Leicester City were soundly beaten by Manchester United on Sunday, with goals from Ella Toone, Elisabeth Terland and a brace from Melvine Malard contributing to a 4-0 scoreline.
But interim Foxes boss Rick Passmoor says that one bad result won’t define their season in the Women’s Super League.
Praising players and staff as “first class”, he told the club’s official website: “Today I was looking at process, it doesn’t define our season. We’re disappointed with the end outcome, but we’ll review the game in terms of our style of play and where we can improve.
“I’m pleased with how players have taken on our ideas and tried to create solutions in their play, but of course this is only the start and there’s much to learn.”
Rick Passmoor: We need to continue working on the basics
Passmoor also spoke about the mid-match changes he made in an effort to close down Manchester United’s avenues of attack, and enjoyed some success – indeed, after going 2-0 down in the first half, the third and fourth goals were not conceded until the last 20 minutes, as fitness levels began to tell.
“Sometimes we dropped a bit too early and created too many gaps for Man Utd to exploit,” he explained, “and then in possession, we’ve been working on composure in training; linking the play and giving support, so we need to continue working on those basics.
“We used the substitution at half-time [Olivia McLoughlin for Shannon O’Brien] to give us more strength in the midfield and it was about backing the players to trust the set-up and their own skill.
“It wasn’t really until we got tired legs in the last 10 that we got overrun by their quality on the pitch.”
“The pathway is there from Leicester City academy to first team”
McLoughlin was a transfer deadline day signing from Rangers, and shone in the second half, and Passmoor was also impressed with 17-year-old academy graduate Nelly Las, who played the last 25 minutes as a replacement for Hlin Eiriksdottir.
“I thought Liv [McLoughlin] came on and did really well, as did Nelly [Las], which shows a clear message to the academy that the pathway is there to the first team,” he added.
Leicester City’s next WSL match is at the King Power Stadium on Sunday, 14th September, when they face Liverpool – who also got off to a less than ideal start when they lost their opening fixture 4-1 to local rivals Everton.
