'It Feels Like A New Season' – Kirk Speaks Pre-Brighton

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'It Feels Like A New Season' – Kirk Speaks Pre-Brighton

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women can approach their 2023 fixtures like a new season after a lengthy break in action over Christmas and New Year's.

2023-01-15T09:02:00.000Z

'It Feels Like A New Season' – Kirk Speaks Pre-Brighton

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women can approach their 2023 fixtures like a new season after a lengthy break in action over Christmas and New Year's.

2023-01-15T09:02:00.000Z

'It Feels Like A New Season' – Kirk Speaks Pre-Brighton

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women can approach their 2023 fixtures like a new season after a lengthy break in action over Christmas and New Year's.

2023-01-15T09:02:00.000Z

'It Feels Like A New Season' – Kirk Speaks Pre-Brighton

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women can approach their 2023 fixtures like a new season after a lengthy break in action over Christmas and New Year's.

2023-01-15T09:02:00.000Z

'It Feels Like A New Season' – Kirk Speaks Pre-Brighton

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women can approach their 2023 fixtures like a new season after a lengthy break in action over Christmas and New Year's.

2023-01-15T09:02:00.000Z

The Foxes returned to competitive action with a superb 5-0 win at Sunderland in the Continental Tyres League Cup on Wednesday, but are still searching for their first points in the Barclays Women's Super League.

Sunday's visit of Brighton & Hove Albion to King Power Stadium is City's next opportunity to do just that - and Kirk spoke to the media on Friday to preview that clash.

Benefitting from the break

The LCFC Women manager says he has been struck by the 'different mindset' of his players since they returned to work to ready themselves for the resumption of WSL action.

A string of postponements in December afforded the Scotsman more time on the training field following his mid-season appointment as manager and he believes the players have benefitted from it.

"The three games being called off at the beginning of the Christmas break was a really good thing," the former Everton manager said. "It’s given us a run of fixtures where we can build some momentum.

"It actually feels like the start of a season, I must admit. We came back on 27 December and it just felt like a different place. The players were in a different mindset.

"We had six training sessions leading into a matchday minus one before the first friendly and it has just felt like a new season, which is really, really positive for us.

"[The first part of the season] is dead, it’s gone. We can’t do anything about it. It’s about forgetting it, resetting, refreshing and starting again almost.

"We know, if we were to zero out the league table today, we know we need to finish as high up that table as possible. That’s what the aims are."

The work carried out at Belvoir Drive this winter was on show during that five-star success at Sunderland – and Kirk is hoping for more against Brighton in the WSL.

"It’s been really good," he added. "Because the Man City game was off, we had 10 days off, which for me was enough in terms of the players having enough of a break – but then getting back in and working hard.

"We’ve basically used the time to have a real focus on us, a real focus on what we do in games, without that constant pressure of looking at the opposition.

"We’ve ran through our principles and we’ve been really detailed now on that. I think it gave everybody a little more clarity on what we’re trying to do and why we’re trying to that.

"We had a couple of friendly matches in there as well, so we’ve built up some good momentum, some good fitness levels.

"I think you can see, with the Sunderland performance, we were doing a lot of good things.

"We kept doing the right things and obviously that paid off in the second half and we finished the game really strongly from a physicality perspective, which shows you how hard we’ve been working over the break."

Preparing for Scheuer's Seagulls

Brighton, under the new management of German coach Jens Scheuer, are likely to be somewhat of an unknown element for City on Sunday. Kirk, though, sees positives in the unique challenge ahead.

"I think it’s a real positive," he explained. "We had a team meeting this morning after playing Sunderland on Wednesday and we did our Brighton analysis.

"It’s really hard because they’ve obviously got a new manager and it’s hard to say what they’ll stick with and what they’ll change.

"We’ve actually probably analysed Jens’ previous teams, Bayern and Freiburg, just as much as we’ve analysed Brighton to try and get a flavour for what he might bring to the league and to the team.

"I think it’s good because it means we really need to focus on us – make sure our processes and performances are as strong as possible to make sure we get a positive result.

"The players seem to have brought into that. We’ve trained really well this morning and we’ll finish off those preparations tomorrow.

"Everyone’s confident of bringing a really good performance to King Power Stadium on Sunday."

Siemsen's signing provides a lift

The arrival of Australia international striker Remy Siemsen has provided a real boost this winter and Kirk outlined the reasons why the Club signed the former Sydney FC star.

"We tried to bring Remy in last summer and she chose to stay with [AIK Fotboll] because she’d only been there half a season and she thought it was only right to be loyal," he said.

"That probably, in a strange way, attracted me to her even more because she showed real loyalty when there was an opportunity to move to the WSL.

"She’s a very hard-working and honest striker. She scores different types of goals, if you go through her footage – she’s scored headers, she’s scored inside and outside the box, and with her left and right foot.

"She’s flexible, she can play right across the front line and she’s quite tidy in possession. She offers a lot of different options and she’s hungry.

"She wants to achieve and she’s hungry to make it into the Australian senior squad, so we want to give her a platform to do that.

"We’ve obviously had a couple of long-term injuries in that area of the pitch, Jess Sigsworth and Hannah Cain in particular. We knew that was an area where we had to strengthen.

"It’s unfair to think that just because Hannah’s back on the pitch that she’ll start to play 90 minutes week in, week out.

"It was important that we strengthened in that area – and [we've signed] a different type of forward to what we already had at the Club. That area of the pitch was definitely one which we prioritised."

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