Beard Report: "We're Frustrated With The Result" After Arsenal Loss
Today at 04:30 AM
The Liverpool FC Women's team manager felt his side displayed plenty of positives, only to be undone by a set piece in a loss to Arsenal.
The Liverpool FC Women started the WSL season with a series of frustrating draws, dropping points from a winning position after dominating matches but failing to put the game away. The ended 2024 with a series of frustrating losses, dropping four straight league matches to finish out the calendar year. The latest loss, to third place Arsenal, did see some positives for the Reds, who put forth a decent effort despite being decimated by injures. In his post-match interview, manager Matt Beard felt it was especially frustrating to be undone from a set piece.
"I think we're frustrated with the result. We put a lot into the performance today and I think if you look at the goal, we've lost the game on a set play. From our end, our standards in both boxes are generally really good, so to lose it with that is frustrating."
"I've just said to them that we've had a lot thrown at us in the first half of the season with the injury situation that we've had and decisions going against us. So, to finish off with a committed performance like that, albeit not the result we wanted, is a positive that we can take into the New Year."
After punching above their weight for the past couple of seasons, Liverpool have struggled to find any real sort of rhythm this fall and early winter. A rotating cast of key players injured has led to a raft of lineup combinations from match to match. Beard is hopeful to have the majority of his squad back and healthy when they pick back up after the winter break.
"Hopefully come January when we've got our first friendly back after the New Year, we've got everyone back fit apart from maybe Faye Kirby and Sofie Lundgaard, who is out for the season. We've had one bad game, against Man United, in the sense of where we didn't have our standards in our work-rate. Like I said, you take three players out… we've had seven or eight players missing and at one point it was nine. So, if you take those out of a small squad already, it's going to have an effect."
Beard credited his squad for doing their best to roll with the punches despite the adversity. He feels his squad is good enough to win when fit, and hopes getting players back in the fold will translate into results on the pitch.
"We've done the best with what we've had available and the players deserve credit for obviously having to go through changes week in, week out. We can look back on this as a big learning curve and make sure we don't repeat the same injury issues we have had and make sure we have a fully-fit squad to choose from. When we are fully fit then nine times out of 10 we win games."
