Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor admitted injuries and a busy three-game week took a toll on his squad as they fought to a 2-1 victory over Manchester United last night.
City avenged their 4-2 loss to United at the weekend by knocking their rivals out of the league cup, but Taylor admitted he would have liked to be able to rotate more for the midweek clash. Young players Lily Murphy and Laura Blindkilde Brown were among those handed starts, with the former assisting Laura Coombs’ opener and scoring a goal of her own.
What did Gareth Taylor say?
“It wasn’t a game for the purists – it was a little bit of a battle, which most derbies are.
“I actually think we played better between both boxes on Sunday than tonight, but what we did have tonight and what we really pushed the girls for and what they really dragged out of themselves was the grit and determination to get the job done.”
City have been struck by injuries to key players Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood, and Vivianne Miedema – all of whom have had to undergo knee surgery. Hemp and Greenwood are still out, while Miedema was also rested tonight after appearing at the weekend. Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw is expected to return from injury imminently, but was not available for either derby.
Embed from Getty Images“The powers that be have decided they have a bright idea and have decided to put three games in six days for us. In the top four we’ve probably got the smallest squad or certainly the most injuries and the least depth of those four teams.
“As much as we’d love to have Viv tonight, (and) didn’t want to take her off at the weekend, but of course we know that she’s building herself back up after being out for the best part of two years, so it’s really difficult. But hopefully we see her on the weekend, hopefully get Bunny Shaw back for a little bit as well which will be nice.“
City have bolstered their squad with the signings of midfielder Aemu Oyama and forward Kerolin Nicoli, who Taylor hopes will be able to make their impact on the squad soon. However, defensive depth is a problem for City, who started the same back line as in Sunday’s derby – and who Taylor admitted will start again against Aston Villa on Saturday.
“I’d love to be able to rotate the back four but our next player ready is (20-year-old academy graduate) Gracie Prior. That’s it, we don’t have anyone else.
“We are down to the bare bones in the back line so I think the back four have done fantastically well.
“We’re working hard in this last 7 days (of the transfer window) to try and fix that, but it’s really difficult.”
He added: “We managed some players today as much as we could and picked up a couple of knocks – (Laura Coombs) had to come off with a knock, I thought she did really well tonight, and Khiara (Kheating) took one as well.”
However, Taylor was full of praise for the youngsters who have stepped up, particularly 18-year-old Lily Murphy. The winger provided an assist and the winning goal in Wednesday’s game.
Embed from Getty Images“When you contribute like that in a game at 18 years old in a derby, I think it speaks volumes.
“She’s probably being used a little bit more than we probably think she’s ready for -that’s no fault of her own, it’s obviously due to issues we’ve had with some injuries – but she’s got an opportunity this season and you have to say in most of the outings she’s had she’s really took it. Nicky Ajose has worked really hard with her, one of our coaches at the club, he’s consistently been outside with her. She’s been willing to learn and get better.
“We’ve been in a situation this season where we’ve had to really lean on the academy a lot – sometimes because the players are ready, sometimes because the opportunity it has arisen. He’s worked so hard with those players like Gracie Prior. I’ll include Laura Blindkilde Brown, he does a lot of work with Laura. I thought her performance tonight was really gritty as well, she’s not the biggest of players and she’s playing against giants in the midfield.
“The work that Nicky does with those guys is great because they really want to learn and they want to get better.”
Responding to United boss Marc Skinner’s comment that City played more directly in the cup clash, Taylor said: “I’ve never had an issue with playing long – it depends on where the spaces are and obviously they probably changed a little bit from what they did on Sunday, I thought they sat off us a little bit more.
“Second half they came and put us under a little bit more pressure and then we at times could have got the balance right on that. I felt that we were playing long when we could have still played, we weren’t playing long when we were really pressurised. We did talk about it – if teams are going to come and press us now, and most probably will, that’s fine – we need to be able to have multiple ways of trying to play beyond.”
Embed from Getty ImagesFinally, asked about Skinner’s complaint that United should have had a penalty for the collision between Khiara Keating and United’s Elisabeth Terland (which saw Keating come off injured), Taylor said: “I’d need to see it again.
“I felt that the referee was quite sided towards Manchester United in the first half and to be fair the fourth official said at half time that they would speak to her on about three or four of the decisions that went against us. I felt that there was a foul in the lead up to their goal, which we didn’t get.
“(Marc and I) had a good chat afterwards – he took the win on Sunday, we take the win tonight, and honours are even over the last two games.”
City have two days’ rest before facing Aston Villa in the Barclays Women’s Super League on Saturday 25th January at 12:00.