Eidevall on lessons learned from Liverpool

Jonas Eidevall has explained why he feels we were unable to take any points from last weekend’s Barclays Women’s Super League opener.

Interestingly, he pointed out that it can sometimes be detrimental to start a game on the front foot and be drawn into a false sense of security.

“I think we were standing still too much on the ball,” he said. “We were better with movement in the first 20 minutes. There are some runs that are really important for us to do off the ball that we didn’t do, which I think didn’t disorganise Liverpool enough. 

“And then I think when we conceded the goal, I think we forced quite a lot of things forward. Instead of playing away their first pressure, we got sucked into that pressure and we took decisions under pressure instead. It's really subtle things and it's not things that are completely bad in the game. But it's not the best version of us and we didn’t create the needed energy or the quality that is needed for us to be happy with our performance for it. 

“Sometimes, I do think that it is difficult in football when you start a game in a good way and we did that in a lot of ways against Liverpool, and you’re sort of going into this kind of false sense of security where we'll be like 'Oh, sure, this might be taking care of itself,' and once it doesn't do that, then it's so hard to get that switch back on again. And you're almost getting a little bit paralysed in the team and I think that is what happened to us on Sunday. 

“That I think we need to learn from because I think we're all really gutted about that and we are really disappointed with our performance. And I also think it was a really wasted opportunity with having 55,000 people in the stands to not put on a better display and a better performance and not being able to energise them better. 

“My hope and my wish is that each one of them will return for the Aston Villa game so we can show them something completely different because they deserve that.”

Despite the disappointing defeat, Jonas explained that the reaction to it in training has been very professional this week.

A very mature reaction,” he said. “I think a lot of accountability, a lot of ownership. A team that really wants to show another version of itself, that we are so aware of that we are something else than what we showed last Sunday, but we also know that words are cheap and action is what counts. That’s what training has been about and that's what Friday is about.

“You learn, all the time you learn in football. Of course, what I didn't like about last week was that I didn't think we played with the right energy to it. And that can never happen. And that hasn't happened to us in a long time. One thing this team has been excellent of is playing with the right amount of energy. Football is like that, sometimes you do forget the basics or you don't get them right on the day for it. But now, life is about how you respond in those moments, and if you are defined by how you react to those situations, and that's what this week has been about and this is what Friday is about as well.”