Ceri Holland is adamant Liverpool FC Women can brush off their disappointment following consecutive defeats and get back on track this season.
The Reds were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal Women at Prenton Park on Sunday, when a tight Barclays Women’s Super League affair was decided by second-half goals from Vivianne Miedema and Caitlin Foord.
While frustrated at the result, Holland believes plenty of positives can be drawn from the team’s performance – particularly after the heavy loss at Manchester City Women in the previous weekend.
It’s definitely an improvement,” the midfielder told Sky Sports post-match. “We brought the work-rate, especially in the first half. We defended really, really well – we defended our box very, very well.
“Frustrating to concede in the second half and then I think we took maybe a little bit of a risk defensively and maybe stepped out and we gave them opportunities.
“But a better performance this week and something to build on in the next few weeks.”
She continued: “They’re top, top teams for a reason and we have seen today how clinical they can be. We learned the hard way last week with how clinical Manchester City were against us.
“But we won’t let those two games define our season. I think we have [had] a really good season so far and we need to obviously get back to the levels that we were before.”
Matt Beard offered a similar assessment of Liverpool’s display, though felt his players ‘could have been braver going forward’ at times – a sentiment Holland wholly agrees with.
“Yeah, we have to be braver, especially in possession,” the No.18 finished. “We’ve got some really talented players on the ball and if we can maybe get them into some higher spaces on the pitch then I think we can show what we can do with the ball.
“Yeah, a little bit more bravery from us. But a positive performance that we need to build on.”
