Morgan: Positivity Is High

- LCFC Women tackle Chelsea in the WSL at Kingsmeadow on Sunday (12:30pm kick-off)
- The Foxes meet the current league champions looking for their first points of the season
- Manager Jonathan Morgan spoke to the media via Zoom in Thursday’s pre-match presser
- He discussed the positive atmosphere within the camp and how it could help City push forward

Chelsea await at Kingsmeadow in Sunday afternoon’s 12:30pm kick-off and while the size of the task in hand is not lost on the Foxes manager, he feels confident that the players will take heart from an improved showing last time out.

The Foxes were defeated 2-0 by an in-form Tottenham Hotspur side at King Power Stadium, but have remained upbeat and in a good frame of mind, despite the disappointing nature of the result.

Speaking in Thursday afternoon’s virtual pre-match press conference at Belvoir Drive, he revealed how focus has shifted firmly onto concentrating on the upcoming clash with the WSL champions.

“We’ve worked hard this week in training to be ready for Chelsea,” he told the media. “This is obviously our transition year to consolidate. That [performance vs. Spurs] is a platform that we can build on now. It’s allowed the girls to come into this week very positively.

“It’s not going to be the same as last year where we win every week, and we have to think outside the box to keep the morale high and the motivation high. If you have a happy set-up and a happy squad, it means results will start to come and the performances will start to come.

“We pride ourselves on creating such a good environment for the girls to be themselves and enjoy themselves. This is the start of our second year as a professional outfit and we’re only four games in.

“We just keep looking forward and to the future. We’ve kept a high level of positivity within the camp and that’s what we’re looking to utilise. We feel this togetherness is starting to come through now and we just want that to turn into a few points to get us going.

“What we need to do now is convert that positive environment onto the pitch from Sunday and pick up victories. Once that happens, I think they will start to come thick and fast.

“Because if they can stay this positive now in a tough time, imagine what it’s going to be like when we’re finding our feet at this level.”

Emma Hayes’ Chelsea side are unbeaten across all competitions since the opening day of the campaign and are the most successful domestic women’s side in the WSL era, winning the title five times, including in 2020 and 2021. Morgan hopes to utilise the underdogs tag to help bring out the best in the squad.

The manager continued: “They are a set-up that has been professional for a number of years. I see quality with the squad and the staff and an all-round fantastic set-up.

“Emma [Hayes] and her colleagues have done a fantastic job to get Chelsea as competitive as they have, not just in England, but in Europe as well. I’m sure they have different pressures on them that they are navigating through, just like ourselves.

“We know we are the underdogs on Sunday. We feel that it’s a game where there’s no pressure on us. We hope we can then show our quality in spells in that game to give us the platform to go forward.

“We are going to go in to compete and cause Chelsea problems. For us, it’s just whether we can execute our game plan consistently and not just in short periods of time. That’s what we’re working on at this moment.”

Off the pitch, former Leicester City striker Emile Heskey, who previously worked with LCFC Women as an ambassador, was announced as the Club’s new Head of Women’s Football Development last week.

Morgan is delighted to be able to continue working alongside Heskey in his new role, in order to further improve the team’s operations moving forward.

“We had to bring someone in that could move the Club past what we have got to in the last 18 months and previously,” he explained. “We’ve worked tremendously hard to get where we are.

“To bring in Emile [Heskey], he is a Club legend, he’s got a wealth of knowledge about the game, not just on the footballing side, but also from behind the scenes as well.

“It’s been great to work with him already, but it’s fantastic to be able to pick at him a little bit more and go a little deeper into his knowledge. He’s going to help push us to the next level as well.”

All times BST.