The Reds suffered a 9-1 defeat in the Subway Women’s League Cup quarter-final at St Helens Stadium, their final match of 2025.
Below you can see a summary of Taylor’s press conference after the game.
On how he would “sum up a really disappointing afternoon”…
All the words you used there are the same ones I would use too. We knew it would be a tough game, a tough opponent. I think we gave them a lot of goals. When you put all that into play and we didn’t perform at the required level in battles and duels, we were naive in some of our plays and, as I said, we gave them goals. You can’t do that against a
team like Chelsea.
About what went wrong that day in general…
The levels were just below. Anyway, the levels were off and obviously when you don’t perform at an acceptable level running, competing or reacting, you’re obviously going to make it very difficult. We have adapted a couple of things, but it was very difficult, we couldn’t implement anything with the changes of course, so we knew we had limitations today. But the levels we had today were below and you can’t do that against a team like Chelsea.
About what he said to the players…
We’re just trying to get help. I think January is very important. We are all very aware of what needs to be improved. What they can influence is obviously taking care of themselves and controlling what they can control. So, with their rest, they will have a few days, but obviously they need to maintain their fitness level as we will have a very busy schedule again in January.
Regarding whether “they have told him that there will be support in January”…
Yes of course. We have identified the objectives that we want to bring to the club, of course, but I don’t think it’s something that I’m going to be able to flip a switch and change. We probably have to make a lot of improvements and probably make it to summer and maintain our status [en la máxima categoría] It’s going to be very, very important, because that will allow us to do more. I think you are also limited in the number of players you can bring during this January period, as it is quite limited in that sense. With all the injuries we have, I would love to bring what Chelsea probably have, a second starting eleven.
About the challenge he currently has as a coach…
Very hard. Very, very hard. But it is a challenge and a different kind of challenge. The higher level of logic I use is very important right now because the first person I always question is myself. And you want it to be better, you want it to get better. That’s why I’m here: to make things better than they currently are. Of course, it’s very difficult to do it on your own, you need certain levels of support to allow you to do it, and we’ll know where we are in January.
On whether it was “a step back” for the team compared to the league draw with Chelsea last month…
It was probably a game too far for us with what we had available. Two young players on the sidelines, with no real chance to change things much. We had Beata [Olsson]who had a yellow card, worried that he would get a red one [pero] We can’t take it off. Very limited. So, yeah, I think it is what it is.
On the hope of several experienced players returning to the squad in the new year, and the impact of injury absences currently…
Yes, of course I do [tiene un impacto]. We have had many [lesiones] in this first part. It will probably be a year that we all look forward to finishing here at the club and moving on to the next one, without a doubt, and we hope it will be better. It sure will be.
