Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor says that his side are preparing for the unexpected when they travel to Broadfield Stadium to face Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.
The Cityzens’ latest opponents are searching for a new head coach once again after former boss Jens Scheuer left his position by mutual consent earlier this week.
Amy Merricks has again taken up an interim head coach role at Brighton & Hove Albion, just as she did when Hope Powell left the club at the end of October. Manchester City have already come up against a Merricks Brighton & Hove Albion team in the reverse fixture before Christmas. Head coach Taylor says that there could be similarities in the latest game this weekend but his side are preparing for every eventuality.
“You always need to be prepared for the unexpected but when they played here earlier in the season when Amy was in charge, we saw a similar identity to what we saw with Hope (Powell),” Taylor said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We are aware of the game against Chelsea the other night where it was something different than previously.
“For us, we prepare for the unexpected, we prepare for how the team might set up and for what we anticipate will happen but in reality, it could be completely different.
“It comes back to the cohesion that we have in the team at the moment and the understanding that we are not expecting anything to come up against us that we haven’t seen previously, that helps. The players are quite bright in working out systems pretty soon and we adapt during games.
“Amy will want to put her own stamp on it, so we prepare for the unexpected at the weekend. We have an idea but always be ready.”
With Manchester City unbeaten in 12 Barclays Women’s Super League matches, The Cityzens will be viewed as the favourites this weekend. Taylor went on to say that his side are taking nothing for granted and they will be putting in their best efforts to get three points.
He said “Brighton are obviously in a difficult moment due to the change of manager again but it is not a given, I think those are potentially quite dangerous games. People talk about games being won on paper but it is never won on paper, you have to try your very best to be successful because teams are fighting for their lives and there are various aspirations as well.
“For us, it is about concentrating on the next game, making sure that our performance levels are high, our training levels are good, our recovery levels are good and we will look forward to going there and being ourselves.”
Manchester City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.
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