WSL Full-Time
·9 November 2024
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·9 November 2024
The Reds have won back-to-back home league fixtures against The Blues in 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.
Chelsea provide the opposition in St Helens this weekend and Liverpool boss Beard says that there is no reason why his side can’t be successful again given what they have achieved in the last two years.
“We are looking forward to it,” Beard said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “I said to the players that we’ve taken 18 points off what you’d call ‘the top four’ in the last two seasons, so the proof is in the pudding that we can win these type of games.
“It’s a completely different game now, they’ve got a new manager and I was really impressed with them on Sunday against Everton. Probably the biggest takeaway was that you can’t be making errors. I think three of Chelsea’s goals against Everton came from mistakes. We just need to make sure that we don’t make those kind of mistakes.
“We are really looking forward to it. We’ve had a good week of training and we can’t wait.”
Chelsea are somewhat new-look this season with Sonia Bompastor having replaced former boss Emma Hayes over the summer and with the club having signed several new players. Beard still believes that The Blues are the team to beat.
He said “The top two, Manchester City and Chelsea are leading the way right now. They’re definitely the team to beat, they’ve won it five years on the spin. If you look at their investment and personnel coming in, it’s made them even stronger. They’re always going to be the ones to beat.”
Liverpool have taken nine points from their opening six matches. While Beard wanted his side to have collected more, he believes that consistent results will come over the course of the season.
He said “I think we are a little bit behind points tally-wise but if you look at last year, there were games that we won that we weren’t expected to win. If you look at how things have panned out this year for us, we weren’t expected to beat Tottenham or Aston Villa away, so it all evens itself out over the course of a season.
“We just need to get to the Christmas break around that top group. If we do that, it sets us up for the second half of the season. Nothing ever changes on that; we are an ambitious team and an ambitious club, things just take a little bit of time.”
Liverpool’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea kicks-off at 12.30pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.