Martin Ho spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Thursday afternoon, ahead of our Barclays Women’s Super League clash with Manchester City at Brisbane Road on Friday night (7.30pm UK).
Here are some key points on what he had to say…
“\[It’s\] So far, so good. Two wins, two clean sheets. We probably couldn’t ask for much more.”
Martin on the gap to Man City…
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“You can look at it in two different ways. You can look at it from where the table lies most years, or you can look at it from a perspective of performance and that way.
I look towards the performance side. I feel that when we perform on our day, we’re competitive with most teams and we know there’ll be a difference in little bits of quality at times, moments of individual brilliance, which is natural in football – we have those players in our team too. But, from a squad perspective, when the 11-v-11 steps onto the pitch, I back us against anyone.”
Martin on our expectations ahead of the season…
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“Not me, personally anyway, but maybe with the team. It’s nothing to do with me – the players do the work. I just stand here as the Head Coach. Maybe after last year, if people looked at last season, you wouldn’t argue with people maybe thinking that. But I’ve been consistently working with these players, every day over the last seven weeks, and that has shown me there’s a lot more to come from the group. We’ve shown steps and development in two performances, but I’m not deluded enough to know that we still have steps to take, work to do, so we’ll keep our feet grounded and make sure we continue to help the group grow.”
Martin on the set-up against Everton…
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“There’s a game plan, a way we play, in terms of individual aspects but the core principles and foundations don’t change. I don’t think there was a big shift from West Ham to Everton really, maybe in some aspects, but I wouldn’t say there was a big shift in it. We maybe changed some of the defensive organisation in moments to set more traps, but I don’t think we changed much in terms of the principles and concepts we look at. I thought in that game we were brilliant from start to finish. We had some moments where we rode our luck, which we have to, but throughout the course of the game, I thought we were well-deserving of the win.”
“There are two perspectives. I’m not surprised because I see the work, I see the effort, commitment and passion of the players when they’re training. I know that no player or team goes onto the pitch wanting to under-perform. Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen a really hard-working, committed group. We’re making sure we’re consistent in performances and we’ll have dips at times, but we need to make sure we eradicate some of these historic things, in terms of these records we have. My job is to make sure we perform, continually break down the game, and make sure we’re a consistent level as I said.”
Martin on Grace Clinton…
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“Grace is a wonderful player. Whatever Grace chooses to do, she chooses to do for her own career. If she thinks that’s the right one for her development, then brilliant. I’ve worked with Grace for numerous years when I was at Everton, also worked with her when I was at Manchester United too. She’s a wonderful player, super talented. We have to make sure we stop Grace if we come up against her on Friday.”
Martin on Eleanor Heeps…
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“I worked with her back in Liverpool when I was there, so I know her as a player and as a person. She’s making big steps under Chris (Williams), the goalkeeping coach, and she’s taking the steps she needs to take. Those loans were probably vital for her experience, an opportunity for her to mature as a player. Now, she’s behind Lize here at this moment, but I want her to push and challenge Lize to make sure she can stay on her heels, which is important. I don’t want someone to just sit in behind the first-choice goalkeeper and accept that. I want them to push the boundaries as much as they can. Eleanor’s doing that now in training and when the opportunity presents itself to play, she just needs to take that with both hands.”
Martin on Josefine Rybrink’s versatility…
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“It's important for any player. I want to make sure every player develops consistently. Josefine, alongside that backline, has been brilliant, they’ve kept two clean sheets, and she’s defended well. It’s been a bit unorthodox with her in that position but, when you break that position down for her, it probably helps her see football in a different way. Her ability with the ball is really good, she’s calm, composed and she’s very selective in how she plays and plays forward. Then defensively, she’s got a bit of experience behind her, she’s progressive when she’s up close, and switched on with the tactical side of the game. So, it’s making sure we can continue to help her develop and evolve. She’s had a big impact in terms of clean sheets, but also in terms of going forward.”
Martin on Khadija Shaw’s goalscoring record against Spurs…
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“She’s a wonderful forward, scores a lot of goals, she’s physically very dominant and very good at finishing around the box. We have to make sure we get the game plan in place that prevents that. We don’t just focus on her – they have a breadth of talent within that squad. We respect that she’s a wonderful player, but we also try to find how we isolate her strengths within our game plan.”