Tottenham Hotspur manager Robert Vilahamn said he wants to ‘see progress in how we play’ against Aston Villa in the WSL this weekend.
With the end of the season fast approaching, Vilahamn said, “We have four more games to gain as many points as possible, to make sure the result in the table is as good as possible, but the main thing for me is to keep growing the way we want to play, to make sure we keep being more dominant, to see the progress in how we play.
“Next year will be the third year [under my management],” he continued, “and I really want to make sure we can compete and close the gap that we spoke about, that we haven’t done this season. So, the performance is important for me, to see we can take steps, even if we have not won for a few games, or a lot of games, actually.”
The head coach declared, “It’s been a struggle this year in many ways, but it’s also sometimes you need those struggles to make sure you can take the next step forward.”
‘The main thing we want to do is keep them away from our goal’
Without wanting to give too much away, Vilahamn touched on how he intends to combat the threat posed by Natalia Arroyo’s Villa at Brisbane Road Stadium on Sunday.
“The main thing we want to do is keep them away from our goal by having a really high press, make sure they don’t get close to the goal, that’s the best way to do it.”
He added, “They have some really top players, adding a new coach, trying to find new ways to win, then being in a relegation battle is probably not what they expected.”
The Spurs head coach provided his assessment of the Villans’ recent form. “They had big success against Liverpool, so you can tell she’s [Arroyo] intelligent to find ways to get the points, she’s done a good job and It’s going to be an interesting game,” he said. “Obviously, they still are a few points above Crystal Palace, so let’s see if they more play for the points or if they play for their identity.”
‘The positives are not always the results in the games’
Despite admitting his disappointment in the ongoing campaign overall, Vilahamn maintained that there are still positives to be taken for the North London outfit.
“The positives are not always the results in the games, it’s how we’ve developed through the squad, the squad development, staff development, club development,” he said. “So if I look at the squad, the potential is much higher this season than last season. We also signed new staff members and found new roles that make us stronger going into next season.
“I think we saw a few things that weren’t professional enough on the Women’s side which we are now improving on, making sure we have the standards really high for next season,” the head coach explained. “I’ve learnt so much about the top teams, to make sure we don’t step away too much from our identity, to find the right chemistry between the players, to find the identity to play the way we want to play and I think the third season will be much better. I’m a big fan of learning from mistakes, so using information from these first two seasons to make sure we are prepared for the third season.”
