Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor says that he knows the importance of this weekend’s derby against Manchester United and says that the game offers the opportunity for his team to close the gap on the sides above them in the league table.
The Cityzens go into the weekend five points adrift of Manchester United, a side who currently occupy the final European qualification place.
When speaking in his pre-match press conference, Manchester City boss Taylor identified the huge importance of his side recording a positive result against the club’s neighbours from across the city.
“Everybody recognises the importance of the game for us, it is a real opportunity to claw back ground and stay in the hunt,” Taylor said. “If we don’t, that distance becomes a little bit bigger.
“I still think that we are capable of going on a run between now and the end of the season and remaining unbeaten. If we do that from this game onwards, we will be okay.
“We don’t want the gap to get bigger, especially when it is just a 22-game season with potentially only seven or eight games left in the WSL. We recognise the importance of the game this weekend.”
During Manchester City’s unbeaten run last season, it was at this point that many were beginning to predict where The Cityzens would win and lose key points in the title race. The Barclays FA Women’s Super League is much more unpredictable this season and Taylor agreed that it is virtually impossible to try and map out where the remaining matches might take his side.
He said “Pretty much (impossible to predict), you just have to aim for maximum points between now and the end of the season.
“I’ve always said that we never go into a game looking to draw and nobody ever goes to lose and we are all aware of that. We’ve never been a team which goes out to draw games, we always go for the win, we always work out how we are going to be able to get that win.
“For us, we know that even if we are successful in this game, we know that we have a lot of work to do to push and be there. We know with what we did last season, albeit with some players having come and gone, that we are more than capable of doing that. We went on a hell of a run last season, we’ve been on a decent run up until Sunday and we need that again. It’s about stripping it back, controlling the controllables, following the way that we work and give ourselves that opportunity to do it. We know it’s tough because the levels are improving a lot but that’s where we have to improve ours and make sure that we are there.”
The Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture between Manchester City and Manchester United kicks-off at 12.30pm on Sunday.
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