Spurs boss Vilahamn ‘staying present’ ahead of trip to Manchester United | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn says that he is staying present ahead of his side’s trip to Manchester United.

The Lilywhites are set to take on a Manchester United side that could contain former loanee Grace Clinton and forward Celin Bizet Ildhusøy, a player that spent two seasons with Spurs before opting for a move to the North West over the summer.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Spurs boss Vilahamn said that there are no extra incentives to beat Manchester United off the back of Bizet’s move whilst commenting that his focus is on the present.

“No, not at all to be honest,” Vilahamn said when asked about additional incentives. “I’m trying to stay present.

“Last season, I loved working with Celin, we had a really good relationship and she was performing very well. She wanted to leave and go to another club, it’s a reset and she’s a Manchester United player.

“I respect her because she’s still a really good player. If we win on Sunday, I won’t say that she picked the wrong team. She picked the right team because she wanted to be there and that’s fine, I have enormous respect for her.

“I want to win for our fans, for our squad and make sure we compete with Manchester United. I still like Grace and Celin a lot.”

Vilahamn went on to praise former loanee Clinton whilst adding that Spurs have a plan to contain her this weekend.

He said “Grace is an amazing person and an amazing player. We had a good relationship last season and I feel like she has taken her form into this season, she has performed very well for them, scored goals in both games and she is shining. It’s great for her.

“This game is going to be tough for us because we are going to play against her but on the other hand, we play against good players every week. We will have a strategy on how we are going to play and we know her well, so perhaps, we know how to stop her. She’s a very good player.”

Spurs come up against an in-form Manchester United side that have won all of their games so far without conceding. Vilahamn says that his side must be clinical with their chances.

He said “Obviously, they have started very well with two clean sheets and two wins. We know that they are very strong defensively and Marc [Skinner] has worked with them for a few years now, so they have a good structure and a good balance.

“We are in good goalscoring form, we have scored eight goals in the first three games. We have good attacking patterns and some really good players. We want to play really good football and create chances but the other thing will be to use the moment when we win the ball to counter attack as well. We have some really quick players that will be useful in this game.

“We know we are playing a really strong team away, we will need to be really sharp in the chances that we get but we scored two goals there last year, so we have a good record.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Manchester United kicks-off at 12.30pm on Sunday afternoon.