‘Keep Being Us’ – Kirk Previews Chelsea Test

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‘Keep Being Us’ – Kirk Previews Chelsea Test

Manager Willie Kirk says his side won’t head into this weekend fearing Chelsea, who are LCFC Women’s next opponents in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

2023-11-26T08:48:00.000Z

by Matthew Temple

Published

26 Nov, 2023

‘Keep Being Us’ – Kirk Previews Chelsea Test

Manager Willie Kirk says his side won’t head into this weekend fearing Chelsea, who are LCFC Women’s next opponents in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-11-26T08:48:00.000Z

‘Keep Being Us’ – Kirk Previews Chelsea Test

Manager Willie Kirk says his side won’t head into this weekend fearing Chelsea, who are LCFC Women’s next opponents in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-11-26T08:48:00.000Z

‘Keep Being Us’ – Kirk Previews Chelsea Test

Manager Willie Kirk says his side won’t head into this weekend fearing Chelsea, who are LCFC Women’s next opponents in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-11-26T08:48:00.000Z

‘Keep Being Us’ – Kirk Previews Chelsea Test

Manager Willie Kirk says his side won’t head into this weekend fearing Chelsea, who are LCFC Women’s next opponents in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-11-26T08:48:00.000Z

After midweek action in the Continental Tyres League Cup, in which Leicester beat Manchester City on penalties, the Foxes are back on the road again when they take on Chelsea in the WSL this Sunday at Kingsmeadow.

Looking to keep the recent run of form going, here are the main talking points from the Manager’s press conference at Belvoir Drive…

Learning each game

City have been in the new situation of leading games at half-time but have failed to win their last three in 90 minutes due to comebacks from the opposition.

However, former Everton manager Kirk was keen to look at the positives of each game, in the fact that they are going head-to-head with some of the best teams in the country, and believes his side are learning from each passing game.

“Our half-time leads are not happening by chance,” Kirk stated. “Arsenal, Man City and Spurs – to be ahead of those three teams at the break isn’t down to luck. What we saw on Wednesday is that they’re learning from the Arsenal defeat.

“They're learning in terms of taking on board what happened and what to do better in those situations. In hindsight, it was good we lost that early goal against Man City in the second half because there could’ve been flashbacks from Arsenal, but they dealt with it much better.

“We recognised what they were doing and adapted to it. They made a triple change and that was a complement to our performance. We even had changes to win the game and then despite losing the two-goal lead, we showed resilience to go and win the shootout.”

Janice Cayman

Two-time UEFA Women’s Champions League winner Janice Cayman joined the Club this summer from Olympique Lyon, and is on a scoring spree at the moment, having netted in each of her last three games.

Currently the top scorer for the Foxes, goals was not something that Kirk expected from the Belgian when she arrived but is happy with the commitment and performances she is bringing to the team.

“Despite playing a bit in midfield, that’s not necessarily her position,” the Manager continued. “She’s a very flexible player and has trained in two different positions today in training, and that shows the problems players are giving us as staff.

“We need to pick a team, and so many players and fighting for a space, and then you have someone like Janice who you can move around the pitch and still get a good performance out of.

“We’ve learned in the last few weeks that she’s a goalscorer. That’s not something we were overly sure about when she joined, but she’s finding a way and she’s on a good run of form right now.”

Changing up for Chelsea

This weekend’s opponents could be Leicester’s toughest test yet, as they travel to the home of the current WSL champions Chelsea, but against one of the best teams in the world, Kirk isn’t wanting to defer away from how his side have been approaching games.

“We can’t change how we address the game, and we need to keep being us,” the 45-year-old explained. “We’ve let that slip a few times and that has usually led to some of our poorer performances.

“But when we’ve been us, we’ve had a consistency about our performances, so I don’t think the players would let us want to change how we play.

“We have our identity, and we want to be held accountable for that style of play as much as possible, and hopefully that’ll keep leading to good moments.”

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