Aston Villa have lost all three of their matches so far this season. They could enjoy more possession against Spurs than they have had in their previous three games and head coach Ward wants her side to show their qualities on the ball.
“A lot has to be about us this week,” Ward said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We have worked an awful lot off the ball (this season). We have to be better in the moments where we’re on the ball.
“There’s been more focus on what we do with it rather than without it. Out of possession, we have shown a lot of quality and defended the box very well. Now, it has to be about us and what we do with the ball.”
With Aston Villa yet to get off the mark this season, you could be forgiven for placing this weekend’s fixture against Spurs in the ‘must-win’ category. Ward said that the only pressure that her side feel comes from their own internal expectations.
No, not really. I genuinely mean that,” the Aston Villa boss said when asked if the game holds greater importance. If we had played Arsenal at the start of the season, Manchester United at the end and lost to Liverpool in the middle, I think everyone would be saying ‘Villa have closed the gap on Arsenal and Manchester United, they are going toe-to-toe with the big clubs’.
“The reality is we’ve had them all in succession. What it does do is put us in good stead, there are positives from all three games. Is it must-win? No, in terms of when you talk about pressure. It is a must-win for us as a group anyway because we want to win every game and we wanted to win the last three games. We will do everything we can.
“I’ve been asked the question quite a lot around pressure but the reality is the only pressure is what we put on ourselves to continue to improve. We will focus on what we can focus on and prepare in the same way as if we were winning games or losing games.”
Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur is scheduled to kick-off at 12.30pm on Saturday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
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