Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor is expecting another tough game when his side travel to Brisbane Road to face Tottenham Hotspur this afternoon.
The Cityzens are hot in pursuit of Barclays Women’s Super League leaders Chelsea and their next assignment is against a free-flowing Spurs side.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Taylor said that Spurs will be another tough opponent and that the North Londoners are continuously improving.
“They’re improving,” Taylor said. “They’ve done a lot of deals whether that be in the summer or more recently, so the team and the dynamic have changed. They’ve recruited players at the top end that are a threat.
“In the first 20 minutes when we played them earlier in the season, it was kind of tight. We were a little bit slow in our play but once we got a goal, it really opened up. We could do that to most teams.
“The performance levels so far have been really good. It’s a tough game for us, they’re improving under their new coach and you can see that they’re starting to become a bit more of a challenge to that group that are sitting up and around fourth place.”
Manchester City have enjoyed a five-match winning run in the Barclays Women’s Super League. Taylor went on to say that November’s derby win at Old Trafford helped his side to develop a lot of their confidence.
He said “The United game at Old Trafford was a catalyst for that, I think it brought a lot of confidence. To go there in their type of environment on their own patch, play the way we did and win the way that we did was impressive.
“We just want to keep the players challenged. I like a lot of what I have seen in terms of managing performances in the right way, we saw that in the second game against Chelsea; we had so much thrown against us in terms of decisions going against us. The way that the players stood up to that was a real big high for everyone.
“We can do something special this season but we are not always going to have a clear run. In general, I’ve been really impressed with the team and the cohesion between them. From front to back, without the ball, we have been really good. They’re in a really good place but we know that each game brings a different proposition.
“We need to constantly keep the focus on the next game which we have been pretty good at. We put the last game to bed, focus on the next one, be aware of the threats and try to be better ourselves.”
Manchester City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Tottenham Hotspur kicks-off at 2pm this afternoon.
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