Presser Points | Spurs vs London City Lionesses, Women's Super League

Here’s what he had to say…

On whether this weekend will be the biggest test yet…

"It's a big test, don't get me wrong. But I think every game now is tough. I think we saw that midweek against Brighton, with a new manager, a new look and we've faced it against Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and so on. So, we've faced tough games. You know every game now, you're going to have to be at your best or you're going to come up short. We've seen that against West Ham in the cup. So, it's going to be a tough test, but one we're relishing."

On London City Lionesses…

"They've evolved, they've progressed. They're more dynamic in terms of their approach, how they play and they've invested in some real top-quality players and world-class players like that. So, we know it's going to be a totally different perspective from what they posed to us, compared to when we played them last season."

On what has changed from a defensive aspect in the early weeks of the season…

"We've made sure that we're a little bit more robust defensively. We are defending more effectively in our half. We've changed a little bit of organisation in their half to make sure that we can be more competitive and get closer in terms of duels. But not much else has changed, I think it's more a mentality of our willingness to defend and a commitment to defend as a collective, not in isolation. I think we're doing that more."

On the importance of a strong home form…

“Really important. The home record last year, we made sure at Brisbane Road, especially, the record there was top. We used the ground; the fans and the home advantage a lot. We made sure we were competitive in those games, used the pitch to our advantage because we know it well. We made it hostile when we played in games there for anyone. We didn't give them an opportunity to breathe. But, not just home form, I think consistency goes over the season. I think we've got a new club record in terms of being unbeaten in the last seven games in the WSL, so that's another one we can look at. So just trying to make sure we evolve every game, whether it's home or away.”

With London City Lionesses, Chelsea and Arsenal coming up in our next three WSL games, Martin was asked if his side can compete with anyone in this league…

“We can compete against anyone. I think we have this stigma in this league that the top three teams are the only ones that are unbeatable - and we create that as a society. It’s not what it is, and I think we need to look at it slightly differently. But there's a difference between ambition and expectation, our ambitions are always high and will be high to make sure we can achieve what we want to achieve and compete at the top of the table as everyone does. But the expectation has got to be clear, your success isn't linear all the time and sustained and long-term success isn't linear, so we have to make sure that we keep pushing in terms of what we're doing, we keep evolving as we are and I have no doubt, we'll achieve what we want to achieve.”

On what has been said at half-time after our last 11 goals have all come in the second half…

“There are literally no secrets, I promise you now. What I said after at [Crystal] Palace at half-time, the players will tell you, I said the exact same against Aston Villa, I thought we were creating chances, we were in the attacking third a lot, we were in the box a lot, but some of our decision-making, our willingness to complete in the last action with quality or with intent wasn't there, and I thought against Aston Villa it was better. We got into really dangerous positions and we just lacked the actual finishing quality in front of goal, and then you have a second half where there's more of, I think we had more edge, more momentum, a little bit of a bit between our teeth because the players knew that we'd underperformed with the lack of quality in the first half in front of goal. So, it was just more getting to the same areas, we changed structure slightly to try and enable us to sustain the attacks for longer, and then you just give the players the spaces. The ideas of where you want to get into and I think then once the first one went in, two, three and four come quickly followed.”

On the impact that four consecutive clean sheets has had on the defensive side…

“We speak about that a lot in terms of the defensive side, and I speak about that more than I do on the attacking side, because without good organisation around the ball, you can't sustain attacks, you can't create attacks and you definitely then can't stop the transitional attacks, so we speak a lot about how we defend, how we look, what it should be like to wear the shirts, how you should defend, what the fans expect, what I expect, what the Club expect, so we're making sure from a defensive perspective we're harder to beat. We have to be in front of the ball and we have to defend the box properly. Are we completely there? No, we've got a lot of work to do in terms of still defending better in certain moments that we're looking at and we're working on, but I think we're much better than we were previously.”

On whether a positive result this weekend can help the team build confidence moving forward…

“More for us as a team, it's important that we move forward. We make sure that we focus on what we can do, and I think any result you get within this league, you never take for granted and we don't as a group because results are really hard to combine, wins are definitely hard to combine in this league. So, when you get them, you want to enjoy them, that'll give the group confidence and belief, but it won’t dampen us if that's not a positive result against anyone. We have to look at the long-term of what we expect, where we want to go to and where we want to get to. So early in the season, you shouldn't look at things in a disheartened way, we just need to make sure that we focus on performance now against London City and not focus on anything else in the future. If we perform to a high level, I believe we can be competitive with anyone and hopefully we can do that come the weekend.”

Predict the score | Spurs vs London City Lionesses