‘The whole squad is what makes a great team'

Joe Montemurro was delighted to see four different names on the scoresheet in our 4-0 win over Brighton on Sunday.

Vivianne Miedema has received most of the plaudits for our exceptional goalscoring form this season, but this time it was Danielle van de Donk, Jill Roord, Kim Little and Beth Mead who came up with the goods to maintain our place at the top of the Women’s Super League table. 

We spoke to our head coach after the final whistle - and this is what he said:



on four goals from four different players…

The importance of the whole squad is what makes you a great team and the fact that that’s commonplace now is brilliant. The most important thing at the moment is that different people are getting into goalscoring areas. If we don’t have to rely on Viv to finish her chances and others can chip in, then that’s always going to be to our advantage.

on whether he’s thinking about the title…

We’re only halfway through and there’s still a long way to go. We just need to keep building, growing and getting better and better. Today I was really pleased with the maturity of the team. They’ve come a long way and they knew that they had to manage the game today because they’ve got three games in a week. The best way to manage games is by having the ball, and they had the ball. They managed it very, very well.

on the upcoming week…

We have a very tricky game in midweek against Reading in the Conti Cup quarter final, and they’re a very tough team. The main thing about today was us getting the goals we needed, then controlling the game and that allows us to rest and be ready for both Reading and Chelsea. 

on the switch of play for Van de Donk’s opener…

You liked that, eh? We are a team that likes to invite pressure because we know that there’s spaces and movements up top that will allow us to find space and go forward. It happened two or three times and we really should have scored another from it. If we can’t find space on the ball’s side, then we need to invite pressure to create space on the opposite side. We’re comfortable in doing it. It’s part of our style.

on our formation change…

We’ve done it before and we’ve done it in various ways. It basically allows us to play a lot higher and in some more advanced positions, especially with Lia Walti being the pivot in front of the three and dropping in as the four. It gives us the ability to stay a little bit higher because consciously the back three want to push up a little, and because Walti is also higher it sends them back further and they need to defend deeper.