Crystal Palace up for the challenge of Manchester United says Kaminski | OneFootball

Crystal Palace head coach Laura Kaminksi says that her side are ready for the challenge of Manchester United this afternoon.

The Eagles play host to The Red Devils at the VBS Community Stadium in Sutton.

Crystal Palace go into the match bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table while only Chelsea have defeated Manchester United in the first half of the season. This afternoon’s game is a huge test for The Eagles but head coach Kaminksi says that her side are up for challenge.

“It’s a big challenge but we are certainly up for it,” Kaminski said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “This game closes the league before Christmas, so the group are really confident around giving it their all because it’s the last game before the break. We’ve worked so hard so far; each week, we reset, go again, that’s the mindset in-house.

“It’s a big club, a big game but they come to us. We know their strengths, so we’ve got to be mindful as a group that we push right until the end.”

Reflecting on the first half of the season, Kaminksi said that her side have impressed with some elements of their game but have learnings to fix in other parts.

She said “First and foremost, we are really happy with the players that we brought onto this journey [in the summer]. For us now, we know there have been opportunities to get more points on the board. It’s frustrating, disappointing and difficult but there’s light, there’s positivity.

“There are moments in games that we’ve had difficulty managing but I’ve got a group that don’t shy away from that, they don’t hide. We are trying to fix these problems for the next challenge, the next game.

“For me, we are scoring and it’s just managing moments in the game where momentum shifts. It’s so difficult to score in the WSL but some of our set-pieces, build-up play, some of our stuff around the final third; we are causing teams problems. We’ve got to believe that if we fix some of the sufferings, eventually it will turn for us in terms of points.”

Crystal Palace could go into the Christmas break bottom of the table but Kaminski says that a relegation battle was always likely to be on the cards at this stage given the club’s ‘newly-promoted’ status.

She said “We are in and amongst it. I never look at the table; nobody has won it, been relegated or is in any dramatic position [at this point]. We know where we are at, we are a newly-promoted side and there’s an expectation that we will be in and around the bottom. The most important thing is that we are staying with the pack, we are in and amongst it and we are showing positive signs.”

Crystal Palace’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Manchester United kicks-off at 2pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.