Column: Why injuries will make us stronger
In his latest column, Liverpool Ladies’ boss Matt Beard reflects on first senior goals for two of his squad, the injury situation and Saturday’s vital Women's Super League clash away at Sunderland.
It was good for us to get back to winning ways at Doncaster Belles in the Continental Cup and it was a disciplined performance. I was pleased for Lucy Staniforth and Ashley Hodson to get their first goals which was important, and it was also important to give more minutes to Katrin Omarsdottir as she gets back to full fitness. Corina Schroder and Ingrid Ryland played a part after injury as well, so there was a bit more positivity for us. Lucy is getting stronger and to be fair it was always going to take her a while to get back because of the bad injuries she's had that were career threatening. We have both had to be patient and she deserves a lot of credit for that, and it's great to see her training every day with a smile on her face. She is only going to get better and more confident with each minute she plays. We also saw Rosie White set up another goal for Natasha Dowie at Doncaster which was pleasing. Rosie has settled in really well and we are really pleased with how she has settled. She is a Liverpool type player and I'm delighted with her.
It has been a tough time for us with the injuries to our key players in Fara Williams, Asisat Oshoala and Satara Murray. I’ve lost three important players from my team in Fara, Asisat and Satara. They are difficult players to replace, especially with a lot of games in quick succession. When you add to that Corina, Lucy and Katrin also only just getting back to full fitness it has had a massive impact on us as a group. Look, it’s part and parcel of football and we just have to get on with it because all teams have to deal with injuries and this will make us stronger as a group. We haven’t been losing games by big margins and it’s just been by the odd goal but unfortunately when we have been without our key players we just haven’t had the strength in depth to replace that. What it has done though is it’s given our younger players from the development squad an earlier chance than they might have expected. Ashley has done really well, the same as Maz Pacheco who is only 16 but has been playing really well for us at left-back.
We still have a lot to play for this season. We have the UEFA Women’s Champions League to come later in the year and we have started well in the Continental Cup. Mathematically, although we will do as best we can to finish as high as we can in the Women’s Super League, a third successive title is probably out of our reach now with the amount of games we have lost. We have some tough games coming up but it’s one of those things. We will stick together, keep working hard, and keep improving.
We now head to Sunderland on Saturday evening for another important game as we have lost our last two games in the league. We need one more win to make sure we are out of the relegation fight. We have made the players aware that after losing to Birmingham City that has brought us into the relegation battle. We have still to play Bristol Academy twice but we have to get one more win. That will be enough for us I feel, and then we can start to look back up the table and get back to where we belong.
Thanks for your support as always,
Matt
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