Striker wanted, apply within: LCFC Women 0 Aston Villa 2 (25 September 2022)
As a general rule, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to compare Leicester City’s women’s team to their male counterparts. Sometimes, however, parallels are inevitable and there were comparisons and contrasts to make as Aston Villa triumphed on Filbert Way.
That’s not to say that LCFC Women find themselves in the same situation as the team bottom of the Premier League, or that Lydia Bedford’s situation is in any way comparable to that of Brendan Rodgers.
For one thing, there’s a team below Leicester in the WSL. For another, it’s only been two games. For a third, this is not a team that was expected to find itself in the top half of the WSL. Yet here are we again, watching a Leicester City team searching for answers as to how to win a game of football in front of a crowd desperate for the lift of victory.
The name of the game
Another difference between the women’s team and the men’s team is that LCFC Women look defensively solid. Bedford’s side may have conceded twice in each of the first two games but this hasn’t been a case of the defence being dismantled, as Rodgers is suffering each week.
To add to Tottenham’s two long-range strikes last week, Aston Villa scored a debatable early penalty before wrapping up the game late on. For long periods, particularly in the first half, Leicester were well in the game and the more threatening team.
As with last week, the unchanged defence functioned well and it would be a surprise if more established teams weren’t already looking at one or two of the members of this back five. Sam Tierney is adapting well to her central defensive role, Ashleigh Plumptre is dominant in duels (winning all of her tackles, all of her aerial duels and all but one of her ground duels against Villa) and left wing-back Jemma Purfield, who created two opportunities, remains one of the best crossers in the league.
To strip the game down to the very basics, as feels necessary when your team can’t buy a win, you need to work out a way of scoring more goals than the opposition. For Rodgers, the issue is conceding goals. For Bedford, who actually is organising her team well and getting the most out of the vast majority of them, it’s scoring goals.
Forward options
The only change for the visit of Villa was expected, with Shannon O’Brien coming in for Natasha Flint after a lively substitute appearance against Tottenham. This gave Leicester more pace in attack and O’Brien threatened on occasions against a well-organised Villa backline.
The best opportunity in the game arrived when she was presented with the ball halfway inside the attacking half, fashioning an opportunity but striking wide of the far post. Again, it sounds basic but it’s inescapably true that these are the kind of chances you need to be taking against opponents who won’t be surrendering too many.
Starting alongside O’Brien was the Manchester United loanee Carrie Jones, who has shown glimpses of her ability in the first two games but is still finding her feet in the WSL. It feels like both players would benefit from playing off a striker with more presence, who could take the pressure off as a focal point. Both did their best to hold the ball up in the face of pressure. The quicker Jess Sigsworth returns from injury the better, but it’s difficult to tell yet whether Leicester have enough goals in the squad.
Heroes and Villans
One of the main positives of the afternoon was how well Leicester dealt with the visitors’ main attacking threats overall, but two moments at either end of the afternoon when this didn’t happen proved costly.
Alisha Lehmann was kept quiet before her half-time substitution and her replacement, former Leicester loanee Freya Gregory, was similarly well-shackled, particularly given the talent we quickly recognised last season.
Up front, Rachel Daly was limited in her impact on the game. She converted the early penalty, but Tierney and co did all they could in open play to ensure she wasn’t given the kind of opportunities she enjoyed in scoring twice in Villa’s opening-day win over Manchester City.
Where the game slipped away was an inability to deal with the direct running of Emily Hanson, another Manchester United loanee, and the midfielder Kenza Dali, who controlled the game for periods. Hanson won the spot kick three minutes from the start. Dali created Villa’s second goal for substitute Emily Gielnik four minutes from the end.
The buzz
There’s another very clear contrast between the women’s team and the men’s team. Despite defeat in the first two WSL games, there’s definitely still a post-Euros buzz about LCFC Women - and, of course, the rest of the league.
Bedford lauded the atmosphere at the opening game against Tottenham and it was a similar story for Villa’s visit.
‘The atmosphere at King Power Stadium on Sunday was on another level,’ said Bedford in reference to the Spurs game. ‘The noise which the fans made in the stadium, particularly in the final 15 to 20 minutes, when we were pushing for the equaliser, it was so much louder than last season.
‘That’s just people’s voices and energy behind the team. For me, it’s a bonus to us that we play at King Power Stadium because of the level of support that we get.’
Bolstered by noisy support from away fans travelling across the Midlands and infectious enthusiasm from some of Leicester’s younger fans, the noise levels seemed to go up another notch. While there’s still more the club could do overall to promote the women’s team, it seems that the plan in the wake of Euro 2022 - to attract new, young fans and ensure the experience of following Leicester City is a positive one - is working.
Elsewhere in the WSL
In a repeat of the story of the first weekend, Leicester’s next opponents pulled off a landmark victory. Last week, it was Aston Villa winning a seven-goal thriller against Manchester City. This week, it was Everton - this Thursday’s adversaries in the re-arranged opening day fixture - who pulled off an impressive 3-0 win against Liverpool at Anfield in the Merseyside derby.
There were wins for first-day losers elsewhere too. Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-0 and Brighton beat Reading 2-1. Both defeated sides remain without a point, sandwiching Leicester in 11th place.
Two teams joined Villa in maintaining their 100% record - Manchester United winning 2-0 at West Ham and, in the standout game of the weekend, nearly 50,000 fans watched Arsenal claim North London derby bragging rights with a 4-0 victory over Tottenham at the Emirates.
This Wednesday, Chelsea face West Ham in another re-arranged game from the postponed first weekend. Then, after Leicester’s trip to Everton the following evening, there’s a break until the weekend of 15th and 16th October, with another trip to the north west for Bedford’s side - Manchester City will still have no points by the time that kicks off. Hopefully Leicester find goals from somewhere to get on the board this week.
