Howard: The Aggression Was Good

LCFC Women
3 hrs 47 mins ago
2 Minutes
Sophie Howard commended the competitive nature of LCFC Women but felt that fine margins led to their downfall against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.

- LCFC Women were on the reverse of a 2-0 scoreline on Sunday afternoon
- Elisabeth Terland and Celin Bizet sccored the decisive goals at King Power Stadium 
- We need to keep a positive mindset, says Sophie Howard

After a third loss on the bounce, most recently falling to Man Utd at King Power Stadium, Howard composed herself after the full-time whistle to share her analysis on the defeat.

Admitting that they are struggling to fill the void up front due to injuries, the Scotland international believes the squad fought hard, and if not for fine margins, could've got something from their efforts.

"It's mixed feelings really," Howard told the media. "I'm disappointed that we lost but proud of the performance we put in because we were in the game for 90 minutes. 

Speaking on Sunday's loss.

"It was hard because we don't have an out-and-out striker in the squad currently because of injuries, but we can't control that. We are doing what we can with players that are available. 

"We used Saori [Takarada] in the no.9 position to help with that aggressive press and I think we executed that quite well."

Focusing more on the defence, Sunday's loss to Man Utd was only the second time in the WSL that Amandine Miquel's side have conceded more than once, and City's No.5 admitted that the timing of the first goal just before half-time was a disappointing time to concede, having fought hard for over 45 minutes.

It's not good enough that we conceded right before the break.

Sophie Howard Talking on Man Utd's first goal

Howard added: "I know we conceded two goals, I think we defended the box really well. We're going to look on that and improve on that. The aggression over the 90 minutes was good and we posed a threat to United at times which is good.

"The goals are difficult to take but we have to learn and grow from them. It's not good enough that we conceded right before the break.

"We were disappointed and deflated from that goal, meaning that we went into the break quite deflated, but when we came back out again, we adjusted well and kept a positive mindset, that sadly didn't get us anything today."