WSL 24/25 | Chelsea v United - 12:00 on Sun 24 Nov

jojojo

JoJoJoJoJoJoJo
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Some things in life are predictable. Fortunately football isn't. Yes, our record against them is dreadful. Yes, they're on a ferociously good winning run. Yes, they've got a new manager who has made them look more fluid than ever.

However - winning streaks come to an end, we ruined the Emma Hayes' victory tour in last year's Cup SF and we've never lost to Sonia Bompastur's Chelsea. So eh, it's football.

Ella Toone and Elisabeth Terland are out injured. Mannion has been injured (hence why we didn't see her even on the bench for the last week) but is expected to be available on Sunday.

Match is live on Sky Sports Football in the UK.
 
MS:

THE HARDEST TASK IN EUROPE

“I think to say it's a must-win against a team that have not lost a game and played the way they have - it's just a bit overreaching. It's a want to win for sure. It's a focus to try and do everything we can to win, but this is probably the hardest task in Europe right now. We know what we're going to face. We're going to go into it very positively. We're going to go into it with the best plan that we can. There's confidence - we're the two unbeaten teams and that might fall on Sunday, but we're going to do everything we can in order to do that. It's a very tough ask and we're going to give absolutely everything in order to try and win the game.”
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OUR SET PIECES ARE A THREAT

“If you create minimal chances, then you've got to make sure that youmaximise the quality in those moments, and we have to do that. I think we've been good at that. I think we have real threats from set pieces. What I'd like to see in this game, though, is a bit of a balance. I don't want to see just smash and grab trying to get to corners to win the game. I think it’s part of the game but actually, there are times in this game that we're going to have to defend really effectively.

“We're also going to have to attack really effectively, and we're going to have to run at Chelsea. We're going to have to make them defend. When I've seen games where they've been vulnerable, it's when you have to make them defend.There's got to be a balance in this game. My teams will give absolutely everything we can to try and find a way to unlock Chelsea and do what other teams haven't done so far.”
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WE NEED TO RAMP UP ANOTHER LEVEL

“I've seen loads of progress, I really have. Against Villa, we weren't ourselves, we weren't near our qualities and we did drop points. But from our perspective in most of the games, we performed pretty well and so we've built this good momentum. We've had two good performances this week. We know it ramps up again [to a] totally different level. This is no disrespect to the teams we just played at all but we're playing the champions and we're playing them at home and they've had a fantastic start. So this is a tough one. We've got to be prepared to do everything we can in order to try and disrupt it to win the game. So all in all, it's been a good block but we we know that this is another ramp-up and another extremely high challenge.”
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WE HAVE TO MAKE QUALITY MATTER

“I think in reality [I’d like to see] more consistency of what we've been building. I've been really happy with our commitment to what we've done. I've been really happy with our defensive displays. I want to continue to grow this attacking prowess. It's been better in the last two games. We've got to make the quality matter when we get it. I think it's that attacking phase. It's getting back to us being aggressive at the right times and I think that I've been happy with that and I want to see that continue to improve.”
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TEAM NEWS

"Elizabeth [Terland] in the game against Leicester had felt a little bit of groin tightness so she's missed the game midweek. She will potentially miss the game this weekend as well but we're hopeful it's not a long-term thing. Hopefully after the international break, she could come back andshe'd be fit and healthy. Apart from that, we’re waiting on an assessmentof Aoife Mannion. Ella's out for a sustained period of time, but apart from that, I think everybody's healthy and up for selection for the game. We welcomed Leah [Galton] back. We've got minutes in the legs for returning players.

“I think we've got three games [after the international break] before Christmas time. There's always the hope [Ella Toone might be back]. But I think what you do is you balance those inflexions and you go, right, if we can get it back, we'll get it back but we're just not going to rush her in this moment because it's a calf injury. It's your running mechanism so if we injure the running mechanism it just affects the longer term. The projection is she misses the international window, and probably misses the first game after that and then we'll see from there. Because it's such a short block with only three games we'll assess whether it's worth that or actually resetting to come back after Christmas.”
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I read two of those snippets and had to stop. All I can hear in my head is his annoying voice.
 
Grande said:
I found it such a relief to hear him say we’ll do everything we can to win.
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Probably said that before the Arsenal game. The reality was, and will be, very different.

Already looking forward to the post-match comments.

We did everything we could to win, but we are a new team that is learning etc.
 
top1whoisman said:
Probably said that before the Arsenal game. The reality was, and will be, very different.

Already looking forward to the post-match comments.

We did everything we could to win, but we are a new team that is learning etc.
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How refreshing if he would say: Today the plan was doing everything we could to lose, and I can’t fault the effort we put in. They made me proud out there today!
 
Grande said:
How refreshing if he would say: Today the plan was doing everything we could to lose, and I can’t fault the effort we put in. They made me proud out there today!
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Pre-match team talk.

"We'll do everything we can not to lose and we're committed to trying not to lose by more than four goals.

It would be really nice if we can hang on for long enough in the match to freak a result, though whoever scores will probably have to do it on their own. Setpieces though - you never know - that could take several players - more than one certainly, sometimes. But not too many setpieces, otherwise you start trying to get setpieces."
 
jojojo said:
Pre-match team talk.

"We'll do everything we can not to lose and we're committed to trying not to lose by more than four goals.

It would be really nice if we can hang on for long enough in the match to freak a result, though whoever scores will probably have to do it on their own. Setpieces though - you never know - that could take several players - more than one certainly, sometimes. But not too many setpieces, otherwise you start trying to get setpieces."
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:lol:
 
jojojo said:
Pre-match team talk.

"We'll do everything we can not to lose and we're committed to trying not to lose by more than four goals.

It would be really nice if we can hang on for long enough in the match to freak a result, though whoever scores will probably have to do it on their own. Setpieces though - you never know - that could take several players - more than one certainly, sometimes. But not too many setpieces, otherwise you start trying to get setpieces."
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:D
 
Park the bus. Pray we don’t concede in the first 5 minutes.

PTJ
Rivière MLT Turner Janssen George
Geyse Ladd Awujo Galton
Williams
​
Williams up front so we have someone to punt the ball up to from the edge of our penalty box. Or give the ball to Geyse and ask her to dribble her way through 4 or 5 players just to give the rest of the team a break from defending for about 30 seconds.

1-0 Le Tissier (pen) 89’
 
With Terland out, Williams may well start up top. Last time Williams started against Chelsea, we beat them. I think?

Anyway, still in major hoping mode, but good to see the manager giving his best David Moyes impression as usual!
 
Apologies for using this thread to ask, but I am still too much of a newbie to start threads!
My daughter and I are ST holders, how do we go about standing in the terraces at LSV? I’m sure I read about how we can request it, but can’t find anything now. She want to try it out, mostly for the singing.
Thanks!
 
I agree set up to defend and break quickly. There's definitely a role for Hayley Ladd. Maybe need Sandberg in there as she seems to break quickly.
I don't listen to MS interviews anymore. He talks a lot but says very little.
It's the second test of our resilience this season against a top side. We've matched our tally from last season already.
 
FlexoRodriguez said:
Apologies for using this thread to ask, but I am still too much of a newbie to start threads!
My daughter and I are ST holders, how do we go about standing in the terraces at LSV? I’m sure I read about how we can request it, but can’t find anything now. She want to try it out, mostly for the singing.
Thanks!
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Email the ticket office, they've changed mine that way! Just tell them your supporter numbers and they should be able to sort it out. Just remember to download the new tickets to Google/Apple wallet once issued as they will override your existing ST.
 
AmarilloMike said:
Email the ticket office, they've changed mine that way! Just tell them your supporter numbers and they should be able to sort it out. Just remember to download the new tickets to Google/Apple wallet once issued as they will override your existing ST.
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Magic, thanks so much. A pretty low tech solution in the digital age!
 
Line up is pretty much what we might have expected I guess - maybe a surprise to see Awujo start, but not an unpleasant one. Difficult to know what to make of this game, just not 0-6 again please.
 
Interesting to see Awujo start. No surprise to see Williams and Geyse up front, though I'm still hoping that bringing on Malard doesn't mean talking off Geyse.

Come on you reds*

* Or whatever colour change kit we decide to wear. Probably that nice white top with stripey bands...
 
I was at OT for the last game between these two. It was not an enjoyable watch at all.
 
Scanny said:
I was at OT for the last game between these two. It was not an enjoyable watch at all.
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I was at LSV for the game before that... it was an exceptionally enjoyable watch! Williams started that one too.... Mindless optimism!!
 
Good start here, should have finished that one
 
Fast start from Chelsea. We're putting numbers in the middle but it's leaving the wide areas very open.
 
jojojo said:
Fast start from Chelsea. We're putting numbers in the middle but it's leaving the wide areas very open.
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We continue to look clueless whenever we manage to get the ball. No-one to pass to and we end up losing it quick.
 
jojojo said:
Fast start from Chelsea. We're putting numbers in the middle but it's leaving the wide areas very open.
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And they’ve spotted it already. Skinner needs to address it sooner rather than later or they’re going to have so many opportunities
 
top1whoisman said:
We continue to look clueless whenever we manage to get the ball. No-one to pass to and we end up losing it qu
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We're going to be exhausted fast unless we can work out how to keep the ball for more than one last.
 
jojojo said:
We're going to be exhausted fast unless we can work out how to keep the ball for more than one last.
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Yeah, unfortunately it looks exactly like the Arsenal game. With the difference that Chelsea has the ability to actually create (and convert) chances.
 
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