Sonia Bompastor praises Liverpool head coach Gareth Taylor as the two sides prepare to meet this weekend in the WSL.
The Chelsea manager spoke ahead of her side’s visit to Merseyside this weekend. The Blues travel to Liverpool off the back of a 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Women’s Super League (WSL), and a 6-0 trashing of St Pölten in the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL).
Bompastor spoke highly of Liverpool boss Gareth Taylor. She said, “First of all, I would say Gareth is a really good coach. I think when you look at Liverpool’s performances, I think you can see in his time, the way he wants the team to play.
“I think it just shows how good he is as a coach, because that’s never easy to implement your ideas coming into a new club. When you look at their games again, I don’t think the place they have in the table reflects the performances they’re having.
“Most of the games, they sometimes lose only by one goal difference, which means, they are pretty good and not conceding a lot of goals. I’ve been aware of the fact it’s been pretty tough for them on and outside the pitch. Sometimes it’s difficult. They are facing probably a transitional year and also tough moments in the club. with them in the tough moments they had outside the club.”
“But also, I’m hoping they won’t react in a good way on the pitch of the game on Sunday. They can wait the next weekend,” Bompastor joked.
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Having Sam Kerr back is ‘really important’ affirms Bompastor
Aggie Beever-Jones is back in the squad after missing the last two games with a leg injury. Hannah Hampton, however, is not back for Liverpool and is set to be sidelined for a while with a quad injury. “We’ll see if we can see her before the end of the year,” the head coach added.
On the return of Naomi Girma and Lauren James to her squad mid-week, Bompastor commented that she’s really happy, and needs to have as many players as possible fit as Chelsea head into a very busy period of games.
Bompastor also had glowing comments about Sam Kerr, after her first start for Chelsea since returning from her ACL injury.
She said, “It is really important to have Sam back. She was able to have a good performance and also to score two goals. I think what Sam brings is a leadership into the team, but also the facts. She’s a goalscorer, and I think that’s really important. She has a lot of experience, and she’s always in the right positions to score goals.”
When asked what she has learnt about Kerr since being able to coach her, Bompastor continued, “I know all the quality she has, what she can bring in the team. I would say, as a player, I didn’t really learn a lot about her. I already knew even more as a person.
“She’s someone who works really hard. She always put the team first. She can be really shy sometimes around some public things when she has to be in front of the lights. She doesn’t like that.”
Bompastor wants to ‘find a way’ to give Lexi Potter ‘more room’
Lexi Potter is one of Chelsea’s bright, young talents and has made two appearances in the Champions League this season for the side.
“Lexi is a great young player,” Bompastor said. “A lot of talent, I think you could see that when she came in on the midweek game. I know the quality she can have.
“The competition is really high in our Chelsea squad, so probably she doesn’t get the minutes she would like to have, and she deserves to have for her quality, but I really want her to stay with us for the second part of the season. We need to find a way to give her more room, to make sure she gets more minutes and she can prove herself on the pitch.”
New WSL Football guidelines ‘a great thing’ says Bompastor
WSL Football introduced new guidelines around the stadiums in the league this week. Chelsea are one of a small handful of clubs in the league who owns their women’s grounds.
The Chelsea head coach said of the guidelines, “It’s really good to have these new guidelines about women’s stadiums. I think we have some differences in the game [from the men’s], and I think that’s important to take that into account.
“I think going to the stadium with specifics for women could be something really great. I think changing room can be different, having areas for babies, but also maybe something like nursery could be a good idea, because, as you know, lots of families are coming to watch the game.”
Bompastor continued, “Sometimes, for parents, it’s also good to have an option to let the kids go with someone who’s taking care of them for you to watch the game. I think it’s good to have this in mind going into the future and looking at options to build one and staging. It’s a great thing.”
Chelsea will hope for three points on their trip to the St Helen’s Stadium before they return to London midweek for a huge tie against Barcelona in the Champions League.