Tottenham Hotspur head coach Rehanne Skinner says that the club’s summer additions have helped the the team move on from some difficult moments in previous seasons.
Skinner recruited players with significant experience last summer and the results have been impressive with Spurs becoming a well-respected top half side in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
This weekend sees Spurs face Chelsea at The Hive in the first of two matches against The Blues in quick succession. The Lilywhites have drawn with Arsenal and Manchester United at home this season while they were narrowly defeated 1-0 by Manchester City. When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time, Skinner said that the much-improved results against the top teams have been driven by recruiting experienced players.
“If you look at some of the top teams who have won gold medals and things like that, it is no surprise that some of those teams have done that off the back of losing a major tournament,” Skinner said. “When the USA got dumped out of the Olympics by Sweden, they went and won the next World Cup.
“It’s character building, you have to figure out ways to win and you have to go through some difficult times to problem solve with that. Also, I think it creates a massive ‘in transit’ desire in individuals to try and rectify things. It is a common trait in elite professionals, they want to be better and want to win. When you haven’t won and it has been really difficult to take, it drives a desire and focus to get to the next point.
“Our team have definitely had those moments (heavy defeats) in the past and obviously, that’s not a place that we want to go back to so that has driven a desire and an intent within the club. The individuals that were brought in last summer were all brought in because they have dealt with some kind of resilience. The character from that side of it makes a massive difference in the structure of the team and the ability to acknowledge that in a moment in a game or reflect on a game and identify where we need to be better, take it on the chin and move forward. That’s something that we have done this year, good, bad, ugly, regardless of the result, we have got people who are mature enough to hold their hands up and be accountable.
“The more that you progress forward, the more you want to win things, the more you have got to have those people in the room because those are the ones that know what it is going to take to get to the next level.”
Skinner has the challenge of preparing her side for back-to-back games against Chelsea and she went on to say that there are positives and negatives to that.
She said “There are pros and cons. From an international perspective, I’ve done this quite a lot with double headers. You prepare for the game in-front of you which is at home first. We want to make sure we go into it in the best possible position we can and give it our all on our home ground.
“Ultimately, when you play a double header, because it’s so close together and not focusing on another team in the meantime, you have a clear opportunity to fix it if you don’t get it right. That was something we worked on a lot when I was in the international set-up. It’s got its benefits in that sense. We’ve been trying to get this game on for a while so we’re looking forward to playing them. They’re the only team we haven’t played all season yet.”
Tottenham Hotspur’s first Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea takes place at The Hive and kicks-off at 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon.
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