The outlook is looking a lot brighter for Leicester in 2022, especially since a crucial victory over relegation rivals Birmingham City last time out, complimented by progression in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup.
Next up, the Foxes host Olli Harder’s Hammers in a 2pm GMT kick-off at Pirelli Stadium, the start of a testing run of Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixtures versus sides in the upper echelons of the division’s standings.
Speaking to the national media during Thursday’s virtual pre-match press conference at Belvoir Drive, the manager expressed that the group are remaining concentrated in order to give themselves the best opportunity of continuing their impressive recent form.
She discussed how City will return to their second home in Burton with confidence from back-to-back away victories across all competitions, but also with a clear focus on the task in hand.
Bedford commented: “It’s been the same for the whole of January, which is why we’ve said every game is one that we want to try and take away some points. So, I think this weekend is no different to any others.
“It’s a game that we’ll target to gain points in. That will help us if we can do that. Beyond that, we’ve shown the ability, even the week I walked in the door, to beat teams like Man Utd on a given day.
“While we might play some of the teams that are more highly ranked at this stage, we know if we get our preparation right, each of those games will be ones we feel we can get points from. I would say they are fully focused.
“I was disappointed with what we had done in that second half (vs. Birmingham) from a performance perspective, because I felt we could have put that game to bed a lot earlier than we did.
“That has probably kept their feet on the ground this week. We know that the game this weekend is one that will be really competitive. They know that they need to get their preparations right this week and they’ve been very professional about that.
“They can definitely celebrate the progress they have made and obviously with three wins we sit on nine points, which makes us more comfortable than we were two months ago. But the reality is that it just takes one game to change that gap pretty quickly.
“So we need to make sure that we almost play our games as if we’re still sat with zero points at the bottom of the table, because if we let any of that desire and commitment that we’ve shown disappear, then we’ll get caught out very quickly.
“I think it’s just about them knowing that the job isn’t done yet. If they are diligent and continue to play the way they have, I’m confident they’ll pick up points and they’ll make that gap even bigger.”
Bedford also gave an insight into how they are looking at the game from a tactical perspective. The 34-year-old is expecting a tight contest in Burton this weekend and while wary of the opponents’ threats across the pitch, which have enabled them to take 20 points from their 13 matches to date in 2021/22, she has been working on putting plans in place to combat that.
“West Ham are an in-form team at this moment in time,” the former England youth coach continued. “When we’ve analysed them, they’ve a very similar formation to us, which makes it a big game of chess. It’s just who can overload certain areas of the pitch better than others.
“I think they’ve got some real maturity in the backline, some good ball-playing centre-backs in there that will move the ball well. Their wing-backs almost operate as wide players, they are that committed to the attack, which allows them to attack and defend with almost four up front at times.
“It’s how we play out of that pressure and also exploit the fact that we’ll have a three vs. three in behind and it’s critical to the game. One element of it is getting some control and that’s something I didn’t feel we did particularly well against Birmingham.
“For us to be able to exploit the overloads that we want, we need to have good possession, so we need to have as few transitions as we can. And that might be starting again and building play from the back, rather than winning it and playing forward immediately.
“With time and composure, you’ve got the opportunities to have the movements that then allow you to exploit the opponent in the areas that we feel we’re most dangerous. But equally, we are a team that are effective on the break, so to some extent, I don’t want to over-coach them on patterns.
“They’ve got to play what’s in front of them and they’ve got to look at the overloads and the momentum in the game and work out what our best asset is. There has been lots of problem solving in training this week to try and get them involved in where we feel we’ll be strong.”