Crystal Palace well-prepared for huge step up to WSL says Kaminski | OneFootball

Crystal Palace head coach Laura Kaminski says that the club have prepared well for their first season in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

The Eagles kick-off their top flight adventure with a fixture against Tottenham Hotspur at Brisbane Road on Sunday afternoon.

Barclays Women’s Super League football will be a huge challenge for Crystal Palace but head coach Kaminski says that the club have done their homework on the competition.

“The step up is huge and we’ve prepared for that,” Kaminski said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We’ve certainly done a lot of research statistically into the differences between the [top] two leagues; for example, the ball is in play for a lot longer [in the WSL] than in the Championship.

“At the end of the day, the players that we have brought into the club, we feel we can prepare them for the step up and for the duration of the season.”

Crystal Palace netted 55 goals in 22 games as they won last season’s Barclays Women’s Championship title. Kaminski admits that The Eagles will have to adjust their playing style this season but she wants her side to retain their core principles.

She said “The differences in the leagues are huge. Last season, we scored a phenomenal amount of goals and set quite a few records in terms of the attacking football and style that we had. I never want to lose that flair, elements to that style but we know that the opposition is stronger.

“Spurs have come on in leaps and bounds in the last couple of seasons and come with some real strengths. We need to remember that, prepare for that.

“We know that things are going to be more challenging, more difficult and we’ve got to be resilient in dealing with those challenges that are in-front of us.

“Some of the football that we played last year was fantastic. We don’t want to lose that style of play for the fans, for the club in terms of our identity. Now, we have to blend that into a slightly different style of play, along with a new mix of players. We still want to play exciting football but be ready for the level that’s in-front of us.”

Last season’s promoted side, Bristol City, conceded 70 goals and managed to record just one win as they suffered an immediate relegation back to the second tier. Kaminski knows that Crystal Palace must be more defensively solid than The Robins if they are to have any chance of being competitive themselves.

She said “We know that we need to be compact in patches of the game but always with the mindset of us winning the ball back. I’ve looked at statistics for passive defending in the WSL last year and we know that we don’t want that to be us; we want to get up to the ball, we want to be aggressive out of possession, win our duels in one v one situations and have a good team shape.

“Both myself and my staff have been working hard to get the new players into that shape and system, always with the thought of us regaining the ball and testing ourselves against some of the best players in the world.

“We know opposition front-lines can bring speed, one v one attacking skill and we need to be mindful of that but we’ve brought in players that we think can cope and defend. We know what we are going to come up against and we have got to work hard to stop those traits, strengths in the opposition, to turn it over into our favour.”

Crystal Palace’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Tottenham Hotspur kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.