Presser Points | Spurs vs Leicester (WSL) | Robert Vilahamn | OneFootball

Robert Vilahamn spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Thursday afternoon, ahead of our Barclays Women’s Super League home fixture against Leicester City on Sunday (12.30pm UK).

Here’s what he had to say…

On the latest team news…

Robert: “We look quite strong. Anna [Csiki] was sick today (Thursday) and it will be a matter of time whether she can come back and train before Sunday. Olivia [Holdt] is on the grass but is not ready to play yet. Obviously, Ella [Morris] and Kit [Graham] are not available yet because of the long-term injuries.”

On the importance of Sunday’s game…

Robert: “Result-wise, in the table, it's an important game. If you win, you have a good step up in the table to make sure you have distance with from the teams below, while, self-confidence-wise, it’s also good to start with a win because we have a lot of games in the next three weeks. So, the result is important, but if we lose the game, we have a new game already on Wednesday. It's just going to be nice to start playing again, it has been a month without any games – I’ve missed it.”

On a busy couple of weeks…

Robert: “I think, of course, you need to be present and focus on the next game, but you need to be aware that it's going to be a tight schedule, and you're going to use the squad you have. I really like what they're doing in training right now, the competition is really tough and it’s a good way for me to use the squad. I love playing midweek games as well, so it's going to be a fun couple of weeks.”

Robert on the addition of a goalkeeper…

Robert: “We always look for areas where we can improve with different types of players and connecting how we do things. We have obviously conceded a lot of goals, but I wouldn’t say because of the goalkeepers, it's because of collectively how we have defended. It’s a really good goalkeeper that we have signed, she's good in the box, she’s good with reactions and she's good with her feet as well, so her style of playing is very much similar to what we want to do. She's also in a good age profile as well because we can still develop her, I'm very happy that we could sign her now.”

On defensive displays…

Robert: “We gave a lot of focus on that in the last four games, on the high press and how we wanted to make sure we defended better collectively and to make sure they didn't get chances to score. We nailed that quite well in those games, we keep working on that, but the way we want to play is how to we can dictate the game, how we can control the game and how we can score more goals, so it's always more of that than the defence work. But, of course, we'll train that as well. Hopefully, we can have a really good press game against Leicester on Sunday.”

The goalkeeping options…

Robert: “It’s a good question because we have three really good goalkeepers. The journey that Eleanor [Heeps] has had since I came in is brilliant, Becky [Spencer] has been really good for us and then she had illness for a while before Christmas, so Eleanor took the spot and played those games. Now, we bring in a national team goalkeeper with really strong attributes that we looked for, so it's going to be a really tough competition for the three of them. One will obviously play, sometimes we're going to have two on the bench, sometimes one and, I think, time will tell who will be in which position. We're going to work with all three of them because, for me, I want to have three good goalkeepers.”

Looking ahead to Leicester City…

Robert: “I think you can tell that they have a coach that has a good knowledge about the game and created a good identity for the team. They had a great game against Chelsea, they're not bad in possession either and they have some really good players. They haven't really nailed the goal scoring, Jutta Rantala was a really important player last season for them. They can hurt us and they can defend very well, but I also see ourselves taking steps now. I really hope we can come to this game and show that we are a team that can dictate a game, that can create chances but can still defend. It's going to be interesting when we play for (the first time in) a month, to see where we are and how we need to improve for the future.”

On whether Lize Kop will face her former side…

Robert: “She's been in for two days, right? She’s a really good character, a funny person and easy to socialise with everyone. We had some good training sessions and I'm going to make sure that the starting XI will be picked on Saturday and be brought to the players on Saturday. There’re a lot of players who are actually in my head to start the game on Sunday, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

On Martha Thomas…

Robert: “I mean, we score goals in different ways and sometimes we force the opponent to score own goals as well. For Martha’s sake, and her self-confidence, I know it's quite nice to score goals but the last two games of the calendar year, she could have scored against Crystal Palace in the League Cup, but she gave Matilda [Vinberg] an open goal to score. Then she gave the ball to Bethany [England] to score against Brighton, so she produces goals. So, no, I'm not worried about that, I hope she can find the net because I know as a striker it's quite nice to have those goals for the self-confidence.”

Watch Robert Vilahamn's full press conference below