Eder Maestre takes London City Lionesses to Sunderland on Saturday as they begin their Women’s FA Cup campaign in the fourth round.
And the Spaniard is excited to get under way.
“As a spectator, it’s one of the most interesting and and powerful competitions that I’ve ever known, so being now part of the competition [as] a coach is like a dream. – so very, very pleased to be in the story of that competition,” he said in his pre-match press conference on Friday morning.
He opened his London City Lionesses account with a goalless Women’s Super League draw against bottom side Liverpool in St Helens last weekend.
And he urged his players to respect second-tier Sunderland – reminding them that cup football is “David against Goliath”.
“I expect a very tough game,” he added.
“I’m very proud in the way that the team is training, that’s for sure. We are bringing new scenarios, new patterns, the new way to face the games. In that process, it [takes] time. So we need to be in that balance of implementing the new ideas, trying to find that efficiency in the matches. But we are very connected to the process and in that way, I’m very pleased with the things that I can see every day here.”
Eder Maestre: Every week is a new chance
Although unsurprisingly he would not confirm his team selection, he had said after the Liverpool game that he had not been pleased with the first half, and particularly not with the lack of any shot on target, saying: “I don’t like this match, I am very ambitious. The first half is not enough, we were left in our own half for most of the minutes of the game. We improved a lot in the second half but not enough for me.”
And on Friday he sent a message to those players who were not involved in last weekend’s game.
“Every week is a new chance to the players to be in that squad list,” he told SheKicks.net. “We have shared with the team the way to achieve being in that squad list and we put the training process…[to] let the players be in that possibility because this is the way to create that challenging situation. trying herself to find the best performance.”
