Presser Points | Aston Villa vs Spurs (WSL) | Martin Ho

Martin Ho spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Friday morning, ahead of our Barclays Women’s Super League trip to Aston Villa on Sunday (12noon UK).

Here are some key points on what he had to say…

On his message to players this week...

"I spoke to a lot of the staff around me, people away from here, and they've said about the performance in the first half and when I’ve looked back at it two or three times, in the first half I thought we created a lot of chances and they need to go in. So, we're proud of that part of the performance but the ruthless edge needs to be there. But then, second half, we had moments again, we had Cathinka's [Tandberg] chance, Olivia's [Holdt] chance and they had a few moments themselves when we opened up and tried to go and push the game. But, overall, I thought there were positives to take from it. Do we want to be better? Yes. Am I happy with losing the game? No. But I think we've definitely taken bigger steps and we've definitely performed well in that first half of the game, but we want to do that for 90 minutes."

On this weekend's opponents...

"We played them in the Subway Women's League Cup and we've played them in the league already - and they've been two really close encounters. We know it's going to be a difficult game when a team comes off the back of defeat, as we've seen with Chelsea, as there's going to be a response. They haven't performed badly in those games because they've been really tight. We know games in this league are tight now. They've just come up short against Everton, they were in a really tight game until right at the end with Liverpool and we know it's going to be a difficult game. They have really strong players, they've got really good goalscoring threats in that attacking third and they’re very good on the break, plus they're very resilient when they defend. We're going to have to be diligent enough to break them down, but we're going to have to be even smarter to make sure that we stop them at the other end."

On trying to unpick Natalia Arroyo's side...

'Tactically, you always want to get one up on your opponents and you want to always try to be one step ahead, you want a solution for every problem they pose you. We know that tactically they can evolve within that structure, it goes in and out of two systems, and they're very versatile and fluid within that midfield to front line. We've got to be aware that we can adapt in the game and we can make good decisions in the moment. But they've also got to think about us at the same time. We need to give them problems in the way they think about us and our players. If we make them think about us more than they're thinking about themselves, then we give ourselves a really good foothold in the game."

On Eveliina Summanen signing a new deal...

"She's key in our build-up and how we play with the ball. She's very influential off the ball in terms of being combative when she's up close in those one-v-one duels. The beauty for Evelina is there's still a lot of work where we feel she can grow within, she can still be better as a player. That's probably the beauty of football. When you have such a player that can still be better, it's only going to benefit us for the success moving forward. To make 100 appearances is very, very impressive because it shows how important she's been to this team and to this club for a long period. She'll continue to play a huge part here now moving forward."

On Hanna Wijk first start last weekend...

"I was delighted with Hanna. I think she's had a bit of an unsettling time. Since she got here, she's had a bit of illness. When you get illness, it obviously sets you back, and then you're trying to build back up again, but she's got herself now in a place where she's training well. We're starting to really see her qualities within the training group. It can be a big game putting someone in for their debut, but I felt Hanna was ready for that. I think her performance in the game was good, she had some moments where she can be better tactically, but I thought for her first game, making her debut, big stadium, derby against Chelsea, against one of the big teams, I thought she performed exceptionally well. She's settling in really well with the group now."

On showing more composure in front of goal compared to our previous encounters against Villa...

"If you're not creating the chances, you're not in the right positions, then I'd be concerned. It's just a little bit of composure and a little bit of confidence in front of the goal, to be more patient and be calmer. Once one of them goes in, I think you have it in games. I think we'll get to a point where everything we hit on target will go in. It's more just the composure and the bravery in front of the goal to make sure that we can be ruthless. There are not big changes needed. It's more the players having that belief and confidence in front of the goal that they're good enough and we're capable of scoring."

On the positives from the first half against Chelsea...

"The braveness to play and the composure we had even when we were under high pressure. The variance in our game to play in front of them and play beyond them. I thought we were very good in terms of when we got between the lines and we broke past their midfield line. I think we got into some really dangerous situations. It's more the courage and bravery to play our way. Whether you win or you don't, you want to see a very clear identity that represents this club. We can look at that from a real positive impact of where we were maybe two or three months ago to where we are now, six months down the line. Also, if you're looking 12 months back from where we were, we took big steps.”

On Julie Blakstad and playing slightly higher against Chelsea…

“She's done that in the early parts of her career. She was a winger, she's played as a number 10, so she actually can play in those advanced positions. It was more to see what we would get  out of having a bit more balance down that left side. It was two left-footers on the same side of the pitch, which we've not always had, and Julie being more direct and definitely a threat in terms of what we want. It would also give us balance in terms of when we were defending, if they were going to play really advanced with Ellie Carpenter, it would enable us to nullify that threat maybe at times. I think Julie as an attacking threat gives us a lot. Her crossing ability is really good, her physical capability in the pressing phase is really good, so that gave us a different dimension. It's something we will look at, and there's other players that can do the same.”

On the threat Kirsty Hanson poses…

“She’s a really key player. She’s someone I've worked with before at Manchester United, so knowing her as an individual, am I surprised that she's scoring goals? No, because she's a good player. Am I surprised she's in good form? No, because she works extremely hard. We've seen that when we've played them in the game at home, when she gets behind us and she finishes. I know what Kirsty is as a player and what she can bring. If we allow her the time and space that she wants and she needs, then she'll cause a whole lot of problems.”