Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor says that his side need to step up in next weekend’s Manchester derby as his side look to bounce back from three straight defeats in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
A 2-0 loss at the hands of West Ham United this afternoon was a third league defeat on the spin for Taylor’s side, who have now also lost back-to-back home games for the first time since October 2014.
Speaking in the post-match press conference in which FAWSL Full-Time were present, Taylor said that his side need to take responsibility for their performances and finish off chances in front of goal.
“I don’t feel great following today’s performance,” he said. “I felt we completely dominated possession for the whole of the first half, having numerous chances to hit the back of the net.
“It will get better though, we have to take responsibility and finish our chances off.
“We need to score goals and not concede, we went in at half-time having not hit the back of the net despite having had numerous chances to get on the scoreboard.”
Having finished second in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League last season, Taylor said he isn’t feeling the pressure despite having only witnessed his side record one victory in four league outings so far this term.
He added “I don’t feel the pressure, I think I have brought a brand of football that is attractive and exciting to watch, but also one which gets results.
“At the moment it doesn’t look like that but I still believe massively in that. We are up against it, we need to step up and do it ourselves.
“Regardless of our injuries and the unavailability of some players, I still thought we had enough out there to win the game today and we didn’t. It was one of those matches where everything goes against us.
“It was against West Ham, one of the teams who are improving and they made it very difficult for us out there.”
Ahead of next weekend’s derby away at Manchester United, Taylor went on to say that the key message to his players ahead of that game will be to make sure that they stay calm and follow the processes of play which will get them into the final third.
He said “We’ll reflect and we will review this weekend’s performance, we know that we need to be more potent in the final third.
“We scored six in midweek against Leicester so we know we are capable, it’s about making sure that we stick to our way of playing and our processes of how we play.
“I thought we were off the cuff in our forward play in the second half, we didn’t create as much as we wanted to compared to the first half.
“I think we just need to stay calm and make sure we follow the processes of play to get us into the final third and make sure people step up to take those chances in front of goal.”
The first Manchester derby of the season kicks-off at 1.30pm on Saturday afternoon.