Taylor challenges Manchester City to make more of their chances against Sunderland | OneFootball

Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor wants to see his side become more clinical in front of the opposition goal, starting with this weekend’s FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup fixture against Sunderland at The Academy Stadium.

The Cityzens defeated Everton 2-1 at Walton Hall Park in their last match a week ago, however, the scoreline didn’t tell the full story with Manchester City having had 25 attempts on the opposition goal.

When speaking ahead of this weekend’s fixture against second tier club Sunderland, Taylor said that his side have to be more clinical with their chances while they need to be prepared for whatever defensive structure the visitors opt to implement.

“You never know whether you are going to play against a back-four or back-five,” Taylor said. “Being prepared for that is really important and making sure that we don’t expect it to be really easy, that’s the moment when it can be really tough.

“It is about making sure that we are professional with everything that we do, making sure that we move the ball very quickly and making the most of our opportunities. I think that is the one thing that we can improve from Everton – we had 25 opportunities on goal and scored two goals, it needs to be more and we need to be more effective there. Even with Bunny (Shaw) scoring lots of goals, the challenge is for her to score more.”

There has been no representation in the Barclays Women’s Super League from the North East of England since the 2017/2018 season. Taylor believes that some of the North East’s ‘big three’ could reach the top flight in the future, although fanbase and financial backing will be huge factors in the growth of the women’s game for clubs in that part of the country.

When speaking about whether a North East team could reach the Barclays Women’s Super League, Taylor said “I think so. It takes support and little bit of investment but certainly, when you look at Sunderland, Newcastle and Middlesbrough in the men’s game, they always provide very big crowds and that is the real key.

“Last season, I saw that Newcastle played a women’s game at St James’ Park and the crowd was big, there was real good interest around it and I believe that will be the same again this weekend.

“I think the opportunity is definitely there for those clubs because of the size of them and the size of the fanbase. What we have seen is that usually overlaps from male into female games so hopefully, that will be the case.”

In their full-time era, Manchester City have reaped the rewards from players who have spent their early years with Sunderland. Steph Houghton, Jill Scott, Lucy Bronze and Demi Stokes all spent time with The Lady Black Cats before finding their way to The Academy Stadium later in their careers. Taylor is keen to learn of the reasons why Sunderland has been such a hotbed for talent in the past.

“It shows that there is talent there,” Taylor said .”There is talent in most places in the UK, it is just about opportunity.

“It’d be great to do a bit of analysis to see what that looked like for Steph, Jill, Lucy and Demi when they were there in that environment and what allowed them to come through. Was it playing with the lads to a certain age or were there better opportunities there? Certainly, it is something to harness and look at to see if there is potential to do it elsewhere.”

Manchester City’s FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup fixture against Sunderland kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.