Presser Points | Spurs vs Man City (WSL) | Robert Vilahamn
Fri 28 February 2025, 18:30|
Tottenham Hotspur
Robert Vilahamn spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Friday, ahead of our Barclays Women’s Super League clash against Manchester City at Brisbane Road on Sunday afternoon (2pm UK).
Here’s what he had to say…
Robert on team news…
“We have Clare [Hunt] suspended for this game [an accumulation of five yellow cards] and then Eveliina [Summanen] is back for this weekend, which is really good news. So, it's a really strong squad right now, it's going to be hard to pick a squad for Sunday."
On how the international break has been…
“It was a tough loss against Arsenal and then most of the players were flying all over the world to play games, so you cannot get together in the way you might want and to speak about it. We had a few good players left [at Hotspur Way] and some of the leadership group players, it's really good to have days with them to chat about the game and what we can learn from that one. We had some good training, we used the academy players to train with the senior players, we played a friendly against London City Lionesses, Olivia Holdt scored a goal in that game. We had a good few weeks, to be honest, and it feels like we are back to compete on Sunday.”
On what we learned from our previous encounter with City…
“We have had some big losses against the top teams this season, we thought we were ready to compete the way we want to play, we tried to go for it in most of those games, we conceded goals early and hadn’t nailed it both in and out of possession. We need to understand where we are, that’s the most important thing to make sure we stay in these games. But the most important thing is not to go away from our identity, I think that’s the thing we speak about, how can we adapt a little bit, but still see our identity and actually compete. We don’t want to lose by big numbers, but we still want to push the team forward because, in the end, we’re still going to have that identity.”
On being back home..
“It’s going to be really good to get back there, we had a great game there against Man City last season. Brisbane Road, there’s a lot of charm to be there, it feels like we’re coming with really good character, all the players being back, it’s going to be good to compete.”
Robert on a lighter load of matches in recent weeks…
“I kind of like to compete every week. You have the training, then you come to the weekend and compete, it’s a lot of national team games, they need to play those games, we make sure we have a different plan. We have friendly games, that’s fine too, but in a normal week, you like that preparation for the weekend when the game comes. That’s why I want to have more teams in the league, make sure we have more weekends that are really special.”
