Kirk: We Have A Points Target To Hit

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Kirk: We Have A Points Target To Hit

Willie Kirk is hoping to end the 2022/23 home campaign on a high as LCFC Women take on West Ham United on Sunday afternoon in the Barclays Women's Super League.

2023-05-21T07:39:50.664Z

by Matthew Temple

Published

21 May, 2023

Kirk: We Have A Points Target To Hit

Willie Kirk is hoping to end the 2022/23 home campaign on a high as LCFC Women take on West Ham United on Sunday afternoon in the Barclays Women's Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-05-21T07:39:50.664Z

Kirk: We Have A Points Target To Hit

Willie Kirk is hoping to end the 2022/23 home campaign on a high as LCFC Women take on West Ham United on Sunday afternoon in the Barclays Women's Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-05-21T07:39:50.664Z

Kirk: We Have A Points Target To Hit

Willie Kirk is hoping to end the 2022/23 home campaign on a high as LCFC Women take on West Ham United on Sunday afternoon in the Barclays Women's Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-05-21T07:39:50.664Z

Kirk: We Have A Points Target To Hit

Willie Kirk is hoping to end the 2022/23 home campaign on a high as LCFC Women take on West Ham United on Sunday afternoon in the Barclays Women's Super League.

Matthew Temple

2023-05-21T07:39:50.664Z

After two defeats on the road to Arsenal and Chelsea, the Foxes feature in their final WSL home game of the season when they welcome West Ham to King Power Stadium on Sunday afternoon (3pm BST kick-off).

Looking to make it three consecutive wins on home soil, here are the main talking points from the manager’s press conference at Belvoir Drive ahead of this weekend’s clash...

Destiny in our own hands

Since Kirk's appointment at the helm, confidence has been flooding throughout the squad and the performances they have put on display, allowing them within touching distance of securing WSL football for another season.

Catching up to the rest of the pack since a remarkable turnaround in January, the former Everton manager was keen to commend the efforts of the players and the Club.

“I think it's quite exciting because we've worked so hard to make sure it's in our hands with two games to go,” Kirk explained to the media. “If you'd have offered us that on 1 January, we would have bit your hand off. To know that with two games to go, it's firmly in our hands and we expect to get over the line, that's what the focus is to do now.

“I’m really proud in terms of just the work that the whole Club has done. The backing I got in January to make the moves that I made and the staff and the players for believing in the direction we wanted to take them in, everybody's been on board.

“As I said, if you would've offered us this on 1 January, that we know that two wins guarantees us safety, we'd have been delighted. I think the players, the amount of hard work they've put into it, they deserve to have destiny in their own hands.”

Sticking to the plan

Seven points adrift at Christmas, many were convinced that a relegation battle wasn’t something to happen this campaign, but Kirk’s side thought otherwise. Ignoring the talk from outside perspectives, Leicester have always been focused on improving their game, knowing that results would come.

The Scotsman added: “Each individual player has had their own motivations. Some love that underdog mentality and proving people wrong and some people are just motivated by different things. But the one thing that motivated us as a collective was to strive towards this points target that we set them.

“They've been relentless in terms of that, we brought in a lot of data driven analytics to look at our performance and we really focused on that rather than results. I'm so pleased that the players bought into that and, even with the first three games being defeats, they continued to focus on what we asked them to do, knowing that the results would come.

“We’ve had a little bit of fortune on the way, but that only offsets the misfortune the players felt they had in the first half of the season. Something we said to them over the course of the season is that you'll get what you deserve. We've had a couple of breaks, but that's because we deserve them.”

Looking at West Ham

Sunday’s opponents haven’t triumphed in the league since December, but a side who held off City’s advances to win 1-0 in the reverse fixture will be analysed critically by the manager.

“By their own admission, they've had a poor second half of the season,” the 44-year-old stated. "But certainly, when we've analysed them, we've recognised they've got four or five top players, that I personally think are top players, and I think are widely recognised across the league as top players.

“We need to make sure that we are on our game because it could be the first half of the season West Ham that turn up. It could be the second half of the season West Ham that turn up. We don't know. We can't control that.

“What we can control is the intensity that we play at, the decision making that we've got and emotional control that we've got, so we'll certainly be bringing those three things to the game.

“We're trying to get a mix of the Reading and the Liverpool performance, because I think we ticked every box across the two games. But in any individual game, we've been left a little bit frustrated with some parts of our game. I think between them we'll be close to the performance that we're looking for.”

Points target and safety

With four wins this season, most recently in the form of a convincing 4-0 victory over Liverpool, Kirk says that focus remains on themselves, their own internal points target, and the main aim of playing top-tier football again next season.

“After 22 games, if we're safe, that's all that matters to me,” the manager stated. “But it would be so nice to finish and confirm our WSL status in front of our fans. It'd be a really nice way of thanking them, and it would be great if we can take the three points and finish with three straight wins at King Power Stadium.

“The only thing we're planning for us is to hit our points target. We need to win on Sunday. I told the players, that if you hit that target, you'll be safe. Of course, mathematically, if we find out at the full-time whistle on Sunday that we've stayed up, it would be fantastic. But we'll still be short of that target, and we still want to hit that magic number.

“What I've found is, the more pressure we've put on the players, the better they've responded. I learned that a few weeks ago, and, going into the Liverpool game, we made them very aware that it was a must win game and everybody has seen how that went."

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