Manchester City boss Taylor pleased to see Women’s FA Cup run continue

Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor says that he is pleased that his side continue to defend their trophy after they defeated West Ham United 5-1 in a Vitality Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie at The Academy Stadium this afternoon.

The Cityzens extended their unbeaten run in the competition into a 12th game with victory over a West Ham United side who proved to be difficult opponents for well over an hour.

Speaking in the post-match press conference in which FAWSL Full-Time were present, Taylor said that he was simply pleased to see his side extend their trophy defence into next season.

“It took us a while to pull away from West Ham,” Taylor said. “I think we had a similar game last week which could have had a similar scoreline in all honesty.

“I’m pleased overall, I’m pleased to stay in the competition and defend our title for next season.”

French goalkeeper Karima Benameur Taieb continued to deputise for the injured Ellie Roebuck and Taylor said that he was pleased with her performance over the course of the 90 minutes.

“Kari did great, she obviously came in last weekend against West Ham,” said the City boss. “Today, she made two unbelievable saves in the first half when we had one or two sloppy moments. Fortunately, we have Kari back there who was making those big saves.

“I think it’s a good game when you look at that for the way we play in terms of our build-up for a goalkeeper to have so many scenarios like she did today and experience high pressure and us trying to build.

“We got some things right but we got a few wrong but Kari is great in that respect, she takes ownership and potentially, we could be better.

“Losing Ellie was a blow as she is a top keeper but to a degree, it is nice for Kari to get her reward because she has really supported Ellie this season. It is a little bit like the Scott Carson one where he got a couple of games at the end of the season but it was nice for her.”

Taylor has now completed his first full season as Manchester City head coach and while he is pleased with the progress made this year, he admits that there is lots of work to be done.

He added “There have been some real positives but there is lots of work to be done.

“If we had have added another trophy to the trophy that we won this season, I think we would still always be looking for areas to improve.

“We’ve come close in a lot of the competitions and I look at the small details, we were never really that far away but also, it feels sometimes like we have a lot of work to do, that’s where we are at.

“The players will have really benefitted from this season having worked with myself and I hope to continue with that with as many players as we possibly can. There will always be players coming and going, I think that’s natural.

“Happy to get that first season out of the way and looking forward to the new one and we really want to build on what we have done so far. There are a lot of real positives but of course, it’s all about trophies and we want to be successful, we want to win things, we want to go further in the Champions League, I think that’s clear.

“It’s not easy but that’s the challenge and that’s what we want to achieve.”

Manchester City end the 2020/2021 season with Vitality Women’s FA Cup in their grasp. The Cityzens ended the league campaign as runners-up while they were quarter-finalists in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and in the FA Women’s Continental League Cup.