‘We’ll Be Up To Speed’– Kirk’s Liverpool Preview

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‘We’ll Be Up To Speed’– Kirk’s Liverpool Preview

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women are in a good condition ahead of their match-up with Liverpool on Saturday afternoon at King Power Stadium.

2023-04-29T07:36:29.052Z

by Matthew Temple

Published

29 Apr, 2023

‘We’ll Be Up To Speed’– Kirk’s Liverpool Preview

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women are in a good condition ahead of their match-up with Liverpool on Saturday afternoon at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-29T07:36:29.052Z

‘We’ll Be Up To Speed’– Kirk’s Liverpool Preview

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women are in a good condition ahead of their match-up with Liverpool on Saturday afternoon at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-29T07:36:29.052Z

‘We’ll Be Up To Speed’– Kirk’s Liverpool Preview

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women are in a good condition ahead of their match-up with Liverpool on Saturday afternoon at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-29T07:36:29.052Z

‘We’ll Be Up To Speed’– Kirk’s Liverpool Preview

Willie Kirk believes LCFC Women are in a good condition ahead of their match-up with Liverpool on Saturday afternoon at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-29T07:36:29.052Z

City were last in action when they picked up three points against Reading at the start of April, thanks to an injury time winner from Carrie Jones, after a first half strike from Sam Tierney was cancelled out by Charlie Wellings.

Speaking to the media in Thursday’s press conference at Belvoir Drive, here are the main talking points from the manager’s assessment of this weekend's fixture against the Reds in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

The break in fixtures

Straight after the positive result against the Royals, the Foxes headed into an international break, and therefore have seen a four week absence in fixtures, however the manager believes that his squad have utilised this time wisely to prepare for the final five games of the season.

“The past four weeks have been frustrating, we’re here to play games, and when that’s taken away it’s a bit annoying,” Kirk explained. “But we’ve filled the void quite well, and we had a really good 11 vs. 11 match last weekend which got us up to speed for Liverpool.

“Some of the players needed an extra few days off, especially the international players who have been away, as it’s been a busy schedule for them, but the void has been filled productively.

“We’ve been able to focus on individual development and conditioning, and I think the players are in a really good physical condition going into the run-in, which is really important.

“The ones that are fit and able are in a really good place. We’re still topping the charts in training each week, and the players are hitting new personal bests all the time so we’re in a good shape and improving, which is a complement to the staff as well.”

Keeping the motivation

Christmas of 2022 saw Leicester holding up the rest of the WSL, seven points adrift and without a point. While the Foxes remain at the bottom of the standings, they have dramatically closed the gap and brought a relegation fight to life.

“The biggest motivator is that everyone wrote us off at the end of the calendar year,” the former Everton manager continued. “We went into the break with zero points and some people thought that there wasn’t even a relegation fight to be had, so that’s been motivating us.

“We came off the bottom, and even though we’re back there again, I don’t think it fazes anybody because we’ve already proved we can do it. We firmly believe that if we perform the way we know we can, we will lift ourselves off the bottom again come Saturday afternoon.

“I would rather have a boring end to the season and be sat in seventh or eighth, but we’re not so we’ve got to take it for what it is, and we’ve all been really enthusiastic about the end of the season.”

Last time out against the Reds

Back in February, Leicester claimed their first away win of the season when they defeated Liverpool 1-0 at Prenton Park. Hannah Cain scoring the only goal of the game eight minutes in.

Despite taking home the points, the manager was disappointed with aspects of his side’s performance that day and states that the team have developed well since then, to give an even better account of themselves come Saturday afternoon.

He added: “We have to improve our performance on the last Liverpool game. We obviously won that game 1-0, but we felt our performance was below par for us. We scored quite early but we didn’t have much control in the game.

“Liverpool were really direct and we showed a lot of resilience that day, so there are some strong elements from it but we know we can be a lot better when in possession and we’re hoping to show that on Saturday.

“We need to cause as much of a threat going forward as we did against Reading. We want to have a similar amount of chances, and that will give us a good foundation to win this weekend's game.”

Ruby Mace’s impact

One of City’s five January signings, midfielder Ruby Mace joined the Foxes on loan from fellow WSL outfit Manchester City for the remainder of the 2022/23 campaign.

At just 19 years of age, Kirk was keen to praise the England Under-23s international on the impact she has had throughout the squad and the performances since her arrival.

“Ruby has been fantastic for us since arriving on loan in January,” the 44-year-old stated. “We identified her as a player that would be a priority signing for us, and Man City were quite accommodating in allowing her to come in.

“She’s not disappointed. She’s got a great calmness on the ball and a fantastic range of passing. But she’s also very aggressive out of possession. She’s good in the air, strong with challenges and breaking up play. But the main purpose for her coming in was to be a controller.

“She can dictate the tempo very well, and even though she can get frustrated as a lot of young players do, she’s developing well and we’re hopefully giving her that opportunity to further her progress."

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