‘The Whole Season Is Important’ - Bedford’s Pre-Spurs Message

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‘The Whole Season Is Important’ - Bedford’s Pre-Spurs Message

Lydia Bedford is looking at the bigger picture ahead of LCFC Women’s curtain-raiser against Tottenham Hotspur.

2022-09-18T07:00:00.000Z

by Sam Jones

Published

18 Sep, 2022

‘The Whole Season Is Important’ - Bedford’s Pre-Spurs Message

Lydia Bedford is looking at the bigger picture ahead of LCFC Women’s curtain-raiser against Tottenham Hotspur.

Sam Jones

2022-09-18T07:00:00.000Z

‘The Whole Season Is Important’ - Bedford’s Pre-Spurs Message

Lydia Bedford is looking at the bigger picture ahead of LCFC Women’s curtain-raiser against Tottenham Hotspur.

Sam Jones

2022-09-18T07:00:00.000Z

‘The Whole Season Is Important’ - Bedford’s Pre-Spurs Message

Lydia Bedford is looking at the bigger picture ahead of LCFC Women’s curtain-raiser against Tottenham Hotspur.

Sam Jones

2022-09-18T07:00:00.000Z

‘The Whole Season Is Important’ - Bedford’s Pre-Spurs Message

Lydia Bedford is looking at the bigger picture ahead of LCFC Women’s curtain-raiser against Tottenham Hotspur.

Sam Jones

2022-09-18T07:00:00.000Z

While acknowledging that a positive result in their opening fixture would provide a huge boost, the manager says the Foxes’ approach will be measured and considered across the campaign – City’s second in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

The Lilywhites provide Leicester’s first opponents, as the pair meet at King Power Stadium in Sunday’s 3pm BST kick-off. Ahead of the game, here's what Bedford had to say when speaking to the media in her virtual pre-match press conference at Belvoir Drive earlier this week…

The impact of the summer signings

“We’ve had six additions to the team which have added various positives to our playing style. All the individuals we brought in are top professionals who we knew would add to our environment off the pitch as well as on it. It’s remarkably easy in terms of how smoothly they have joined in. It feels like they have been here for a lot longer than a few weeks.

“We’re really pleased with the recruitment and the way that it’s gone across the last few months. We feel that the players we’ve brought in have added depth in key areas, which will allow us to have more competition across different units. That was a big one for us and the competition is moving upwards.”

Creating squad chemistry in pre-season

“It’s been a fantastic pre-season for us as a club. We feel it’s a pre-season that allows us to go into the start of this season ready and raring to go.

“Gelling them has been really easy. Our pre-season was intentionally planned to provide the players with opportunities to really get together and to build those relationships that will help them on the pitch ultimately when they are put in pressure moments.

“We had two days with the Army and then we went away to a team building site in the Lake District for four days, doing some abseiling, river descents and jumping off cliffs.

“We spent an afternoon at Loughborough University and played some Wheelchair basketball as a group, just for something a little bit different on one of our recovery days. Those activities really helped.

“The power that they had was massive and I think the togetherness of the squad is in a much better place than perhaps it was last year as a result of those activities, along with the embedding of those new players.”

Aims for the season ahead

“We have firm aspirations of achieving a much higher placing than last season. As a group, we’re just taking each game as it comes to allow us to do that.

“The whole season is important. If you look at the history of the WSL, there are teams last season that started really well but had periods where they weren’t at the same level.

“I think consistency of form is key. Everyone wants to get off to a bright start, but as we’ve seen last year, from where we were at Christmas and where we finished, really the most important thing is where you sit come gameday 22, not gameday one.

“But like every other manager in the WSL, we’re looking for a really positive start this weekend to try and embed the things that we’ve worked hard to do over the pre-season.”

The captaincy

“For me, it was really important that, as a group, the players understood the need for self-leadership across pre-season and really up their level in terms of what they need as an individual and how they interacted with others.

“We’ve looked across the group to see who emerged as a result of that. Following that process, we announced Alieen Whelan as the Club captain, and a leadership group beneath her of Ashleigh Plumptre, Sophie Howard and Josie Green.

“There’s a group of four that I am working very closely with now to try and help drive what we do on and off pitch. There’s a level of self-responsibility that all four of them have really high professional standards.

“You know exactly what you are going to get from them on a day-to-day basis and they take care of themselves to a very high level. On top of that, all four of them have picked up the respect of the group, based on the behaviours that they display.

“It’s most important in a leadership role that you’ve got someone with credibility that people can look up to and respect in terms of their actions and what they do. Aileen is 100 per cent that individual.

“She’s also great at being a voice. She is very open in her communication, very honest and straight up, which I really appreciate it and has helped us to build a really good connection across pre-season, where I really trust her and the rest of that group to be delivering my messages on a day-to-day basis.”

New coaches on board

“We’ve brought in Nicola Williams as Assistant Manager. Her previous background is coaching out in Australia and in the club game in Italy over the last four years.

“Then we brought in Steve Kirby as First Team Coach, who came from the Leicester City Academy and he had been working in the Men’s setup for a number of years across the Under-18s and some of the older age groups.

“They joined us around the first week of August. I had a few weeks with the squad and Emile [Heskey] supporting me and the two of us leading that first few weeks of pre-season and then Nicola and Steve both joined at a similar time.

“It’s been brilliant to have them in the building for the last five weeks. It’s definitely allowed me to keep my focuses on specific areas and allow them to take responsibility and drive others. With Nicola and Steve and myself, each unit has some leadership.

“The number of staff that we’ve got, not just in the technical team, but across the whole of the women’s department now, means what our players now receive individually in terms of support is on a much higher level than what we could do last season.

“Each player has clear development plans that we’re working with them on a daily and weekly basis. We’ve got a much higher capacity to really support and push them on. That’s been fantastic for the service that we can provide our players.

“The link to our medical and physical departments, which is also grown in the off-season, means that our players really get a seven-day, 24-hour service from a medical perspective and a much higher level from a medical perspective.”

On facing Tottenham

“The setup at Spurs is a really impressive one and what they achieved last season was excellent. Rehanne [Skinner] has got a lot of experience in terms of what she brings to that group and the experiences that she took into that role.

“When you play a Spurs team, you know that they are going to be very well organised. They are very quick when they win the ball back what they do with it. They’ve only gone and brought in better players from last season and strengthened their overall squad depth.

“We’re expecting a really strong performance from them this weekend, but at the same time, we’re really excited with what we’ve achieved over pre-season and we feel really ready to go into this first game and show what we’ve really improved on. They are really clear on what they need to do.”

The Blue Army’s support

“At King Power Stadium last year, the average was really positive at home games. I’m really excited to see the turnout we get this weekend for our first home game.

“If we can get the same level of support or more... the noise and the crowd last year was a big factor in some of the results that we got at King Power Stadium.

“I think back to January when we beat Brighton, in the last 15 minutes, the noise behind the players really pushed them in those critical moments and we’re expecting the same again.

“We’ll probably ride that wave for a little while because we’ve got a few home games early on and those crowds will really push our team forward.”

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