_He was then posed with the question, ‘do you think the festive break could break up the momentum?’_
Robert: “To go on a break with possibly four weeks in a row, you're going to have a long time where you feel like you're unbeatable and that's going to be good for your self-confidence. You can look at it in different ways, but the main thing is that we take steps, how we look at the games. If you look at Crystal Palace, this was a very stable game. we were quite good in the build-up, we were quite good in defence, we scored two goals and created a few more good chances. I think the Palace has been quite good in the league, even if they are in the bottom, they still have some really good players, so we’ve taken steps in that performance. Now we’re actually winning games and having clean sheets more and more, then people have come back from injuries and that break would basically do even more for us to make sure we regroup, work, train harder and work on details. So, I'm just looking forward to catching a break, actually.”
Drew Spence
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_Robert was asked about the performances of the midfielder so far this season…_
Robert: “She set the standards on how good technically and how good game understanding you can have. In the beginning I was a little bit scared of her fitness, whether she could handle the tempo in this league and everything, but she has taken steps there as well. Now she's really fit to make sure we can press high when she plays in the 10, she can work really hard in the lower position as well, so I think she's a role model for the younger ones actually because the level she has is a really high level. I'm extremely impressed how she plays, how she wants to get better even if she's 32, and the mindset in training to work hard, so I'm very pleased to work with her. That's why we signed a new contract with her as well, because she has more to give and I think she can actually be even better.”
On the opponent
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_Robert was then asked about his assessment of Brighton’s campaign so far…_
Robert: “I think they're quite similar to where we were last season, a new coach coming in with the identity, the Brighton identity as well, they have a good match together. They have signed some top, top players and have performed very well. Of course, they have some moments in the games where they struggle, when they compete with the top teams. I'm impressed, I think they have a really good coach, the squad is strong, so they’re basically up there too, to try to break into the top as well, just like us. It's going to be a very tough game, but it's also Brighton is one of the teams we want to be better than. So we need to go there tomorrow and show that we are a top team, soon.”
Molly Bartrip + Ashleigh Neville
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_The two defenders have played every single minute in the WSL so far this season and Robert was asked about their qualities…_
Robert: “I mean, in one way, it’s who they’re as characters and the way they play. They’re very much players that suit the way we want to play and, if you bring in new players, they’re the ones to show the other players to look the way we want to look. If you play as a winger in front of Ashleigh, you know that you're going to help them to look the way we want to look at the team…. same with Molly. If you have her as a centre-back and a new defender comes in, a new left back and a new pivot in a game, I'm trusting Molly very much to make sure those who play around her will look very good because she’s a great talent. They’re very consistent in the fitness to make sure they can handle this amount of games, some of the other players haven't been used to playing so many games and then it's a bigger risk if they play those games. So it's a mixture of those two, but both of them were amazing against Everton and Crystal Palace.”