Kaminski hails Crystal Palace’s ‘elite mindset’ ahead of Spurs clash | OneFootball

Crystal Palace head coach Laura Kaminski has hailed her side’s elite mindset ahead of Sunday’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur.

The Eagles continue to adapt to life in the Barclays Women’s Super League and they will be aiming for a victory which could take them off the bottom of the table.

While Crystal Palace occupy the relegation place, head coach Kaminski has been impressed with the attitude of her side so far this season. She says that her group have shown an ‘elite mindset’ to be able to reset for every challenge that the Barclays Women’s Super League has thrown up.

“Everyone talks about attitude and mindset from the outside and what that looks like for a player to have that mentality and turn that around on a week-by-week basis, not just talking about it, actually doing it, they’re two different things,” Kaminski said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “For me, I’ve had that throughout the whole group and it takes an elite mindset to be able to cope with some of the challenges that we are facing this year.

“I’m very proud of every member of the squad. It has been difficult for them to go from winning every week last year, scoring a phenomenal amount of goals, to then switching your mindset to what we are facing now. It’s a very different outlook and I can only credit the squad as a whole. They’ve dealt with that, particularly the ones that we’ve taken forward because it’s been chalk and cheese. Dealing with that on a day-to-day basis is challenging but it’s made them stronger as people and as footballers.”

Crystal Palace went down 4-0 to Spurs in their first Barclays Women’s Super League game of the season back in September. There were harsh learnings for The Eagles in that game but Kaminski is hoping that her side put in a better showing this weekend.

She said “We’ve changed a lot. It was a difficult day and it was a rude awakening to the WSL.

“We are looking to make significant improvements from our performance last time. It was a massive learning curve for the group and you can talk about the transition from the Championship to the WSL but until you do it and feel the intensity, speed, tempo and depth of squads; it’s a different feeling when you’re in it.

“We’ve had that experience, we’ve got those games under our belt and in the second half of the season, we have to push on.”

After last weekend’s 5-0 defeat at Arsenal, Crystal Palace return to Sutton for their game against Spurs. Kaminski is thankful for the fans’ support and says that the Spurs game is one where her side are targeting points.

She said “It’ll be nice to get back to Sutton again. We’ve had some good attendances there and even though it’s been freezing cold, they’ve been out there supporting us. We heard them all of the way at Borehamwood even though it was a tough afternoon for us.

“Internally, we have to go after the games that we know we can get things out of. Sunday is a game where we have got to get ourselves together again and go and try and get something out of it.”

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