Robert Vilahamn has said that Tottenham still have a clear view of what they are trying to do despite five-game losing streak in the Women’s Super League.
A tough string of form has seen Tottenham lose five consecutive games in the Women’s Super League (WSL), the first time under the leadership of head coach Robert Vilahamn. A loss this weekend may see Spurs drop to 10th, despite a bright start to the 2024/25 season.
The manager addressed Tottenham’s tough form ahead of the side’s away trip to face Leicester City at King Power Stadium this Sunday.
“Losing games is not fun, and not when you do it in a row like that. But the main thing with all things about football and life is that you just keep going and you need to find solutions to get better and try to get that win.
“So, I’m actually feeling fine. It’s tough to lose games, but when you’re done with that feeling for 24 hours, you focus on tactics, performance, starting level and the squad. Then obviously it’s more tricky to handle a squad and everything around it when you’re losing games.
“We still have a clear view what we’re going to do, but we had a tough year, and we need to learn from this, instead of just feeling like everything is dark,” Vilahamn emphasised.
Low striker form is ‘a bad circle’
Despite last season’s birth of ‘Bobby Ball’, an exciting high-pressing and attacking brand, no Tottenham player apart from Bethany England has scored from open play since the opening weekend of the WSL.
“Obviously, Bethany is an amazing finisher, so I think that’s one thing, and then it’s a mixture of how we play, how we create chances, and where we are with the self confidence of the attacking players. We work quite a lot in the last weeks to make sure we find our identity, how we play, how we want to create chances.
“I think against West Ham we actually played some really good football, and we had some really good chances, and then they scored on a deflection. So it’s a mixture of quality, of course, but there’s no way we can just hide. We need to just keep working on those moments and make sure the players that are in those situations get the confidence to to overstep that, and now we can build from there.”
Vilahamn addressed the potential confidence crisis that is washing over the side, expressing the importance of consistency and relationships when a player is aiming to return to striking form.
“I was a striker when I played, and I had my my bad moments where I didn’t score for a long time, and then I had my moments where I scored on everything. But one thing is that you need to practice and practice and practice, and that’s what we try to do every training by finding ways to find a net in training so you can do it in games.
“Then it’s about relationships,” Vilahamn continued. “So you need to make sure you start playing with the players and building those relationships. I think that’s been one of the struggle this year, where we have had injuries and nobody has really taken the chance to play at 10 games in row and score goals. We have changed players, which is not perfect for self confidence, but that’s a part of the competition, because if you don’t score a few games, someone else is knocking on the door to get that one.
“It’s a kind of a bad circle. Sometimes we don’t really nail those ones. Last season, Martha was on fire the whole start of the season, and it became more logical who was playing and who’s coming on. This year’s been a bit back and forth. But still, if you look at the game against Man City and the game against West Ham, there’s two of the last three games where we have created chances that it’s 100% really good goal chances, so we just need to make sure we still believe and still push us to get more of those chances, because we have the capacity to win these games.
Experimental positional changes ‘comes down to performance’
Vilahamn has been experimenting with positional changes over recent weeks, deploying fullbacks Amanda Nildén and Charli Grant as high wingers in games against Manchester City, Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United. The head coach told The Halfway Line that these changes are down to “tactics” and “performance”.
“When we look at the this starting 11 and how we want to use the squad is come down to performance and who should start, and then it comes down to tactics. I think using Charli [Grant] as a left wing in the Man City game, and this game [West Ham] is because she’s very loyal and a threat to do those runs and to do the early crosses… we wanted to play out and play through the press.
“There’s a plan with everything, and sometimes it works and sometimes it’s doesn’t. I think Charli has had two good games. But of course, we need to break it down to how do we score more goals? And if that’s full back/ wing, or if it’s more of a striker player.”
