Bedford: Heading In The Right Direction
Manchester United present the Foxes’ next assignment in the Barclays Women’s Super League, coming up against the early-season table toppers in a 3pm kick-off this Sunday.
Prior to facing the Red Devils at King Power Stadium, Bedford sat down with the media for her pre-match press conference from Belvoir Drive on Thursday afternoon to discuss preparations for the game and how the team are targeting those first points of the campaign.
Focus on taking opportunities
The manager began: “There’s always a bit of perspective from the data that we collect on how we’re performing from a week-to-week basis. We can see the areas we’re trying to get better on coming out in terms of the data.
“We’re closer in the games than perhaps we were at times last year. A lot of what you can use is the data that shows the margin between each team. The visuals tell us the story that we’re feeling.
“For us, it’s really focusing on making sure that the final part of our play now clicks, so when we get the ball and we’re in dangerous areas, we take our opportunities. I think if we do, it probably evens out the results that we’ve had so far.”
The plan against Man Utd
“I think they are a team that are evolving,” Bedford analysed. “They’ve got some excellent players and a clear playing style. Probably a little bit more direct than in previous seasons, particularly crosses from deep areas.
“If we reflect on where we needed to be better last weekend, it’s an area that we’ve definitely spent a bit of time having a look at this week, to make sure if they do have time on the ball in their backline, that we’re ready for the balls that might come in.
“We’re very confident that our defenders want to win balls in the air and they are competitive. It’s just fine margins. There’s little bits that we’ll take into this weekend. We know it’s something United are good at. They’ll look to play through us. If they can’t, they’ll play in behind us and they’ve got pace to exploit that.
“We are clear on what’s needed. We expect it to be a similar game to last weekend. Hopefully, if we get things right on the pitch, we can definitely frustrate them in terms of their style of football and then look after it better when we regain it.”
Returning to play on Filbert Way
“It will be a massive part of this weekend,” the former England youth coach stated. “We need our fans this weekend. We know it will be a tough game. We’ve got to be at our best to match them and make their lives difficult.
“We’re not going into it with the mindset that we’re beat before we’ve started. We know that if we make the game physical and competitive and we get pressure on them in the right areas, we can cause problems.
"The fans being behind our players and giving them that extra edge to make that movement, or to win that one vs. one battle, is going to be big. We want that noise in the stadium.
“It’s our home ground, it’s our fans supporting us and we’ve got an opportunity to really capitalise on that this weekend.”
Picking up points
“Every game is different,” the 35-year-old added. “We went up against Man City at the weekend when they had no points and it clicked in terms of their finishes.
“Against the teams we weren’t expected to compete with in those first few games, we’ve been really competitive and we’re looking forward to playing all of those teams again later in the season.
“Each of those games come as individual games and we’ve got an opportunity to take points from them next time round.”
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