As Aston Villa hosts Manchester City this weekend, both teams edge closer to booking their tickets for Wembley this season. Gareth Taylor is excited about the match and praised how levels have improved in Women’s Football this season.
Other FA Cup ties this weekend consist of Lewes hosting Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion visiting St Andrews to play Birmingham City and Reading facing the current cup holders Chelsea.
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On the Aston Villa test
Villa has caused City a few challenges this season after they won at Villa Park on the first day of the season and both teams drew at the Academy Stadium in January.
Gareth Taylor believes it demonstrates the quality of the Women's Super League and expects another tough test with a place in the semi-finals on the line.
“When you say teams have taken points off you, they’re not our points, the points are available for everyone in the game. People look it and assume that City away at Villa Park that’s three points for City and that’s not the case.”
“We all agree the levels have really improved in the WSL this season and an hour before kick-off I was looking at that Villa team and thinking they’re a different proposition with the players that they signed in the summer.
“In terms of learnings for us, we’ve delved into what they do and how we can impose ourselves on them. I don’t want to go into those ideas and those concepts are because they are for us but regardless there is going to have to be an element of doing the basics really well.”
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“Bunny” Shaw or Erling Haaland?
The manager also compared Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw's goal-scoring attitude to that of fellow City striker Erling Haaland.
When she scored her 25th and 26th goals of the season last weekend against Brighton, the Jamaican became City's top-scoring women's player in a single season.
The Norweigan superstar had also broken the same record for the men's team, after their 7-0 win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League. He has scored 28 Premier League goals in 26 games since arriving at Manchester City in the summer of 2022.
While both strikers' exploits have earned them well-deserved recognition, Taylor praised both strikers on their ability to look past the mental challenges which surround the position.
"These players are just so supremely, mentally strong, that they’re able to just go again and know that they’re going to get opportunities. That’s a good sign of intelligence, to know if you keep getting in those areas, you'll get another chance.”
"The best players are able to brush off disappointments quickly; it’s one of the signs of a top player which I think is overlooked a little bit. It’s a real bravery to receive the ball when things aren’t going so well.”
"To put yourself in a position to score when you’ve just missed a couple, I think that’s what separates the very best from the rest."
