ColumnMatt Beard on United cup test, Micah chance, Fahey return and Brighton

It goes without saying that we were very disappointed and frustrated losing to Chelsea by a 5-1 scoreline at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Against the top teams, and Chelsea are a top-class team, you only have to look at the players as well coming off the bench, if you make mistakes you will get punished and unfortunately that is exactly what happened to us.

We were disappointed with the manner of the goals we conceded more than anything else and they didn’t have to work hard for them. That’s probably the most frustrating thing we took from the game.

I felt we had some good moments and some moments where we could have been a bit braver but, overall, sometimes you learn more from a defeat than you do winning and drawing games. So, we’ve had a good start but maybe this is a bit of grounding that we needed.

It was a frustrating afternoon and maybe 5-1 flattered them but we needed to do better in every single one of the goals Chelsea scored. There were two or three errors from ourselves – whether that was our positioning, blocking the cross and not getting back in quick enough.

We’ve done so well before that this year and on the training ground we’ve done a lot of work defensively, so that was a little bit frustrating for us all.

Overall, we know we’ve had a good start. We could be in a better position points-wise, we know that, but there’s a lot of good things that happened in pre-season and then in the season so far, so Saturday is not going to define us. If anything, it will probably help.

I gave Shanice van de Sanden her first start in the WSL this season and she will be stronger for those minutes in the tank. Chelsea leave a lot of space in behind and we felt with Shanice’s pace we could take advantage of that, and if you look at the goal we scored, that came from exactly that.

Melissa Lawley was unlucky not to start considering how well she played against Leicester City but it was a tactical decision to start Shanice and she is getting stronger every week.

It was a disappointing result, it was a disappointing afternoon, but we now draw a line under it and move on.

• Get your tickets for tonight's Continental League Cup tie with Manchester United at Prenton Park here

Tonight we welcome Manchester United to Prenton Park in our third game in the group stage of the Continental League Cup (kick-off 7pm GMT).

It’s going to be an interesting game. I thought the derby was interesting on Sunday and Manchester City were excellent and fully deserved their win.

Obviously they will want to bounce back and so do we, so it’s going to be interesting, but we will rotate and I will be making a lot of changes tonight. I want to give other players opportunities to stake a claim maybe for Sunday’s game against Brighton after such a heavy defeat at Chelsea.

Like I’ve said, in this competition we need to use it because we have a big squad, we’ve got more depth and we want to keep everyone fit and match-fit and I want to have that competition for places.

Teagan Micah will start in goal against United. Teagan picked up an injury on international duty with Australia, she had a calf strain, and that’s why she couldn’t feature in our last cup game against Manchester City, but she is fine now.

Teagan has been fantastic since she came to us, she was playing catch-up after the World Cup but we have been pleased with how she has settled in here and how she is doing pushing Lawsy [Rachael Laws] and knocking right on the door.

Our captain Niamh Fahey is back and she will get 45 minutes tonight. It’s great to have her back, and Yana Daniels is also available for selection again. She had tightness in her groin but she is fine now.

Leanne Kiernan is getting there, she isn’t ready to start yet, so we are gradually building up her minutes. It is going to take a little bit of time to get back to her old self and get that confidence going again.

We are really pleased with how Leanne is progressing and I think these next few months will be about getting her consistency in training and then building her back up to starting games where she left off.

I thought there were a lot of positives from our performance against Manchester City in our last Conti Cup game. But to lose 4-3, it was a game that was probably a bit too open for my liking.

If it was a WSL game, I wouldn’t have been happy with certain things that went on in that game. I’m not saying the Conti Cup is different but we wanted to change our shape and be a bit different and it was a great game for the neutral. I do think we played well but could have done better on some of the goals, of course.

In these types of games you learn a lot, especially from our perspective because we have got a young squad this year. They are learning all the time and it gives us things to work with the players on an individual basis and as a unit, so these games are great for that.

The priority is the WSL and the priority is to try to break into that top six, top four. I think we have started well and we have put ourselves in a good position to try to do that. But there’s still a long way to go and we know that.

Last Saturday at Chelsea was a bit of a grounding for us so we’ve got to reset and go again.

On Sunday we host Brighton & Hove Albion in the WSL and we want to bounce back in the league, in front of the live LFCTV cameras (kick-off 2pm GMT).

I think Mel Phillips has done a fantastic job there. The results have been a bit up and down but they can be pleased with their points tally, especially after the struggles of last season and the big personnel change.

• Get your tickets for Sunday's WSL game against Brighton at Prenton Park here

I know better than anyone how difficult it is to get that consistency when you have such a big change. We had a big turnaround again this summer window and the good thing for me now is we don’t need wholesale changes like we’ve done over the last two summers.

It’s going to be an interesting game on Sunday. They have got some top, top players and we are looking forward to it.

We love playing at Prenton Park and I think it’s been really good for us. We have started our league campaign well there with wins over Aston Villa and Leicester City, then a close cup game against Manchester City. So fingers crossed it will be good for us again this week on Wednesday and Sunday.

As always, we will have the backing of our fantastic supporters and we can’t wait to see you twice this week.

Thank you for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

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