Rick Passmore has lauded ‘throwback’ young goalkeeper Katie Keane who he described as having an ‘incredible mentality’ after she made her WSL debut off the bench at Arsenal.
The Leicester City head coach was speaking after his side were pummelled 7-0 away at Arsenal. The result confirmed that the Foxes will be in the relegation play off against one of Charlton, Birmingham City or Crystal Palace. The Halfway Line was present to hear from Passmore on a sobering night for his side.
Leicester need to be ‘resolute, together & robust’ to avoid the drop says Rick Passmore
After the crushing defeat, Passmore was asked for his initial thoughts and for an insight as to how the players were feeling after Leicester were confirmed to finish rock bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League last night,
“I’ll probably have a look, a check in [on the players] on the bus on the way back” Passmore explained. “Straight away from the game, you’re involved in lots of different meetings, press conferences. It’s going to be very tough.
“Obviously when you look at the second half of the season, a lot of times in those games, January, February, March, we were in the games, we were in the games and we were competing. And then over a period of time as a player, that can knock your confidence because you know, you just saw close to it and what’s happened obviously in the last couple of games, confidence, momentum against us.
“So if you looked at 20 minutes, 25 minutes [today] we’re okay. I think on the back of the weekend result and we were good shape about us. We’re working and progressing up the pitch against an unbelievable excellent team, as we know.
“So it’s positive. Then we concede one again. I’m looking at majority of goals. Can you make it harder, more difficult? Because I think it was too easy at times for them shots and headers to come up. But once you do go behind, it is about mentality. It’s not about skill level, it’s about mentality, about being together, resolute, robust.
“We’ve got to stay in those moments. I think that’s just everything about confidence, about belief and working with this group not only on the pitch but off the pitch to ensure that that is covered over the forthcoming weeks and leading into the playoff games.”
Rick Passmore says Leicester have to ‘get the balance’ right when reviewing Arsenal loss
Suzy Wrack from the Guardian asked Rick Passmore about how he would go about picking up his squad, whose moral could understandably be low right now,
“You’ve got to have a balance” Passmore said. “You’ve got to have a balanced view because your credibility in the general will go if you just show positives after a 7-0. You’ve got to be accountable.
“That’s myself because it’s me that’s accountable for this group and these players and the staff. We’re in it together, we understand that. So in terms of getting the balance right, of reviewing the game and the analysis of what areas went well, but we’ve all got to have that sombre moment of we need to be better and even better if you do X and Y.
“Can we stop the crosses? Can we win the duels? Can we be more connected to an Arsenal player in the box to win the header and then take that onto the training pitch and go back to practice. Normally at this time of the season, it will maintain and you just tick over and then you just talk about the opposition.
“In the three weeks and the playoff game, we’ve got to be on the training pitch regularly with an action plan for each individual, each unit to make sure we’re in a good place for Chelsea, Everton and then the playoff game.”
Passmore lauds Katie Keane who ‘excelled’ on her WSL debut
One positive of the night from a Leicester perspective was the performance of young Irish goalkeeper Katie Keane. The 19-year-old came off the bench after Olivia Clark was unable to continue and made nine saves with four coming inside the box, preventing the Foxes arrears from climbing any higher.
Passmore was full of praise for the substitute,
“Katie, without having any sort of reflection or thinking, it’s possibly the best scenario” Passmore pondered. “Here’s your gloves. You’re only playing against Arsenal. Get on there.
“And obviously apart from the first few minutes when picking the ball out of the net, and it’s nothing to do with her, she excelled. You look at her distribution, you look at her presence, you look at her shot stopping, she’s still in that development mode of what we’re working with.
“There’s so much more for her to learn, develop and progress. But her mentality is incredible. Every day in the building, she wants to be the best version of herself. And her character is a little bit of a throwback in terms of just fantastic person around the building, [a] character that probably suits a goalkeeper, you know, so it’s really pleasing that she’s in the building.
“Particularly with the three [goalkeepers] that we’ve got. They are respectful to each other, but they challenge each other all the time. And Katie went on today and got a big pat on the back by the staff and the players for what she did.”
