Robert Vilahamn: “We want to be a team that the supporters can be proud of”
Tue 11 July 2023, 10:30|
Tottenham Hotspur
Robert Vilahamn has made his ambitions clear to all Spurs fans - entertain, develop, and win.
We asked our new Head Coach of the Women’s First Team what it means to make the move to N17, and what we can expect to see from Vilahamn’s Lilywhites in months to come.
“It’s a huge honour to be here and be the Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur Women,” he said to SPURSPLAY. “It’s a dream coming true and I’m really happy to be here.
“I worked hard my whole career to become a professional coach and, when I reached the top level in Sweden, I was like ‘okay, the next step will be abroad at one of the top clubs.’ England for me has the best league in the world and Tottenham is one of the clubs up there, so it’s a perfect match."
Asked about his style of play, Robert told us: “I want to be able to dictate games and have a build-up where we can control the game. Whether we play against teams at the bottom or the top, I want to be a team that controls it. I want to develop the players. We want to be offensive of course, the Tottenham style, we want to attack with control in transitions. We want to score many goals.
“Also, we want to be a pressing team. We want to have the ball, so we need to go up there and try to win it from the opponent and make sure we do the counter-attacks as well. We want to be an offensive team that the supporters can be proud of.”
With Luana Bühler arriving from 1899 Hoffenheim as our first signing of the transfer window, Vilahamn is aware of the importance of good recruitment this summer, but notes that the existing squad has plenty of room for improvement.
“When I look at the squad and what they did last year, we have a lot of good talented players who can play the football I want to play, but of course we need to find a few more players that can bring that into the team," he explained. "We need players with speed, passion and who want to play this kind of football. I think we can find those players and have a good environment here.
“I think, when you look at the players, you can see they are really technically skilled and have huge talent. If we can make them a little bit more synched to each other and have the build-up and plan that we want to have, the players have that potential. Some of the players have played in other teams, national teams and are going to play at the World Cup. For me it’s more like ‘how can we develop them? How can we make sure this training environment becomes better?’ If we make that happen we’re going to improve and have the players to be one of the top teams.
“Luana is a central defender who can control the ball and do the passes and play the way we want to. I have high belief that she can be a great asset for us.”
I think Tottenham should and shall be a team up at the top in a few years.
Pre-season training will commence following the conclusion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup on Sunday 20 August, and no stone will go unturned in Robert’s efforts to create the right training environment.
“We need to make sure we have a good training environment so we can develop the players, how we can be professional enough to make sure that we give them everything they need,” he said. “That goes for nutrition, gym sessions, the GPS system, my tactics of course, but also my leadership. It’s all about an environment to also make them responsible for their development.
“I’m going to help them but they’re also going to help me to develop and I think we’re going to have everything to succeed. We’re going to start with the training environment and then go through the tactics and how we should train, and then the games will come.
“I think you will see enormous things happening with this team because we’re going to make sure we play attractive football, where we’ve developed the team and the players, so you can be proud of us. Of course, it doesn’t take two or three weeks to do this, but you will see every week that we’re taking steps, so the process will be that we always should aim to get better and I think, with that mindset, we will develop. In the long run you will see a great result, because I think Tottenham should and shall be a team up at the top in a few years.”
