Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward says that her side have prepared for this afternoon’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Leicester City in a similar way that they did in the lead up to the Manchester City game last weekend.
The Villans recorded a stunning 4-3 victory over Manchester City at Villa Park a week ago. The Midlands club will take on a very different opponent this afternoon in the form of a Leicester City side who have been tipped for relegation by many.
Despite a significant difference in the quality of Aston Villa’s first two opponents, head coach Ward says that the preparation doesn’t vary much with her side seeing every game as an opportunity to collect points.
“Preparations have been pretty similar if I’m being honest,” Ward said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “You have to take it one game at a time and every single game presents an opportunity to get three points.
“I think we have had to prepare the same way because our way is our identity in terms of what we want to do in and out of possession. We believe that if we can execute both of those elements, we can give anyone a game.
“Leicester are a good side, they’re a young side, they are energetic and they’ll pose us a very different problem to City. They might sit in a little bit more naturally and we might have a bit more of the ball than we had at the weekend.
“It is a different type of game but the preparation has got to be about us and what we do with the ball.”
Ward went on to say that Aston Villa will also face a different pressure at The King Power Stadium this afternoon with The Claret and Blues expected to take the three points.
She said “It’ll be tough and I’ve said that from the minute go on Tuesday morning. It is going to be a tougher game for me than City because it’s a completely different element, people will expect us to go there and win the game and that’s a different pressure all together. We’ve got to accept that after a great start.
“I watched the Leicester v Tottenham game and it was very transitional. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t fall into that, we have to look after the ball and try and control large parts of it. If we can do that, we might get some success.”
Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Leicester City kicks-off at 3pm.
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