Fresh from their impressive UEFA Women’s Champions League comeback at Bayern Munich on Tuesday, the Barclays Women’s Super League champions, Manchester City, travel to the capital to face Karen Hills’ Charlton Athletic.
Andrée Jeglertz’s side has a 100% record in the WSL this season after dispatching Liverpool 4-2 at The Joie Stadium last time out, and the City boss was keen to point out how the group are always looking at how they can become a bit better.
He said: “I think it changed the confidence, of course and that’s the most important thing. I think this group is always looking at how we can become a little bit better, what we can do to become a little bit better. There’s always things to improve and that’s what the group is about and that was giving us the results last year and it’s still the way we are working.”
“Even though we are pleased with a lot of things. We still want to be a little bit better every game and almost every training session and that mentality is going to keep us pushing forward and that does not change.”
Struggling Charlton
It has been a baptism of fire for Charlton since promotion was secured back to the WSL and are the only side yet to pick up a point from the opening three rounds of matches, but Jeglertz believes The Addicks will challenge a lot of teams this campaign.
He said: “I think that all teams that are struggling from the last games they also know that they’re coming into a new game that need to do things better, so the longer they’re struggling the more the next team will be challenged, so I have the highest respect for Charlton even though what they have done behind and the results, they are in this league because they deserve it. They worked very hard last year and did a great campaign to teach this year, so it’s a team that will definitely challenge a lot of teams.”
“We’ve only played three rounds of the league, so a lot of things will happen and for our point of view it’s doesn’t matter if we should play Charlton or whoever, we are in a phase now where we play a lot of games, where we need to utilise the whole squad and even if it’s Charlton or if it was Arsenal or whoever, we need to find a good glance of how we are loading our players and this game is the same.”
Patience in attack
He added: “When you play a team like Charlton who has been struggling, they will definitely not accept us just creating, scoring chances. They will probably be defending in their half, focusing on set plays, focusing on transition moments, all those small chances they’re getting, they are definitely going to do that.”
“For us to make sure that we’re not getting stressed no matter what, having patience in our attacks, good positioning from the defence if we lose the ball and making sure that we are there and playing that game not thinking about anything else. That game is the most important game that is ahead of us and being present in that game then I think we have great opportunities to get a good performance and result.”
