Arturo Ruiz heaped praise on his Brighton captain Maisie Symonds after she marked her record breaking WSL appearance with a goal.
Ruiz was speaking after his side demolished newly promoted Charlton 5-1 in front of a crowd of 2,465 at the Amex Stadium. Victory was the Brighton head coach’s first in the Barclays Women’s Super League with Brighton and he spoke to the media after the full time whistle.
Arturo Ruiz lauds ‘important’ Maisie Symonds’
Symonds had started Brighton’s 5-1 victory over Charlton, making her the outright record holder for most WSL appearances for the club. The captain scored late on to help put the icing on the cake of an impressive performance, her 87th in the WSL for Brighton.
Speaking to The Halfway Line, Ruiz was effusive in his praise for the Lionesses midfielder,
“She’s really important for us” Ruiz declared. “Because she is that kind of player and that kind of person that always gives a good attitude to the team. She is a great young captain.
“She’s helped me a lot, and I want to appreciate [her in] public in this first month. And I think that her performance in the bad moments in these last games is something that I will never forget.
“It’s going to be very important for me, and we all know who is she, the expectations that are on that young player. I will just be one coach, one person that will help her keep in developing because her attitude is really good, her behaviour.
“And obviously with and without the ball, she gives us a lot, and she will be very important, obviously, and I’m really happy to have her.”
Ruiz identifies ‘two keys’ to Charlton victory
Brighton were behind within a couple of minutes to Charlton who started brightly on Sunday afternoon. However the home side stayed calm and kept to their principles, their unwavering press and counter-press ensured they got back into the game.
The Halfway Line asked Ruiz for his view of how the comeback unfolded,
“For me, it was one of the two biggest keys” Ruiz explained. “That was, how did we react with an 0-1 in a very difficult game? Because if we didn’t score any goal in the first half, maybe we were speaking about something very difficult right now.
“Then in the second half, the first minutes of the second half were really good until the moment that we get the 3-1. We were not afraid of not winning. I said again, we were not afraid of not winning when we were 2-1.
“That was the second key: our consistency and being aggressive in the second half, until the moment that we get the 3-1 was really important for us. I’m really happy about those two keys, and obviously about a lot of more things because they were really good today.”
