Leicester City head coach Willie Kirk says that his side will look to nullify Aston Villa’s attacking strengths at Villa Park this afternoon.
The Foxes make the short trip across the Midlands looking to return to winning ways after falling to a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur last time out.
Leicester City come up against an Aston Villa side that have very much taken up a licence to thrill this season, but Kirk wants The Foxes to nullify their opponents’ attacking threats and use them to their own benefit.
“What a season they’re having,” Kirk said when discussing Aston Villa in the pre-match press conference. “For Manchester City to fail with three attempts to beat them shows you how well they’ve done.
“They’ve assembled a really exciting, strong group of players. I’m not sure about their depth, but I certainly know that they’ve got a strong XI. They’ve carried a few injuries this season which probably hasn’t helped them, but they’ve got fantastic strengths, especially going forward.
“We will do what we can to nullify their strengths. They’ve probably got six players from middle to front that like to attack, so we’ll try and turn that into an advantage and catch them the other way.”
With Leicester City sat on zero points at Christmas, many had already written off the club’s chances of Barclays Women’s Super League survival. Opinions have changed three months on and Kirk is happy to keep proving the doubters wrong.
He said “I enjoyed it when everyone had written us off, but the fact that everyone is now talking differently is a real credit to the players for the work that they have done.
“I did enjoy being the underdog. I certainly wouldn’t say that we have become favourites to avoid the drop, but we’ve got ourselves into a position where we have dragged a lot of other teams into it. That’s credit to the players and staff for the work that they’ve done and we will try and capitalise on that; prove the doubters wrong, but also try to justify the positivity of those who are now on-side with us.”
Leicester City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Aston Villa kicks-off at 2pm.
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