The great thing about football is that it always gives you the opportunity to bounce back and that is what Manchester City will need to do this weekend following their disappointing defeat to Chelsea in the FA Women’s Continental League Cup in midweek.
Next up is a trip to the South Coast as City face a Brighton & Hove Albion side who shut out them out in the reverse fixture at The Academy Stadium back in September. They go into the match without veteran midfielder Jill Scott who was a surprise departure this week as she made a shock return to her old club Everton on loan until the end of the season.
When speaking in City’s pre-match press conference in which FA Women’s Super League Full-Time were present, head coach Gareth Taylor expanded on the reasoning behind that move.
“This was an opportunity for her to go to Everton and get some game time” the City head coach stated ahead of the weekend’s fixture. “We are obviously governed a little bit by the window.
“Jill had a desire to make the Olympic team and we want to help our players as much as possible.
“You need to be playing regularly and obviously we couldn’t guarantee that with Jill and I wouldn’t guarantee that with any player because we want there to be competition within our team.”
Following the arrival of United States international centre-back Abby Dahlkemper and with Alex Greenwood having been moved over to the centre of defence, many have speculated that players like Gemma Bonner may soon follow Scott out the door., however, Taylor was quick to squash any speculation.
“Gemma at the moment has got a grade-two ankle injury and she picked that up in training which was unfortunate” he said.
“We’re not bringing players in to release other players out. It’s as simple as that.”
Taylor also went on to briefly provide an update on Caroline Weir’s injury situation by saying “It’s just a bit of niggle with Caroline, a continuation of a hamstring issue she had pre-Christmas. Unfortunately, it’s flared up again.”
Weir’s absence adds to the already long list of absentees which has Taylor has to contend with but the City boss remains optimistic for the near future.
“We’ve been up against it in the first two games we’ve had on the return” Taylor said. “We’ve been patching people up and batting them out, we’ve struggled really for numbers.
“Hopefully that’ll change within the next week with players returning.”
With the depleted numbers amongst The Cityzens’ ranks, they have had to turn to the likes of Alicia Window and Millie Davies to fill in for the time being. So what has Taylor made of their displays since being promoted to the first team?
“We’ve always got our eyes on those players” Taylor confirmed. “The communication between us and the groups below is good.
“It’s been a great opportunity for them, they’ve really stepped up, helped us massively and supported the players and that’s not easy.
“A couple of them have made they debuts and that’s great and we’ve really needed that.
“For the time being they’ll stay with us because like I said, we need all the help we can get.”
Three points at the weekend against Brighton & Hove Albion would be a big help for City’s title and UEFA Women’s Champions League qualification hopes as it could see them overtake Arsenal into third place depending on The Gunners’ result against West Ham United. Despite the limited squad numbers, Taylor remains optimistic ahead of the match.
He added “We are light in numbers but we’re strong in spirit and it’s a game we’re looking forward to.”
The academy players might prove invaluable to Taylor achieving his goals for the remainder of the campaign if he is unable to reintroduce some of his missing first team players anytime soon. Consequently, this could prove to be a very crucial period for the sky blue half of Manchester if they are to put themselves in a strong position for the end of the season.