Reading manager Kelly Chambers discussed with the media this afternoon about their upcoming FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea, looking for a reaction from the players after their 4-0 defeat to Arsenal last weekend, and the positive rehabilitation of Deanne Rose.
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Reflecting on Arsenal
After last weekend, the manager is looking for a response from her side and sees the FA Cup game as an important match to restore the teams’ league form, looking ahead to their WSL games against Brighton and Leicester City.
“It’s nice to have a game this weekend, especially after our performance against Arsenal. We will make sure we put things right for us to step back into the league.”
“For us, it’s about taking every game as it comes, one by one. Its full focus on the Chelsea game and then well spin back into league action after this weekend.”
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On hosting Chelsea
“We hope to raise our game against them [Chelsea], we’ve had a strong analysis of the Arsenal game and we were very disappointed in terms of our performance. That is something we want to put right this weekend, definitely.”
“We want to show a bit more aggression and show a bit more of us, I felt that against Arsenal we went into a bit of a shell, which is not normally us.”
“It’s what the FA Cup is about, playing against and drawing big teams – we hope to raise our game this weekend, everyone knows what it’s about.”
Chambers acknowledges the attacking threat The Blues possess but feels assured that her side will react and hope to cause an upset.
“One thing we weren’t happy with at the weekend was our identity. We are usually quite aggressive defensively, we like to be front-footed, and we didn’t show any of that last weekend.”
“Chelsea does have a lot of threat and quality, but I feel like we’ve always had a good game against them and for us, it's moving on from last weekend and how can we improve moving on.”
“It's football, anything is possible, we know we have to be at our best. Last weekend showed what can happen what happens when we’re not, but they have trained really hard and really intense this week, which is everything we lacked at the weekend.”
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On Deanne Cooper
Chambers also provided a massive boost with an update on Deanne Rose - The Canadian international had ruptured her Achilles in Reading’s opening game against Manchester United at the start of the season.
“Everyone that was available for Arsenal is available. Hopefully, we should have Deanne Cooper back in the next week or two which will be nice.”
“She’s [Deanne Rose] doing really well. We’re hoping for her to be fit for the end of the season, which is a lot earlier than we thought.”
“Her progress is going really well so if everything is maintained, she could be fit for then [end of the season] and fit for Canada for the World Cup. As you’ve seen from the pictures she has returned to the grass - It’s been nice to see her out there.”
Any long-term injury can present mental challenges and potential knocks could make it worse – Chambers explained that they have done everything they can to help the forward return to the pitch.
“It’s been tough for her, it mentally challenges you and a lot of it has been tedious because we’ve had to take time with it. We’ve had good input from different physios by sticking to tight regimes in her rehab to make sure her priority to make the World Cup is met.”
“She’s been in good spirits, trying to change up the environment for her to keep it fresh. She got to go home for Christmas which was massive for her and fit really well with her schedule.
“Getting her out on the grass has been a huge boost.”
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Evans and Bryson's View
Chambers’ mentality also had a clear effect on the players – Faye Bryson and Gemma Evans also commented about how they want to keep going with what they had been building on in training and use the home tie to their advantage.
Gemma Evans:
“Chelsea will be a good place to test ourselves to see where we are at as a squad and where we are at individually, it’s a massive challenge but we know what we have to do”.
“We enjoy being in front of our own fans, when they are out there cheering and singing songs it gives us a massive boost.”
“It’s not the draw you’d particularly want, but at home, we’d back ourselves against anyone.”
Faye Bryson:
“The love for the FA Cup is amazing – you see underdog teams doing better against the top teams, but for us, it’s about going out there on Sunday trying to keep building on what we’ve been working on and hopefully get a result – we’ve done it before against Chelsea at home, and this weekend is about us trying to replicate that”.
