A Process Of Learning, Says Kirk

Next Match | Saturday 18 April Sat 18 Apr

POR

(A)

00 D

07 H

39 M

43 S

Interviews & Features

Heritage

Photos

A Process Of Learning, Says Kirk

It’s full steam ahead in the New Year for LCFC Women to reach their seasonal targets as far as Manager Willie Kirk is concerned.

2024-01-19T08:48:00.000Z

by Sam Jones

Published

19 Jan, 2024

A Process Of Learning, Says Kirk

It’s full steam ahead in the New Year for LCFC Women to reach their seasonal targets as far as Manager Willie Kirk is concerned.

Sam Jones

2024-01-19T08:48:00.000Z

A Process Of Learning, Says Kirk

It’s full steam ahead in the New Year for LCFC Women to reach their seasonal targets as far as Manager Willie Kirk is concerned.

Sam Jones

2024-01-19T08:48:00.000Z

A Process Of Learning, Says Kirk

It’s full steam ahead in the New Year for LCFC Women to reach their seasonal targets as far as Manager Willie Kirk is concerned.

Sam Jones

2024-01-19T08:48:00.000Z

A Process Of Learning, Says Kirk

It’s full steam ahead in the New Year for LCFC Women to reach their seasonal targets as far as Manager Willie Kirk is concerned.

Sam Jones

2024-01-19T08:48:00.000Z

The Barclays Women’s Super League season resumes following its winter break with the Foxes welcoming Aston Villa to Pirelli Stadium for the first of the weekend’s fixtures this Friday night (7pm GMT kick-off).

Ahead of that match-up in Burton, Kirk addressed the media in his pre-match press conference, speaking of his desire to ensure the team hit their objectives…

Reflecting on the season so far

Last year ended on a somewhat sour note having let leads slip to draw consecutive WSL matches against Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United.

A similar pattern emerged from previous games, too, so naturally protecting leads is something that City’s Manager was keen to improve on heading into 2024.

A process of learning has taken place, he explained, which will stand the team in good stead heading into the business end of the season.

“That break was a good thing, it allowed a bit of a reset,” the 43-year-old began. “It allows you to break it into two mini seasons and reflect on what has happened and put things in place to correct that. Hopefully that’s what we’ve done.

“Everyone’s enjoying being back and getting the year started. We’ve looked at where we’re conceding chances and goals from. We always talk about form and results in the same breath but I think it’s two different things.

“Some of our form was really good throughout the season. If you look at the positions we were in, that was something that was new to the squad. When we’re getting in those same winning positions going forward, we’ll deal with them differently.

“It’s been a learning curve for the players. It’s never been the case at the Club where we’ve been in winning positions. A lot of it was new territory for us. We’ve scored as many goals in those 10 WSL games as we did in the whole of last season.

“There were visible scars from some of the games. A lot of the players never recovered from the Arsenal game until the break. That’s something we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to learn from our mistakes but not let it dwell on us and recover from it a little bit better mentally.

“We needed to go through those experiences, to be 2-0 up against Arsenal and 1-0 up against Tottenham at half-time, to learn from them. Just having the experience will help us in the second half of the season.”

Looking ahead

Eighth in the standings, with 10 points from the first half of the season, there are clear frustrations that the squad took into the Christmas period.

With plenty of time on the training pitches at Belvoir Drive and an Adobe Women’s FA Cup success in the bank, Kirk is confident in their ability to be on the front foot in terms of performances and results moving forward.

He continued: “The goals have always remained the same. We finished those 10 games just shy of where we wanted to be, but we’ve not changed anything – the targets or our ambitions. We know it’s a season of development and not being in the same position as last year.

“It will always be a work in progress but hopefully on Friday you can start to see those things. We want to looking up and catching teams and climbing places in the league. That will continue. We want to accumulate points as quickly as possible.

“We know if we win on Friday we move up a place in the league and that in itself is an incentive. In terms of results, we go into Friday’s game sitting above our opponents, but they have won more WSL games than us this season.

“We’ve not won as many as we’d have liked to, but we’ve also done well in terms of only losing four out of the 10 compared to where we were a year ago.”

Identifying Villa’s threats

Carla Ward’s side have endured a disappointing campaign to date, sitting just below City in the table, but did end 2023 with an important win over Brighton & Hove Albion. Given the squad at their disposal, Kirk believes they are currently in a false position.

“They’ve won more games because they’ve got a lot of match winners,” the former Everton manager said, commenting on Friday's opposition. “They’ve huge quality and experience in their squad. I expect their starting XI to be three years older than ours on average and, across a whole team, that’s a lot of minutes.

“They’ve got a number of players who have been in those scenarios and know how to manage games, win games and hold on to a lead. It’s a hugely talented squad with a goalscorer like Rachel Daly and huge creative influences like Kirsty Hanson and Kenza Dali.

“Villa are a great example to everyone. Being best of the rest is not an easy thing to do. That fifth place is a signpost for your development as a club and that’s where we want to get to, that area of the league, in the next year or two.

“If you finish above Villa with the squad they’ve got, it would suggest you’ve had a good season. They lost their first five but have picked up a lot since then and will go on to have a strong second half of the season.

“We also know their weaknesses and we’ve worked on those this week and how to exploit those areas. Hopefully it’s that we can focus on, rather than their strengths. I think there will be a reaction. To lose 3-0 (to Everton) in an FA Cup tie is not something they’ll have wanted.

“But we just focus on the game itself. We need to focus on our reaction from the first to the last minute being positive and determined. We just set up to win the game in front of us and look after ourselves.”

LATEST HEADLINES

Vote Now: LCFC End Of Season Awards Our supporters can now vote in a number of categories for our annual Leicester City End of Season Awards.

12 Hours 20 Mins Ago

Abdul Fatawu Nominated For EFL Goal Of The Season Abdul Fatawu’s stunning 65-yard strike in our 3-1 win over Ipswich Town in December has been shortlisted for EFL Goal of the Season.

12 Hours 50 Mins Ago

From The Archives - Arthur Chandler’s Shirt Crests Our all-time record goalscorer, Arthur Chandler, began his professional career at Queens Park Rangers in September 1920.

18 Hours 10 Mins Ago

Rowett: James & Ramsey Assessed Pre-Pompey Gary Rowett revealed that Jordan James and Aaron Ramsey are being monitored prior to our trip to Portsmouth.

16 Apr, 2026