Kirk: A Disappointing Performance
- LCFC Women were beaten 5-1 by Manchester United on Sunday
- Alessia Russo scored a hat-trick at Leigh Sports Village
- Remy Siemsen scored on her Foxes’ debut
- Willie Kirk says the team must dust themselves down to go again
Leicester were beaten by Barclays Women’s Super League leaders Man Utd at the weekend as Lioness Alessia Russo scored three in the 5-1 scoreline.
Following the match, the manager gave an honest reflection of the proceedings, as the Foxes look to put the game behind them as quickly as possible.
“We were beat by a good side,” Kirk told LCFC TV. “I don’t think we were beat by good goals. We’re really disappointed with the ones we conceded, and the way they came.
“We’ve got some analysis to do on them. I thought the fifth goal from Lucia García was good, but it was a disappointing performance.
“We never showed enough bravery in or out of possession, and at the start of the second half I thought we corrected that, and we turned the ball over twice in the first 90 seconds. Soon after we got a goal from our efforts.
“We thought our goal would set us up to have a really good 45 minutes but it never really happened. It’s a frustrating day but one we will learn from.
“I think four of the goals were equally frustrating, however their third was pivotal. We were trying to build our way back into the game, but I think after that turning point, you could see the players were physically losing an inch."
One positive from the afternoon was that January signing Remy Siemsen found the net on her debut, and Kirk was keen to congratulate the Australian on opening her account with the Club.
“Any forward wants to score as quickly as possible into her club career," the former Everton coach continued. "Remy has done that in her first game so that will give her plenty of confidence going forward.
“It’s been a long time coming for Remy but she’s been patient and worked hard and I thought she did well in the 55 or 60 minutes she was on, and she did well on what we asked from her."
Losing to a side who are now 12 games unbeaten shouldn’t cause too much panic in the City camp, as they must learn from the defeat and apply their focus to the visit of Everton at King Power Stadium on Sunday (3pm GMT kick-off).
He added: “We know that there is still a long way to go, and we’ve done well in the first four games of the new year, so today was a free hit. But I think that was our downfall that we arrived with that attitude.
“We need to reframe things if that happens again, but we move into the next block now and we know exactly what we need.
“Nothing’s really changed in terms of targets or expectations, so we just dust ourselves down and we’ll start again when we’re back in on Wednesday.”