the lead during a first half on Sunday in which she also struck the crossbar just before the interval.
The Reds were in the ascendancy for large spells of the second period, however, and after a formation switch they levelled as Sophie Roman Haug got her first goal for the club by heading in substitute Yana Daniels’ cross.
Read Beard’s verdict on the Brisbane Road encounter, speaking to Liverpoolfc.com, below…
On his reflections on the game…
First half, really disappointed. We just didn’t get into a rhythm, we didn’t get in. Our positional play was poor, when we won possession back, the way we broke or the way we got into positions, we turned it over way too much. We showed them a few clips at half-time, we showed them the spaces we can exploit if we got into the positions.
We didn’t start the second half well either with that, so we obviously went back to the 3-5-2 that has worked well for us, and then straight away we get the goal off Yana’s cross. I thought it was a great cross because we talk about standing the crosses up from that angle, especially for Sophie because she peels off the shoulder so well. And I’m delighted for her because she had a good chance in the first half, but just for her to get the goal, I think she can relax now and it’s done and dusted.
On the importance of Roman Haug opening her account for the club…
I’ve said all along, we’ve seen it from when we watched her to recruit her, all the goals that she scores. She can score the goal she scored today, she can score tap-ins, she can score worldies, so I’ve been confident she’ll be OK. We’ve had to change the system today with losing Jas [Matthews] after Wednesday’s game. But we flipped it back 10, 15 minutes into the second half and we got the rewards for that. I was pleased with the way we finished the game. I still think we gifted them one or two opportunities that we didn’t need to gift them, so we need to tidy up on that. But overall, with the way we started the game and the way we finished, there’s obviously a lot of positives we can take and it’s another point on the road.
On the strength of the squad being evident today with a number of injury absences at the moment…
I think so. Obviously losing Mia [Enderby] in the first half as well, I don’t know what that is yet so I’ll find out shortly. Our recruitment that we did in the summer obviously allows us if we do lose players that we can bring players in. If you look at the players that I brought off the bench today; Shanice van de Sanden, Yana Daniels, [Missy] Bo Kearns, so we’re bringing top, top players off the bench to try to get us back into the game, and lucky enough for us today it worked.
On the impact Daniels made off the bench…
For sure. It took them maybe a couple of minutes or so to adjust to our shape change. It was a top, top delivery, she has put it straight on a plate for her and it was a great finish.
On Gemma Bonner’s performance…
She has been like that all season, putting her body on the line the way she does, winning the headers, winning the tackles, blocking the shots. Obviously breaking the record in the week, it has been a good end to the week for her.
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