Every word from Rehanne’s pre-Reading press conference
Thu 01 December 2022, 15:00|Tottenham Hotspur
Ahead of this weekend’s game against Reading at Select Car Leasing Stadium in the Women’s Super League on Sunday (12.30pm KO), Head Coach Rehanne Skinner sat down at Hotspur Way for her pre-match press conference.
Here’s what she had to say on the following subjects…
Confidence from last weekend’s win
“It’s a great win for us and I was really pleased with the squad that we managed to get out on the pitch that day to build everybody’s minutes and move things forward to the last few games of this half of the season. We’re in a good place and everybody was really positive after the game, especially after some of the goals we scored, which we were pleased with as well.
“It builds confidence and you get a bit of momentum. Winning breeds winning, so if you can get into a fluid state with that, that definitely helps. Every game we’re trying to do the same thing really so that’s the intent for this weekend.”
Playing Reading away for the second time this season
“Reading have changed their shape since that point and so there’s a slightly different structure in play, but I think in the early part of the season it’s always a little bit different when you play people early on until people find a bit of a rhythm. Hopefully we’re in a position where we’re finding a bit of ours and we can do enough to get a result out of the game.
“Reading are always resilient. They always want to get something out of the game and they don’t stop working until the end of games, so that’s something that everybody’s got to be mindful of when they play them. The biggest thing for us is to focus on what we want to get out of the game and the way that we want to go about it. The aim is to minimise their opportunities and play to our strengths and minimise theirs. Ultimately, on the day, we’ve got to make sure we’re at it for 90 minutes and it’s going to be a tough test. It’s something that we’re looking forward to, we want to get back on track in league games and that’s something that’s key to us leading up to the Christmas break. We’re going to be looking forward to the game.
“In terms of our mindset and approach to the games, that doesn’t change. As I mentioned, Reading have played a little bit differently of late, so naturally that changes some of the areas that we want to try to exploit and the things that we need to be mindful of, so tactically we’re approaching that slightly differently. Other than that, the mindset and desire to win the game is exactly the same.”
Reading’s 3-3 draw with Liverpool
“I was at the game and, to be honest, if it had carried on going for another 20 minutes, I think it would’ve carried on going from end-to-end and goals going in. It was about who was going to be in front by the time the final whistle comes basically. The game was very transitional at the end for both teams and it was very direct so there were opportunities for both, so I think it was an interesting game for a neutral. It’s exciting for the fans to see that many goals.”
If heavy defeats impacted confidence this season
“I think you’ve got to take every game in terms of management of the things that we need to do better and the things that we did well in those games, and in all three of those games there were parts of them that we were pleased with. Obviously we don’t want to be conceding goals and that’s something that we take pride in not doing, so that’s difficult when that happens. Ultimately, in terms of performance, there’s been some real positives, in particular the volume of possession that we had against Chelsea is the most we’ve had against them at any point that we’ve played them and I just think we lacked a little bit in the final third in that game in particular but it’s part of the game. You don’t necessarily win every single game and that’s the journey that we’re on at the moment, trying to build up the opportunity to limit the losses, so obviously we want to try to get back on track with league games this weekend.”
If the gap to Chelsea and Arsenal is closable
“Yeah I think it is. Obviously it’s going to take time and that’s something for everybody, to get the experience behind the squad and the playing squad depth that you need. Everybody’s had injuries this year and it happens at different times for different clubs, but the depth is important to be able to sustain performances and replace like for like when those things crop up. They’ve had the ability to build a squad since 2011, when they first started in the Super League, that a lot of us are playing catch up with, but we’ve made some positive strides forward and we’re happy with the direction that we’re going in and we’ve just got to keep building on that really.”
If she’s been able to watch the World Cup
“I haven’t if I’m honest. In terms of the world that we live in, it’s always pretty busy and there are a lot of games to prep for and things like that. There are Women’s Champions League games going on and those sorts of things so that’s been my biggest focus.”
Team news
“We’ve got a couple of sessions left, so as it stands today we’re looking pretty good, but we’re on the grass again today so we’ll see what evolves as the week goes on and hopefully we’ll be in a good place.”
Segmenting the season into small periods
“We take each game as it comes because every game is important. You can only deal with the one that’s in front of you, so we have to focus on getting three points at the weekend. If we do that successfully, great, we’ll focus on getting three points the week after. You have to be very careful that you don’t get too far ahead and think too far about what may or may not happen. You just need to control what you can control, which is essentially our preparation for Reading and being at our best on the day.”
Having different goalscorers
“Everybody’s been really proactive in front of goal and assists have been very similar with lots of different people providing opportunities. With all of that, in and around the goal, it’s always a work in progress to try to get the collective working on the same page. At certain times we’ve done that very well like last weekend and against Brighton. For us, it’s just making sure we’re able to do that on a more consistent basis and keep getting those goalscorers, whoever that may be, popping up at the right times. The big focus going into this weekend is to try to carry that through from what we did against Brighton, and didn’t manage to do against Chelsea, which we were disappointed with. We’ve got some more goals at the weekend and ultimately we’re trying to get the squad in the best possible way to contribute to the highest level that they can every week, so we’re aiming to do that on the weekend.”
January recruitment
“We had a bit of a similar situation in the summer, knowing that Kit [Graham] would be coming back at some point this season. Ria [Percival] might be a little bit difficult because it was quite late on last season when she had her injury. We were having players coming back at different times. Kerys Harrop’s come back later, Chi [Ubogagu] has come back later, but ultimately we still did recruit a slightly bigger squad, although they’re not all available to us, in order to try to manage the issues that we were potentially going to have at the first part of the season. I think it’s a re-assessment as to where we are and the players we have available right here, right now. Anything can change but we have to make sure that we’ve got the depth in the squad to keep performing at the highest possible level. We had a dip in that last year which cost us in January and February to be honest, so we’re trying to avoid that as best we can this year.”
Broxbourne and Beyond documentary
“The documentary was a fantastic way of celebrating all of the people that have been involved in building the Club to the point that it’s at now. I’m delighted and proud to have been a part of that and still a part of that moving forward. Ultimately, what we want to try to do is keep moving that positive approach and the way the Club’s evolved forward. That’s what we’re about, whether it be this year or next year. Ultimately, everything that we’re trying to do is to make sure that we elevate the Club, the players within it, the staff within it and whenever anybody leaves here we want them to go on and do things better and bigger from a collective perspective and the Club’s in a better place than we all found it in. That’s what we’re trying to do, so I’m really pleased with the documentary. I thought the guys did a fantastic job on it as well and how it came together, so just glad to be a part of it really.”
Progress behind the scenes to address injuries
“I think when you look at the data that’s coming out of major tournaments, that’s the best place to start with it. The numbers are going up and up and up. In every major tournament the numbers have jumped and the UEFA Technical Report highlights how significant the changes are within the women’s game. Being professional and training every day obviously has put a load through players that some have had experience of more than others, so naturally within everybody’s squad you’ve got a training age at one end that’s very high and someone within the same squad who’s not been professional for very long. It’s something you always have where young players are concerned, but we’ve still got it across the women’s game with 25-30 year old women who are at completely different stages. That part of it is something that we look at on an individual case by case basis to try to develop a program around the players to improve robustness, injury prevention elements, and to try to prevent these things from happening.
“The game’s going so fast that we’re trying to up skill the players from a load perspective as fast as we possibly can, but it’s actually going faster than that. It’s only so quick that their bodies can adapt to these things, so that’s part of what the challenge is at this moment in time. We’ve got a program in and around the players that is on specific areas around recovery and injury prevention to try to help to identify other ways that we can add value to the group. For example, we’ve put some different things around the players and the most recent one was that we had a specialist come to identify or talk to the players about footwear and do foot scanning to check and assess if they’re actually wearing the right footwear, which helps to manage the way that they move and the loading impact, just as one example, but it’s something that we’re all conscious of and trying to keep improving behind the scenes.”