Taking centre stage in the FAWSL this Monday are Liverpool Women and West Ham Women. Sitting seventh and eighth respectively, this game could see one of the two sides make a good push into the final stretch of the season.
Despite being eighth, Liverpool will be heading into this one slightly more confidently. Coming up against league leaders Manchester City Women and Arsenal Women, West Ham were defeated in both matches. On the other hand, Liverpool dispatched Yeovil Town Women last time out.
As their league positions suggest, neither side has been prolific this season. However, with 19 goals compared to Liverpool’s ten, West Ham may fancy themselves to come out with something on Monday. In this tactical preview, I’ll outline how they may set up to create goalscoring chances on Monday.
West Ham’s press
Although they came up against the favourites to lift the FAWSL title, especially against Arsenal, West Ham were in the game. A big reason for this was their effort off the ball. Rather than conceding territory to Arsenal, they decided to press high early on.
This knocked Arsenal off their stride and allowed West Ham to get a foothold in the game. Here’s an example of how they can do that away at Liverpool.
Doing this early can help set the tone of the game. Rather than being passive, taking this approach may lead to Liverpool errors that they can feed off. Seeing as they took this approach vs Arsenal and Manchester City, I don’t see why they wouldn’t against a more equal opposition, especially as it lead to goalscoring chances like this:
https://twitter.com/FAWSL/status/1084486628008226816
