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Amber Whiteley of Liverpool FC Women during a training session at Solar Campus on July 27, 2022 in Wallasey, England. | Photo by Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpool FC Women have looked strong — but the results don’t match the showings
Amber Whiteley spoke to Liverpoolfc.com ahead of the Reds’ meeting with Brighton on Sunday.
The squad as a whole looks in good shape, according to Whiteley, with players returning from injury and recent signings continuing with their own integration:
[We’re] looking good for this weekend. Ceri Holland has made good progress - it’s coming on nicely. Leanne Kiernan is making good progress but is obviously a way off. Rachael Laws picked up a slight knock in training earlier this week and will be about two weeks. So, apart from Rachael and Ceri, everyone else is looking great for the weekend.
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The squad depth is so important. We are so fortunate that we can call on hugely experienced players that can come into the starting XI or come into the game. It’s fantastic to be able to call on those types of players.
Liverpool FC Women were able to use the International break to get some valuable work in:
We can get some really good work into the players that don’t go away on international duty and actually it can be quite refreshing to spend more time and work closely with the ones that stayed back. [We’ve had] some really good training sessions over the last week or so and we’ve got some really good work into them, so a really good week or so of training.
The Reds face Brighton this weekend, who come into the match with an interim coach, and sit just above Liverpool in ninth on the table:
Obviously, we go into every game that we play wanting to take something from it. We know that it’s a difficult league and it would take time to adjust but now we’re really focused on turning those performances into results. [We’re] expecting a difficult one this weekend against Brighton but one that we hope to take something from.
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I think there’s an element of the unknown for this weekend. But Amy [Merricks] has worked with Hope [Powell] for quite a long time and we expect them to go back to basics. Amy is a well-experienced coach. We expect them to be well organised, well prepared for the game and it’s a difficult test for us.
Liverpool haven’t won since their upset win on opening day against Chelsea, but the results have belied the quality of the squad’s performances throughout this campaign. Whiteley spoke on the team’s desire to take these promising performances and convert them into points on the table:
...I think there’s so much you can take from the recent performances. You’ve got to take positives from every game and use that as fuel [and] motivation for the coming weeks. We’ve had lots of positives to take from recent games. Now it’s about trying to convert those performances into points
Whiteley says the fans are a massive boost to the team, and hope that Prenton Park continues to fill up across the next set of matches as the Reds hope to start climbing the table:
I think it makes a huge difference. We’ve played at Prenton [Park] with a packed crowd, it just gives everyone that push [and] that lift to try to get it over the line. Hopefully we can see that again in the coming games.
The Reds kick off at 2;00PM GMT/9:00AM EST on Sunday away at Brighton.
