Tottenham head coach Robert Vilahamn tells the media that himself and Ange Postecoglou are trying to align themselves with the club’s philosophy, despite severe league shortcomings.
Despite recent woes on the scoresheet, a spirited display from Tottenham allowed the north London side to hold Chelsea to a fine 1-0 margin at Whitehart Lane.
Head coach Robert Vilahamn praised his side’s efforts, explaining that “the players are buying into the way we play”. The six-time WSL champions relied on a penatly to hit the scoresheet, and Tottenham were given a golden opportunity to equalise before Charli Grant blundered her one-on-one chance against Hannah Hampton.
“I’ve spoken a few weeks about performances and what we want to do and how we want to look and how we want to develop, and we are doing that. The plays are really buying into how we want to play, and they actually do it really good as well against a really good opponent. I think this year is though, if you do a mistake, they score, and if we get a really clear chance, we don’t score. So that’s summarising, but how the players are trying and how they’re forcing us to actually push down Chelsea today is it’s actually good step for us, even if we lose the game.
“It’s also coming down to quality, that Chelsea are that good in those moments, and we still struggle a little bit, and obviously to build a confidence and everything, it takes time and but the good thing is, you can see that the players are brave, that they have to play out. We play through the lines, we actually play some really good football. So you need to look at it two ways, but definitely a good step to show that we can compete against one of the best teams in the world, but very, very disappointed that we don’t get at least one point.”
Both Tottenham men and women have endured disappointing league campaigns, both safe from relegation but struggling in the bottom half of the standings. When asked whether or not he believes that him and Ange Postecoglou share similar identities, Vilahamn was firm in his belief that they are seperate coaches playing under the same system.
“Not really- there’s an identity where this is actually Tottenham football. This is not me and Ange style, because that will not change, even if they change me or Ange. There’s an identity for Tottenham that they want to have, then we have a touch on it with our philosophy. So we are separated in that way, but we are one club, and we are trying to speak the same language, and we are trying to dare is to do and to be an attacking style.
“Even if we are down in the table, we are trying to actually play our style against Chelsea, and we’re doing it quite good, actually. So that’s the good step here. But now I don’t think I have nothing to do with no matter what’s happening on the men’s side, we are still separate coaches.”
