‘No illusions’ – former Crystal Palace striker Gareth Taylor looks ahead to Selhurst return with league leaders Manchester City in WSL clash
BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Former Crystal Palace striker Gareth Taylor believes his Women’s Super League-leading Manchester City side will have a tough test on Sunday as they prepare to face the Eagles at Selhurst Park.
Taylor joined the Eagles in September 1995 when Steve Coppell signed him from Bristol Rovers, but the defender-turned-striker departed 163 days later to Sheffield United in March 1996 having made just 22 appearances and scoring twice for the South London outfit.
A successful managerial career followed his playing one with the 51-year-old now in his fourth season at the north-west club, who are aiming for a quadruple this season – in the WSL, League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League – in stark contrast to Laura Kaminski’s Crystal Palace side, who are making their debut in the top flight of women’s football.
“They did amazing to come out of the championship, to get into the WSL and the objective, I’m sure, for Laura and the team, will be to remain in the WSL. Then they can have something to build on,” said Taylor to the South London Press when asked about what advice he would give any team coming up to the WSL for the first time.
“It’s about being really diligent in terms of how you want to do things, what your expectations are – that’s the thing you have to work on: ‘What is the brief this season?’ – and it could change from season-to-season, club-to-club – once everybody’s aware of what the brief is for the season, it’s then: ‘Can we achieve this?’, ‘How are we going to achieve it?’, ‘Have we got the resources to be able to do that?’. That’ll be really important.
“It’s so difficult not only for the clubs at the top, but also for the clubs at the bottom. Within that, are 22 league games in a season. It’s so, so difficult. From what I’ve seen of them (Palace), they look like they’re improving after the first couple of games, certainly, and starting to battle their way. We’re under no illusions it will be a tough game for us at the weekend.”
City remain unbeaten in all competitions this season. Four wins and a draw in their five WSL games so far puts them top, ahead of Palace in ninth, with a win, a draw and three losses – but it is their form in the UEFA Women’s Champions League which has impressed most, taking an 8-0 aggregate win over Paris FC in qualifying before following it up with a 2-0 home victory over champions FC Barcelona and come-from-behind 3-2 away victory over SKN St. Polten.
“We were able to make a good start to the season, our pre-season plan was good and we made a few acquisitions in the summer,” explained Taylor, who played for Manchester City 55 times between 1998 and 2001.
“Sometimes the best thing you can do on those occasions is get away together as a group and we were able to do that by going to Australia for pre-season. It allowed us to really bond and allowed us to make a really good start.
“Our real key focus, even before the season started, was to qualify for the Champions League. We came up in a really tough draw against Paris, although it didn’t look tough with the aggregate score, but that really set us off for the season.
“Before you know it, you’re then planning playing games every three or four days, rather than just concentrating solely on the WSL. It’s been really, really positive, but a lot of hard work has gone on behind the scenes to get us to this point. It’s really important that we continue in the form we are.”
The marquee signing of Netherlands striker and WSL record-maker, Vivianne Miedema in the summer, after her contract expired with Arsenal, certainly showed intent from his side this season, after they finished as runners-up to Chelsea on goal difference last time out, but Palace fans will be relieved they will not face her in SE25 after it was announced this week that she underwent knee surgery.
“She had a small procedure, which is going to help her a lot and hopefully we get her back out with the team soon,” said Taylor, who made his senior Wales debut while at Palace.
“It’s hard to say (when she will be back) because it’s only a small procedure, just some slight niggle she had that was causing her some discomfort. After the Barcelona game, which was the last game she played, she trained, and it was only after that she had this discomfort, so we don’t expect it to be anything too long.
“She’s come in and made a real, real impact, but of course, we want to try and get her right. It is [now] building her back up, because everything’s really new to her (at City) after being at one club for a long time.
“We are not unique in this sense, but we were train differently to other clubs in terms of the gym sessions we do, and the level of training and the intensity we want to bring, so there’s going to be a period of adaptation for her, for sure,” he added.
“[Managing injuries], it’s tough. There’s no denying it. It’s always a challenge when that happens. Towards the end the last season, we came up short when we lost our key players like Bunny Shaw, it was a big, big loss for us.
“But if that’s the situation now, we’ve got more options. It’s been great in terms of some new players coming in and we’ve got some young, talented players – we’ve got a better squad this season to be able to manage that. Last season, I think we had the best availability for the whole squad in Europe, which is testament to our performance team.”
Taylor went on to praise the new Manchester City Women’s Director of Football, Therese Sjogran, who was announced this week and who starts in December (“…it’s going to elevate us potentially to another level, particularly with our recruitment.”), before moving on to praise former Palace teammate and now current Sporting Director in SE25, Dougie Freedman.
“The last time I saw him was down at Downing Street, straight after the season,” revealed Taylor, in reference to an event hosted by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for the WSL in May.
“They’d been promoted and I had a conversation with Laura and Dougie there. It was great getting an insight and really good to see him being really hands on with the women’s team as well. It’s really great – his knowledge of it was really impressive. He’s a good guy and I’ve known him for a long time. It’s been great to see his journey. I like him as a Sporting Director, because he’s one of these quiet ones that you never really hear about; he’s doing a really good job.”
The links between the two women’s sides were further developed in September when 18-year-old England forward Poppy Pritchard moved to South London on a season-long loan from City, but the youngster will not feature this weekend due to injury.
“The good thing with Poppy was she experienced six months with us from January last season until the summer and then went on the pre-season tour with us. There were a few teams that were really keen on Poppy and you can see why because she had a really good couple of seasons with Durham in the championship and is playing at international level as well,” said Taylor.
“They’ve got themselves a good player there. She’s enjoying her time there at Palace, I’ve spoken to her on a couple of occasions and it will be good to see her at the weekend. Hopefully she can get back from this injury and start firing.”
PICTURE: MANCHESTER CITY