Tottenham compounded Liverpool\u2019s woes with a 2-1 victory at Brisbane Road, extending Gareth Taylor\u2019s side\u2019s search for their first points of the season. It was an illustration of the parallels and contrasts between two teams who are, in a multitude of ways, on relatively similar trajectories in the Women\u2019s Super League but who are equally experiencing contrasting fortunes in the opening stages of this season.<\/p>\n
With this win, Spurs consolidated their fine start to life under Martin Ho to remain fourth, while Liverpool are rooted in the danger zone. The disparity between the two is underlined by the data \u2013 Tottenham are the team who have outperformed their expected points by the biggest margin this season; Liverpool are the ones who have underperformed the\u00a0most.<\/p>\n
The similarities of their journeys are clear, not just in the manner they have yo-yoed up and down the leagues in recent seasons but in the upheaval they have gone through. Both have undergone significant change in leadership over the summer and both were relatively slow to appoint a new manager. Ho came into post in July, a month before Taylor at Liverpool, and neither was given the financial resources or adequate time to recruit significantly. They inherited sides low on confidence after difficult campaigns and in dire need of new energy and direction.<\/p>\n
Martin Ho had reason to smile at the final whistle. Photograph: Ben Whitley\/PA<\/p>\n
Ho has managed to adjust the quickest to enhancing the capabilities and covering the frailties of his new team. The 35-year-old is known to be an astute tactician and has openly spoken about his desire for his team to play on the front foot and express themselves. Against \u00adLiverpool, Olivia Holdt and Drew Spence enjoyed the freedom to roam and find the \u00adpockets from which to pull the strings, \u00adsupported by the marauding runs of Amanda Nilden and Jess Naz.<\/p>\n
This energy and creativity were epitomised by a player-of-the-match performance from the former. The young Dane provided the assist for Toko Koga\u2019s equaliser before displaying her passing range, sending Nilden through to set up Bethany England for the winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a wonderful talent,\u201d her manager praised. \u201cYou can see her ability. Her talent doesn\u2019t have a ceiling. If we can get her in the right spaces on the ball, she can affect the game much more.\u201d<\/p>\n
While clear in how he wants his team to play, Ho is not a manager who is tied to one way of playing. This is the significant contrast with Taylor who has a clearly defined style that he has continued from his days at Manchester City without necessarily possessing the types of player that his system needs.<\/p>\n
His problems have been compounded by a series of major injuries \u2013 Marie H\u00f6binger and Sophie Rom\u00e1n Haug suffered anterior cruciate ligament injuries before the recent international break, for example \u2013 which left him with just two fit recognised strikers for this trip. Beata Olsson\u2019s first goal for the club, giving them the lead after 11 minutes, will have come as welcome\u00a0relief.<\/p>\n
His main concern will be, however, the tendency of his team to drop away after bright starts, a frustrating inconsistency that has been one of the themes of their campaign.<\/p>\n
While not reflected in their results, there has been evident progress as players get up to speed with what their manager wants and the understanding grows.<\/p>\n
Context is also key and Taylor has had to guide his side through one of the most difficult times off the field after the deaths of the former manager Matt Beard and the kitman Jonathan Humble.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Moving the Goalposts<\/p>\n No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n There is no blueprint for that kind of heartbreak and it is understandable that it will have inevitably affected performances.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe all need support at the club because we\u2019ve had a lot that has happened. On the pitch, we\u2019re not getting the necessary results that we want. Of course, we don\u2019t expect to be top of the league. We\u2019re realistic. We\u2019re at the start of a long project. But you want to see some positive moments. We\u2019ve seen glimpses. We\u2019re just not able to sustain it across 90 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Gareth Taylor gives his Liverpool players instructions \u2013 but they could not find an equaliser. Photograph: Liverpool FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Taylor would have been hoping that the international break would have acted as a reset for his team but a late injury to Mia Enderby was an added blow. He will now have to wait yet\u00a0another week to see if his side can find a way to kick their season\u00a0into\u00a0life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tottenham compounded Liverpool\u2019s woes with a 2-1 victory at Brisbane Road, extending Gareth Taylor\u2019s side\u2019s search for their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-257911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}