Tottenham Hotspur look to equal their record points tally in the Women’s Super League with a win against Manchester United on Sunday.
Martin Ho says his side is not yet in “holiday mode” as they head into the final stretch of the season. After a brilliant start to the campaign, Spurs approach this weekend off the back of four consecutive losses in all competitions, including back-to-back 5-2 defeats.
Ho was asked as he enters these final three games, how, ultimately, he reflects on the season and how pleased he has been with it after a quick start but a recent dip in form.
“It hasn’t finished yet,” Ho was keen to stress. “We’ve still got three to go, and I think so far, we’re pleased in terms of the work we’ve done.”
“Are we happy with every result and do we think we could have got more out of certain games?” Ho questioned. “Yes, and that’s the consistency I’ve spoken about since the start, that you need a very clear consistency from start to end of the season to enable you to be in those top places.
“You need to make sure you’re on top of your game in a lot of periods and maybe we’ve had some parts where we’ve been off it, and we know that. I think we can be relatively pleased with what we’ve done, but, this club, myself, the players want more.
“We expect to be competing in the latter stages of competitions, competing for the best of honours and competing for those top three spots, and we know we have work to do.”
Tottenham kick off against Manchester United on Sunday, returning for the third time this season to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Ho was asked about the previous two encounters there this season against Chelsea and Everton, where Spurs fell to defeat in both and what he has learnt from those losses.
“With Chelsea, we needed to be more ruthless in their in their box. We had numerous chances in that game to convert, and we didn’t. I thought the performance was relatively good and for Everton, we just didn’t get going.
“That was probably one of those performances or the season that you have where we didn’t get any rhythm, we didn’t get any consistency. We weren’t aggressive enough with the pressure, and we came out second best on that day.
“But apart from that, I think we’ve had relatively good parts of performances when we’ve been there. We just need to make sure we find the consistency, and we play the actual game and not play the occasion of playing at the stadium.”
Tottenham prepare for ‘competitive game with a bit of needle’ against Man United
Tottenham are looking for their first ever win over Manchester United in the Women’s Super League. They looked certain to achieve in the reverse fixture but blew a 3-0 lead with just 18 minutes to go, forcing them to settle for a point. Ho reflected on the previous encounter and asked if that was the extra edge his side needed to take all three points this time around.
“The last game was definitely exciting for the neutral,” Ho admitted. “We go up three, they come back, and I thought the last part of the game, we managed it quite well and they have a player like [Fridolina] Rolfo when you’re bringing on that level of quality and she pops up in two moments to score two goals.
“Maybe tactically at the end of that game, it could have been better for myself in terms of how we set up. But we can take a lot of confidence from that. These are the games the players, especially them being in the stadium, want to play in, and you want to make sure you’re competitive and if these are the teams you want to push in the future, then we have to make sure we’re competitive in these games.”
The Spurs head coach was also questioned on what he expected from the game with United this weekend. “Competitive, a bit of needle, bit of bite in it and definitely one with high quality,” he said.
They have really good ideas of how they see the game and we kind of have to go into this game with a totally different mindset now, build off the positive aspects of the performances we’ve had in the games where we haven’t come out with results in the last three or four.
“But, we’re in a good spell, energy is good around the group and we know we have to perform at this level and keep building on what we’re doing going into next season.”
Tottenham need to ‘take a step back’ for broader perspective on this season
As Spurs prepare for Manchester United, knowing all three points would mean they would equal their best points tally in the WSL of 32, The Halfway Line was keen to ask the Spurs head coach how important it is at this point in a season to just take a step a back to realise and appreciate what a successful season it’s been, despite the recent drop off in form.
“I totally agree, and that’s maybe some things people want to hear and not want to hear,” Ho said. “We have to be real of where we’ve been and where we’ve come to, the amount of changes and adaptations we’ve made this season.
“It’s not small, it’s big. So, we have to sometimes pinch ourselves and step back and say, ‘do you know what? Yeah, we do expect more and we want more and we expect more in certain games and certain moments.”
“But if we step back and we look at it after the season’s finished, I think we’d look back with a lot of pride and be kind of proud of what we’ve achieved in this season, knowing that we’ve built really strong foundations now for the future, for us as a club, for the team and hopefully for the next generation of players a lot further down the line.
“We’ve got to make sure that these three games were competitive, and we push now to make sure that we can finish as high as we can.”
Tottenham’s Hanna Wijk to miss rest of season with MCL injury
The young full-back suffered the injury in the recent international break with Sweden Under-23s in their WU23 European Competition final against England. Ho went onto report that the rest of the international players have returned “fit and healthy”.
Maika Hamano is back in contention after missing in last game with Chelsea in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup, with long term absentees Clare Hunt, Jess Naz, Maite Oroz and Luana Buhler all remaining sidelined.
Tottenham Hotspur versus Manchester United kicks off at 12:00pm BST, Sunday 26th April, with it being shown live on Sky Sports Premier League.
