In his first column of the new season, Liverpool Women’s manager Matt Beard gave some insight into the squad’s preseason preparations. It is their first full preseason at their new training home of Melwood, and there are plenty of adjustments to be made, but that means the women are able to truly buckle down and get to work in their own home for the first time.
There is also the matter of welcoming in new signing Olivia Smith to the fold, and getting her up to speed, while the club plan to add a couple more faces to the squad. Thankfully almost everyone has come back fit and uninjured (the team is still waiting on f*cka Nagano to return from Olympics duty), and the new signings from last year are more acclimated now, so they can really get stuck into the preseason work.
“So far this summer we have brought Olivia Smith in and there are a couple more players we are looking at bringing in, so we are fully refreshed, fully recharged and looking forward to the new season,” Beard wrote for the club website.
“The first couple of weeks of pre-season have gone well since we returned and we have just been revisiting the tactical side of our game, getting Olivia up to speed with us as well. The players have all come back fit and well so I’m really excited to see the seven players that we brought in last year, all had a good last season on the pitch, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do this year.
“We wanted to build a squad that we could grow and I think we did that. It will be interesting to see what we can take from last season into the new one.”
Having Melwood as their dedicated home, solely for women’s team use, has been a huge advantage as they prepare to move home stadiums as well to the St. Helen’s Totally Wicked Stadium. As Beard mentions, the women shared space with the Academy last summer before they transitioned to Melwood and while the time made the squad closer, it is a good thing that it was not a prolonged situation.
“This is our first pre-season starting at the AXA Melwood Training Centre. Last pre-season we were at the Academy and we were so grateful to Alex [Inglethorpe] and his team, who were fantastic for the way they supported us. I guess with the way we were situated around the men’s team and the U21s it brought us all closer together and that was the icing on the cake for us,” the manager continued.
“We always said what Melwood means to this team in a sense of our preparation and we feel very fortunate and very lucky to be here.”
The women may not be traveling very far for their preseason fixtures either, with most of them being held at Melwood, but that will also hopefully be to their advantage. Compared to last summer, this summer’s preseason plan is definitely more subdued and focused on staying local.
“We have a good set of pre-season fixtures lined up which will test the players. With the Olympics being so late, it was difficult for us to try to get away somewhere this year and I just felt it would have been tough to go away with reduced numbers as there’s a lot of tournaments going on at the moment,” Beard explained.
“We’ve got a good programme. We are playing against some tough WSL sides, which will be good learnings for us and put us in a good position. We want to win our pre-season games but for me it’s about making sure we get the tactical understanding right and things like that.
“If I go back to when we went away to France last year and we played Atletico Madrid, PSG, it really gave us a good platform, one to show that we can play at that level and it also gave us different lessons because when you play against European sides it’s different mentalities and different styles, so it really gave us a good lesson.
“We’ve got a tough pre-season, we are playing against some top sides and it will be good for us to take away positives, negatives and make sure it evolves us and gets us ready for Leicester City on day one.”
Summer also means new signings and returning players, as well as some heartbreaking departures. As mentioned, the club welcomed 19 year old Canadian international Olivia Smith as a new signing for a record breaking fee, in addition to welcoming back defender Hannah Silco*ck after her loan with Blackburn Rovers.
“On our incomings so far, I was delighted to get Olivia in because she is a very talented player and she is only young. What I love about her is her desire with and without the ball and technically she is very gifted, both feet, powerful,” Beard explained.
“She gave everything up to go to Portugal and further her career. She can also speak Spanish and Portuguese because of her mum and I think that shows a sign of maturity and [without that] you don’t achieve what she has achieved at such a young age already, obviously being Canada’s youngest player, the player of the tournament at the Gold Cup, so there’s lots of positives.
“If I look at us last season then scoring goals was the toughest thing to do and obviously Olivia can score and also assist, so I just think she will be a thorn in a lot of defenders’ sides this season.
“Another promising young player we have back is defender Hannah Silco*ck, who was on loan at Blackburn Rovers for experience last season.
“I think Hannah could have got into our team towards the second half of last season. If people knew Hannah’s journey, I mean growing up she had a lot of injuries when she was younger because she grew so quick and it led to muscle injuries and things like that.
“We also supported her through her A-levels. The education was a big piece for her and her family so we wanted to support her through that. What we wanted to do when we sent Hannah to Blackburn on loan last season was to see her play every week, get 90 minutes, and she pretty much did that, so from that side it has built that robustness, it has built that in her to know she can do it.
“Hannah is a very talented player. She had a bit of a niggle the back end of last season when she picked up a knee injury in her last game so she is a couple of weeks behind the others in pre-season, but she is a fantastic talent who has a great future ahead of her here that’s for sure.”
Of course, Hannah and Olivia aren’t the only returning players of note. Sofie Lundgaard has returned from injury, and academy graduates Lucy Parry (who also signed a new contract recently) and Zara Shaw are back in the fold. With summer also comes departures, and this time it is academy graduate Missy Bo Kearns saying goodbye. Kearns hardly started last season and had a serious talk with Beard about her role in the squad beyond a Scouser in our team, but ultimately decided to leave for a new challenge in Aston Villa.
“I’ve got to put the club and the team first when it comes down to the squad, so when we are looking at the squad depth, yes, it’s a blow to lose Bo because she is the Scouser in the team, but sometimes we have to respect the player’s wishes,” Beard explained.
“I had a really good close relationship with Bo. She has 100 per cent helped me and my family, she has helped my son and just listening to some of the players’ messages to her, like Leanne Kiernan, Sofie and f*cka Nagano, it just shows what a wonderful person she is.
“It was emotional for me as well being honest as I felt as though I was losing my daughter. We had a moment downstairs when I got a bit teary because that’s the way I feel about her because we’ve been through so much together and she is only still a baby really.
“Bo said she has already achieved her childhood dream, so I think this move will be great for her but 100 per cent we are going to miss her, the girls are going to miss her, but she has moved on, we have to move on and ultimately it happens in football.”
Departures are unfortunately a part of football, and it’s clear Kearns is doing what is likely best for her career. Passion and emotion come with the territory though, and feelings are understandable to have when a mainstay of the club decides to move on.
All the squad can do now is focus on gelling together and preparing for their first preseason match when they host Blackburn Rovers on Sunday August 11th at Melwood. The WSL season kicks off in September once the Olympics have wrapped up.
